Poverty in the People's Republic of China: Recent Developments and Scope for Bank Assistance

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the paper describes the current poverty situation in the PRC and discusses the policies of the Government that have contributed to poverty alleviation. Second, it identifies poverty issues to be addressed and presents a broad overview of the Government’s policies and strategy to address the same. Finally, it outlines the scope lor extending Bank assistance for poverty alleviation in the PRC within the operational constraints discussed in the previous paragraph. The paper focuses on rural poverty, since the bulk of the poor are rural residents; urban poverty, though increasing in magnitude, at present is much less significant. The paper has benefited from the work done by the World Bank’’ and an earlier ADB staff paper on poverty issues in the PRC.