Pictures show the changes of a cliff village in Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province before and after 2016. Photo: CCTV

With Guizhou Province in Southwest China declaring its last nine counties off poverty on November 23, China has removed all impoverished counties from the poverty list.

Boun Inthabandith, the consul general of the Lao PDR to Changsha, Hunan Province in Central China, complimented China’s achievements in poverty alleviation in an article published in People’s Daily on November 24, saying that it is a miracle in the history of human development that a large developing country with a population of 1.4 billion will historically bid farewell to absolute poverty.

He noted that he had been paying attention to the development of western Hunan and the whole province during his nearly three-year term in Changsha, with the knowledge of its fulfillment of poverty alleviation resettlement of 700,000 people.

“Hunan Province and Oudomxay of the Laos has signed a letter of intent to establish a sister province relationship. They have similar geographical and natural environment, thus Laos could draw lessons from China’s poverty alleviation resettlement to lift people in northern areas out of poverty,” he added.

He once accompanied Bounnhang Vorachith, the general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and president of Laos, to inspect poverty alleviation work in Shibadong Village where Chinese President Xi Jinping first put forward the concept of “targeted poverty alleviation” in June 2018.

How could a once remote minority village make great progress over a short period of time? Inthabandith developed a comprehensive understanding towards China’s five-level poverty alleviation system from the central government to the county level after the visit.

“The mechanism shows remarkable capacity of organization and mobilization, which are referencing important factors for the poverty relief policy in Laos,” he said.

Promoting rural development and poverty alleviation is a strategic priority for the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and central government. Lao established in-depth cooperation with China in the fields of agriculture, education, and infrastructure construction. The Agricultural Industrial Park, as the successful example of China-Laos cooperation, is a significant agricultural achievement under the Belt and Road initiative between China and Laos. It promotes the integrated development of agricultural product breeding, processing, warehousing and logistics, scientific research and training in Laos.

“China’s poverty alleviation is a great initiative under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party,” said Inthabandith.

Its experience in poverty alleviation is of great inspiration to other developing countries in their efforts to eradicate poverty, he added.

(Compiled by Qiu Qingyi)