Thailand hoping to take poverty alleviation lessons from China

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha confirmed on Thursday he has planned to send government officials to China to learn about how the country has tackled poverty alleviation.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Ministry of Interior, among others will pay a special visit China.

According to Prayut, the China model could be used to alleviate poverty in Thailand, home to 67 million, most of whom are categorized as low-income earners.

He made the remarks during his Thursday visit to a rice dryer facility and farmers in Rasi Salai district of the poverty-stricken province of Si Sa Ket in the northeast.

China's tough battle against poverty

"Targeted poverty alleviation, preventing financial risks and pollution control" – these are the "three tough battles" China is facing in its next-stage development to become a "moderately prosperous society in all respects" by 2020 – a goal set at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2017 by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Fighting 'Three Tough Battles': How does China's political system implement country's new development philosophy?

Over the past 40 years, with the poverty rate dropping from 10.2 to less than two percent, China has lifted over 700 million people out of poverty – over 70 percent of the global poverty reduction.

By the end of 2019, about 95 percent of the impoverished people in China will be lifted out of absolute poverty, and over 90 percent of the poor counties be removed from the poverty list.

With continued effort throughout next year, China will wipe out extreme poverty in 2020, with enough food and clothing, guaranteed education, basic medical care and housing.

"We must ensure that by the year 2020, all rural residents living below the current poverty line are lifted out of poverty, and poverty is eliminated from all poor counties and regions," Xi said in a report delivered to the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017.

Graphics: Mapping Xi Jinping's poverty alleviation tours

(With input from Xinhua)