UN will help consign poverty to history

An ambitious goal of China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), which entered its second year, is to eliminate extreme poverty by 2020. The progress is well on track, as 10 million people had been lifted out of poverty by the end of 2016. This success is very encouraging as it is an indication of China's continued contribution to global development goals.

The strategy consists of a variety of approaches, including ecological civilization, education, social protection and industrial development, all focusing on rural poverty. The strategy is making at least three important contributions to society.

First, the approaches adopted are highly focused on providing public and social services, which are vital to build up an asset portfolio of the poor, and thus address the root causes of poverty. This means poverty is increasingly being considered as a multi-dimensional problem. The root cause of poverty is not merely a lack of income or necessities for material well-being such as food, housing and land, but also other factors such as access to education, healthcare and inclusiveness in society. All these are essential to address inequalities beyond mere poverty numbers.