A new database portal of poverty reduction cases was launched in Beijing on Friday, aiming to share innovative and successful approaches and solutions from China and other developing countries and contribute to the global fight to end poverty.

The Global Poverty Reduction Online Knowledge Sharing Database (http://case.iprcc.org.cn/) serves as a portal for South-South knowledge sharing. It presents cases in a user-friendly way, while also allowing users to upload their own cases, thereby creating a truly global poverty reduction database.

It was launched on Friday at the 2017 China Poverty Reduction International Forum held in Beijing, attended by officials and representatives from international organizations, embassies as well as businesses.

Guo Weimin, the vice minister of the State Council Information Office (SCIO), said China’s experiences in poverty reduction were intellectual treasures that could be shared with the world, adding, “There are still more than 800 million people living in extreme poverty in the world today. Poverty reduction requires a global strategy. We should work together to realize zero poverty by 2030.”

The forum could be a new starting point for in-depth communication and exploration to reach consensus and assemble the global will and power to establish a new pattern for poverty reduction.

Chen Zhigang, the deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said China’s experiences on poverty reduction was playing a very important role in the world that could not be ignored.

Launched by the Global Poverty Reduction & Inclusive Growth (GPIG) Portal and managed by the China Internet Information Center (CIIC) and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), the database portal draws great benefit from a strong network of contributors.

While the IPRCC takes a lead on the Chinese side by leveraging its own resources and partnering with universities and research institutes, many international organizations also play their part. With main contributions from the World Bank, the portal has also developed partnerships with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as well as more than 40 global think tanks and research institutions to contribute to the case database. The public are also encouraged to upload cases that could be valuable.

Bert Hofman, World Bank country director for China, Mongolia and Korea said, “China has achieved phenomenal success in reducing poverty, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty between 1981 and 2015, the fastest rate of poverty reduction ever recorded. China’s experience in poverty reduction can offer useful lessons to other developing countries.”

Bekele Debela, the program leader of World Bank said, “This is a very resourceful platform. And its resourcefulness is also because it is based in China that has abundant experience in poverty reduction, it will serve both China and the rest of the world.”

Meanwhile, Vincent Martin, FAO Representative in China and DPR Korea, declared, “Invaluable poverty reduction policies and know-how generated in China and elsewhere should be made available to the international community to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In that regard, the launch of the online case database is a key step forward, and innovation should be embedded in the sharing of policies and best practices.”

“China’s experience clearly contains lessons for alleviating poverty that other developing country can learn from,” said Benedict Bingham, the country director of PRC Resident Mission, ADB. “I am therefore delighted that IPRCC is launching a platform, which ADB has helped initiate, to share poverty reduction experience in China and other countries.”

“It is important to learn about what has worked well in reducing poverty, beyond ensuring stable macroeconomic environment and pursuing broad structural transformation agendas. Poverty reduction requires well-targeted strategies to tackle the needs of the most vulnerable,” he said.

Shozab Abbas, the political counsellor of Pakistan Embassy to China, told China.org.cn he believed it was a very important platform, with China being the leading country in alleviating poverty, so Pakistan would like to listen to and learn from China, while the two countries could collaborate with programs in this area in the future.

The online case database was launched at the 2017 China Poverty Reduction International Forum held in Beijing, aiming to share experience and discuss practical solutions to poverty.

The event was jointly organized by the China Internet Information Center (CIIC), the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), the World Bank, FAO and ADB.

Beijing will continue to increase the supply of rental housing in the next five years, during which 1,300 hectares of land will be supplied for 500,000 sets of rental housing.

The rental houses, which will be mostly built on collectively-owned land, will be rented in bulk at market price by the municipal government and then offered to low-income families at affordable housing prices with a term of ten years. The government will fill the gap in price.

On May 24, a total of 927 sets of rental housing in Tangjialing of Haidian District, which are of the first batch of pilot projects, was officially opened to low-income families in the district for on-site house selection and contract signing.

Since 2011, Beijing has rolled out pilot project of rental housing on five collectively-owned areas, providing 12,800 rental houses to staff working at nearby industrial parks, migrant workers and urban low-income families.

The tax reductions of Beijing reached 29.7 billion yuan (US$4.33 billion) by replacing business tax with value-added tax (VAT) until January.

Since Beijing put on trial the policy of replacing business tax with VAT in May last year, the State Administration of Taxation of Beijing Municipal Office has completed the practice among 238,000 taxpayers in four major industries, with a reduction of 29.7 billion yuan by January this year.

The taxation bureau has also integrated tax services through platforms including the internet, mobile phone and self-service machines. It has also set up a 24-hour tax self-service center, which offers a “green passage” for tax services online and offline.

The tramways of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region unveiled a new logo and visual identity on Friday for its century-old tramcars, also known as Ding Ding car.

The background color of the new visual identity of tramcar is green, representing the tramcars are environmental and safe.

The new slogan, “catch a ride, catch a smile” is printed on the front of the tramcar. On the bottom of the vehicle, there is a smile expression, meaning tramcars’ friendly personality and faithful service.

For the coming months, tramways is also going to make its 160 tramcars smile with an additional sticker on the bumper.

Besides this new graphic system, Hong Kong tramways also pledged to make its passenger information on stops and website more friendly.

As all tramcars are designed and built at tramways’ depot by skillful and experienced craftsman in Hong Kong, to commend the hard work of them, tramways will install a bronze plate on board of each tramcar to remind the public of the unknown heroes.

Hong Kong tramways has been in service since 1904 and operates nowadays a fleet of 164 tramcars. It is the world’s largest fleet of double-deck tramcars in operation, carrying about 200,000 passengers every day.

27 May 2017

The Green Party has responded to Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on foreign policy and terrorism. The Greens praised Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘tough on terrorism, tough on the causes of terrorism approach’ but noted only 11 Labour MPs voted against the military intervention in Libya which went on to be harshly criticised by the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:
“The responsibility for terror attacks like that in Manchester lies solely with those who perpetrate these heinous crimes, but it is important to look at the wider picture too. The Labour leader is right to point to failed Western intervention as a cause of instability. Indeed when you look at the Libyan Intervention you see failure at almost every level. If we’re going to beat terrorism we need both adequate security measures at home and a look at how Britain’s role in world affairs can have serious unintended consequences which lead to greater insecurity. Greens are united in our belief in a foreign policy built on diplomacy and peacebuilding and when you vote Green on June 8th you know that you’ll be voting for someone who will seriously scrutinise the march to war of any Government.”
Ends

For more information contact: press@greenparty.org.uk / 0203 691 9401

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