President of the World Bank James D. Wolfensohn was the next to
Premier Wen
Jiabao to give speech at the "Global Conference on Poverty
Reduction" in Shanghai. Wolfensohn mapped out a world fraught with
conflict and, in many places, with the desperation brought about by
poverty. He stressed the importance of eradicating extreme poverty
and creating global balanced world for the next generation.
Wolfensohn thanked Shanghai for its careful preparations for the
conference. He considered Shanghai a city where good policies and
adequate financing have been combined.
Wolfensohn looked back the uneven progress of poverty reduction
over the last decades. He put forward current thorny problems in
front of the world on eradicating extreme poverty.
Since most of the world's poor population are scattered in
developing countries, Wolfensohn urged those countries do more to
reform their economies and cut out corruption. He also called on
developed countries to back those reforms with increased
support.
Wolfensohn continued to speak about the significance of the
conference, the first of its kind aimed to share poverty reduction
experience among developing countries.
While looking at the major progress in poverty reduction over
the last ten years, Wolfensohn spoke highly of China's various
poverty reduction programs. He contributed the success to China's
rapid and dynamic economic growth driven by the market-oriented
reforms launched in 1978.
Finally, Wolfensohn called on all the participants to bring the
world from an unbalanced place to a harmonious one. He called for
more efforts into children education and fighting against
corruption. He expressed his hope that the world would achieve
unprecedented progress in restoring hope and balance to the world
of the next generation.
(CCTV May 26, 2004)