S. African expert says China’s efforts to alleviate poverty set good example

China’s efforts to alleviate poverty over the last few decades are praiseworthy and set a good example for other countries, a South African expert told Xinhua recently.

“Their goal of poverty reduction is outstanding, an excellent approach,” said Garth Shelton, associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand who wrote several books on China-Africa relations.

He said the Chinese government had drawn up a detailed plan of poverty reduction, noting that China has started registering poverty-stricken people in a database system almost 20 years ago so as to implement targeted poverty alleviation measures.

“The process of data collection was very important, clear and focused, it’s a scientific way of measuring poverty,” he told Xinhua. “We should do the same and focus on where poverty is.”

Shelton said the economic growth the country recorded over the years has contributed to the nation’s poverty alleviation campaign.

Despite the setbacks caused by the pandemic, China would still be able to meet its poverty reduction target, Shelton said, attributing this to China’s strong recovery.

“The consumption potential is tremendous as we are seeing a big middle-class emerging,” he said.

“This is an opportunity for China and Africa to work together. This is an opportunity for other countries to sell to China, to attract more tourists from China and to trade with and invest more in China. We’ve seen many Chinese tourists coming to Africa,” he added.

In his view, China’s success in tackling poverty can enlighten other countries. China has been successful in tackling poverty, and African countries can learn from some of the projects that have helped in fighting poverty, he said.

“I’m looking forward to engaging with Chinese scholars to investigate China’s poverty alleviation work,” he said.

Xinhua News Agency