Mr. Chairman,
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, countries in the world have made unremitting efforts to turn the world economy around. This year the global economy hopefully can be recovered to growth. Nevertheless, we believe that the international financial crisis is far from being over; the foundation for economic recovery is not solid; the structural problem that has led to the crisis remains; poverty becomes worsening in some areas; and it is more challenging to reach the MDGs as scheduled.

The Chinese government always maintains that facing these challenges the international community should strengthen cooperation and overcome the difficulties together. As an important international financial institution (IFI), IFAD should be fully committed to its mandate enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty and adopting more targeted and effective measures to help developing countries. To this end, I would like to make the following three proposals.

Firstly, the international community should mobilize more resources to actively cope with various risks and challenges in global development. The international financial crisis has wrecked some havoc on the developed countries. However, it is the developing countries that have suffered far more. According to FAO, the number of world hunger had amounted to 1.02 billion by 2009, as a result of the financial crisis and food price spike. Most of these people are living in the developing world, which has brought severe negative impact on global development. Therefore, the international community should mobilize more resources to help developing countries especially the Least Developed Countries grow their economy and reduce poverty. The IFIs including IFAD should constantly enhance their assistance efficiently and increase investment in agriculture; the developed countries should not decrease their assistance to international development in the excuse of temporarily weakened economy; and the developing countries should step up reform and promote their own agricultural production and development.

Secondly, we should push forward South-South cooperation and knowledge cooperation, which will add new momentum to global poverty reduction. The developing countries have accumulated abundant experiences in rural poverty reduction through their long-term anti-poverty endeavor. It has been proven by practice that due to similar development stage, level and philosophy, it is easier for them to share experiences among themselves. We believe that South-South cooperation and knowledge cooperation have become one of the key collaborations between the developing countries and the IFIs. We support the IFIs including IFAD to harness their comparative advantages, and play an important role in this regard. On the one hand, the IFIs should use their financial strength to draw upon good experience from developing countries to enrich their development concepts and models. On the other hand, the IFIs should integrate their various kinds of resources and establish a platform for cooperation between developing countries. China has been committed to South-South cooperation over the recent years. In 2009, we co-hosted the first South-South Cooperation Workshop with IFAD, and encouraging outcome has been achieved. We will continue to push forward South-South cooperation together with IFAD and other IFIs.

And thirdly, IFAD should make full use of its comparative advantages, and play a unique role in rural poverty reduction. IFAD has been devoted to rural poverty reduction and long been engaged in rural development of developing countries. It should sharpen this comparative advantage, strengthen coordination and cooperation with other international institutions and its members, and respect the recipient countries’ ownership. Based upon its core mandate of “rural poverty reduction”, IFAD should actively reform and innovate in its operations while expanding its traditional loans, particularly enhancing its capacity to provide suggestions on agricultural reform and strengthen policy dialogue with the governments of the developing members. IFAD should also further improve its institutional efficiency and development effectiveness, and help developing countries take new challenges.

Mr. Chairman,

China’s path towards reform and development has shown that development is the fundamental approach to rural poverty reduction. We would like to further strengthen cooperation with IFAD, broadly draw upon advanced international experiences, and promote our rural development. Meanwhile, China is willing to share its experiences and render its support as much as it can to other developing countries in their efforts to advance rural poverty reduction.

Thank you!

17 February 2010