BEIJING — China's success in combating poverty is an admirable achievement of mankind, offering a model for other countries to improve people's livelihood and foster development, overseas experts have said.
Southwest China's Guizhou province announced on Nov 23 that its last nine impoverished counties have been lifted out of absolute poverty, which means all impoverished counties registered in the world's most populous country have shaken off poverty.
China's poverty alleviation achievements "gave a hope to the developing countries in rest of the world … to look up to a model to follow," said Ghulam Samad, a senior research specialist at the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute.
"There is a lot for the world to learn from the Chinese experience of poverty alleviation," said Samad, stressing particularly "the sincerity of the leadership to the cause of serving people and making their life better, and formation of a comprehensive strategy and policy to achieve it."
China's achievement in the elimination of absolute poverty from all counties is a great success under any global standard, said Luxman Siriwardena, former executive director of the Pathfinder Foundation, a Sri Lankan think tank.
This achievement is also "an indication of the effectiveness of the Chinese path to development or socialism with Chinese characteristics," added Siriwardena.
"All developing countries and even developed market economies which have clusters of absolute poverty should learn from the Chinese development experience, especially that in poverty alleviation," he said.
China's success is worth learning for more countries, said Omu Kakujaha-Matundu, a lecturer and economist from the University of Namibia, calling on African nations to draw on China's experience and policies which have helped lift many people out of poverty.
China has invested a significant amount of money and resources in agriculture, aiming to improve people's lives in rural areas, he said, adding that such a model is best suited for most African countries.
Echoing Kakujaha-Matundu's remarks, Mostafa Ibrahim, vice-president of the Chinese-Egyptian Business Council, said China's experience in poverty eradication is unprecedented and Egypt can apply it in various aspects.
Egypt can draw on the Chinese experience in terms of the industrialization process, rise in the standard of education, workforce training, reduction in unemployment rates, etc, he said.
Andrew Niikondo, acting vice-chancellor of the Namibia University of Science and Technology, believes that policy consistency is an important factor contributing to China's success in dealing with poverty.
"China has a long-standing firm policy on development and fighting inequality through robust implementation of programmes," Niikondo said. "We have pretty much a lot to learn from the way they handle their affairs."
