Nearly 220 million Chinese have shaken off poverty during the past
20 years, thanks to the country's family planning policy.
Siri Tellier, representative of the United Nations Population Fund,
said in Beijing on Thursday at a conference marking the 13th World
Population Day that as the number of destitute people in the world
kept growing, the issue of population was having an increasing
impact on poverty and development.
As
the task of alleviating poverty got tougher, China, the most
populous developing country in the world, had done a great job in
improving women's reproductive health and eliminating poverty, she
said.
Statistics reveal that China's destitute population has dropped
from 250 million in 1979 to 30 million at present. In rural areas,
the proportion of destitute people declined from 30.7 percent to 3
percent in the same period.
Thanks to the family planning policy implemented in the 1970s, the
birth of 300 million people has been avoided and relevant costs of
360 billion yuan (about US$43.4 billion) spared.
To
encourage destitute households to adopt family planning policies
and spread the concept of bearing healthier children rather than as
many children as possible, the Chinese government keeps increasing
funds for family planning in poverty-stricken central and western
areas.
A
range of preferential policies have been mapped out to help poor
rural families have more access to education, wealth and basic
services to improve their lot.
So
far, nearly 100,000 poor mothers have been helped in an
aid-the-poor project launched in 1994, which indirectly benefited a
population of more than 400,000.
At
the end of 2001, China enacted a family-planning law to protect
people's basic existence rights. Today, its family planning policy
has been widely accepted and adopted worldwide.
Statistics from the United Nations Population Fund show the
proportion of couples in developing countries who have adopted
family planning has risen from 15 percent to 60 percent.
A
recent World Bank survey said that the number of the world's least
developed countries has risen from 25 to 49. And the global
destitute population may top 1.5 billion by the year's end, most of
whom live in remote rural areas.
As
complications caused by poverty such as unemployment, malnutrition,
illiteracy, discrimination against women and environmental
degradation are rampant worldwide, the survey is urging more
cooperation within the international community.
At
the first summit of the African Union which opened on July 9,
African leaders announced their implementation of the New
Partnership for Africa's Development in the hopes of joint efforts
to relieve poverty.
During the recently concluded World Food Summit, the Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations appealed for
all-round international cooperation to combat poverty and
starvation.
Pan Guiyu, vice-minister of , said, "China will continue to open itself
up to boost its cooperation and exchanges on population development
with other countries in the world.
"China will also deliver its promises to the world to offer more
opportunities to the destitute population, increase their job
opportunities, improve their living conditions and make unremitting
efforts to alleviate poverty," she said.
(Xinhua News
Agency July 12, 2002)