中国的“八七扶贫攻坚计划”：国家战略及其影响.docVIP

Rural Poverty and Poverty Reduction Policies in China Wang Sangui Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Abstract This paper reviews China’s rural poverty reduction policies and lessons learnt since the reform began. China’s poverty reduction policies can roughly be classified into four phases since 1978. These include the rural reform of 1978-1985, the National Targeted Poverty Reduction Programs of 1986-1993, the 8-7 Plan of 1994-2000, and the New Century Rural Poverty Alleviation Plan for 2001-2010. Though the focus of poverty programs and investments are somewhat different in different phases, poverty reduction policies in general emphasized providing opportunities by building assets for the poor and transferring assets to the poor. Poverty reduction programs have sought to raise income generating capacity of poor rural households and have provided important investments in rural infrastructure, agriculture and rural enterprises, and rising support to human capital development in rural areas. A number of important lessons have also been learnt from China’s poverty reduction practices in the past two decades. Evolution of China’s Rural Poverty and Poverty Reduction Policies During the post-1978 reform period, large-scale poverty reduction benefiting from government poverty reduction programs as well as fast economic growth has been one of China’s greatest accomplishments. Using the official poverty line, the number of poor people is estimated to have fallen from about 200 million in 1981 to 26 million in 2004. Alternatively, using the World Bank’s $1/day income measure, the number of poor is estimated to have dropped from about 490 million in 1981 to 88 million in 2002, which corresponds to a decline in poverty incidence from 49 percent in 1981 to 6.9 percent in 2002. Finally, using the World Bank’s $1/day consumption measure, the number of poor declined from 360 million in 1990 to 161 million in 2002, which