[China] could eradicate poverty by 2050: think tank

from The Financial Express

China could eradicate poverty by 2050, when the communist giant would emerge as a ‘moderately’ developed country, a leading government think-tank has said.

In 2050, 1.3 billion Chinese will live in a moderately developed society, with a minimum monthly income of $1,300, an average life-expectancy of more than 80 years and social services available to all, a blueprint drawn up by a research team with the Chinese academy of sciences said.

Using statistics provided by national institutes and world organisations, the report said that by then, no one in China will live with an annual income of less than $81 per capita, the country’s absolute poverty line.

China has already recorded impressive achievements in reducing poverty. According to Chinese official statistics, the population in abject poverty was reduced from 250 million to 26 million during 1978 and 2004.

The ratio of the very poor to the total rural population has been reduced from 30.7% to 3.1%.

He Chuanqi, head of the research team who compiled the report, said that to attain this goal, China should follow two stages of social transformation. it should first turn into a city-based industrialised society from the present agricultural one, and then step into a knowledge-oriented society with rural and urban areas developing at the same rate.

By 2050, 80% of the urbanisation work in China will have been completed, Xinhua news agency quoted Chuanqi as saying. He added that the social transformation will also bring great changes to peoples’ life-styles, as 80% of the population would have access to information industry services, 50% could afford foreign travel and 50% would own private cars.