Two weeks ago on October 17, the world marked the 26th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Today, I feel privileged to be here to share my thoughts with you on this very important subject.Over the past four decades, half of the world’s poor population has escaped poverty. And the share of global population living in extreme poverty has dropped from over one-third in 1990 to less than a tenth today. Asia-Pacific countries, especially China and India, have made the greatest contribution to this remarkable achievement. I will use China’s achievements to frame the context of my talk today.China has been an exceptional out-performer in the global poverty reduction story. Its record is without parallel in human history. In the past four decades, over 700 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, accounting for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction in the same period. China is the first developing country to reach the United Nation’s poverty reduction goal. And now China has set itself a more ambitious goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2020, lifting an additional 30 million people out of poverty, and thereby leaving no one behind on the road to prosperity.What is behind China’s achievements, and what lessons do they hold for the rest of the world?I believe the lesson of China is very relevant to the rest of the world, and I’d like to underpin the key elements, which allowed China to achieve the remarkable progress:• First, China’s emphasis on basic agricultural reforms and associated investments in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, water and flood management that were followed by steps to boost the rural non-farm economy was critical in reducing poverty.• Second, China has invested enormously in building infrastructure across the country, and not just in the developed coastal provinces. Massive investments in roads, railways, telecommunications, and electricity have contributed to improving access of the poor to new and more distant markets, thereby enhancing economic opportunity and reducing poverty.• Third, China focused on the development of manufacturing and industry. Between 1978 and 2015, the number of people in non-farm jobs as a share of total employment increased from 29% to 70%. Low-income rural households have benefited enormously from the changes in the country’s employment patterns engendered by the dual processes of rapid industrialization and urbanization.• Fourth, China is now developing its services sector utilizing technology. Local governments have helped agriculture leap-frog to modern practices using digital technology to deliver improved access to critical information on plant and animal diseases, better production techniques, and quality standards. Thanks to tech-giants such as Alibaba, e-commerce now connects more remote areas to markets, contributing to improved incomes. Villagers in remote areas are now able to consult doctors through video-chats in local clinics, eliminating the need to travel to a large city.• Fifth, China’s systems of compulsory education, rural medical cooperatives, the social pension system for rural residents, and a minimum living allowance scheme have played major roles in helping low income households secure a share of the benefits of China’s overall growth. This addressed the need of human capital—the key to poverty alleviation.Of course, the importance of strong leadership and sustained dedication in achieving these outcomes cannot be underestimated. Few other countries have made the kind of consistent and unequivocal policy choices aimed at poverty reduction as China has done. This strong political commitment has been translated effectively into policies that are implemented at all levels of government and supported by society.While the China example is inspirational, it is clear that a lot more needs to be done. Even today close to 700 million people still live in extreme poverty all over the world, and the UN’s SDGs target of eliminating poverty in all its forms by 2030 is a big challenge before us. In order to make further progress in achieving poverty reduction as well as deliver a better life overall for the world’s poorest citizens, several areas need to be addressed.One of the most critical is provision of quality infrastructure across all sectors. There is also an urgent need to maintain and renovate existing infrastructure in many countries. Infrastructure drives economic growth during the investment phase and has a multiplier effect thereafter. It creates long term productivity gains and facilitates poverty alleviation and job creation. If we want to pursue a poverty reduction agenda where gains are shared by all, it needs to begin with access to decent infrastructure for everyone.However, the landscape for infrastructure of the future is changing rapidly. We stand today at the dawn of a new industrial revolution where technology-led disruption is transforming the way we perceive products, services, and our physical space. Smart-grids, autonomous cars, bike sharing, green buildings, tele-medicine, large-scale off-grid systems, and hyper-loops have the potential to advance rapidly in conjunction with the ongoing innovations in network connectivity and bandwidth. These developments will have a material impact on how we perceive and think about poverty alleviation. The infrastructure that we need to build today, for use over the next several decades, is fundamentally different from what we have built in the past. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that the impact of technology will completely revolutionize approaches to economic development and service delivery and therefore has the potential to achieve exponential gains in poverty reduction.In this area again, there are several examples from China. The Ping An Good Doctor, China’s largest online healthcare platform provides artificial intelligence based medical services to nearly 200 million users and is revolutionizing health care provision. Last-mile connectivity has improved dramatically through bike-sharing platforms that provide access to the colorful bikes that you see today in major Chinese cities. These are already spreading throughout the world. The contribution of the Alipay and WeChat pay platforms to financial transactions and financial inclusion has been immense. The speaker before me, Honorable Deputy Governor of PBOC, talked about the opportunity that financial institutions brought to poverty alleviation. If you add the length in the micro credit process for the poor, with conventional bank technology, the intermediation cost, as the loans are small, is between 8 and 10 per cent. This is a burden on the poor. But using digital technology, the intermediation cost comes down to between 1 to 2 per cent. This is a direct benefit to the poor, and it makes repayment much easier. Also, in credit risk monitoring using digital technologies makes the tracking of vendors much easier, because now you can make virtual online tracking of their businesses, whereas in the past you had to do it at various points in time with obvious costs. These, and more innovations like these, will continue to transform the world at an ever-accelerating pace, and make huge contributions to poverty reduction going forward. What we will need to do is to ensure that a comprehensive ecosystem, including infrastructure, is in place to enable these innovations to happen, just as China has done.It is in this area that the NDB will play a role. NDB’s operations respond to the rapidly growing demand for infrastructure to reduce poverty and inequality, improve quality of life, and expand economic opportunities for billions of people in developing countries. As a new institution created three years ago, we have the advantage of having no legacies to deal with; we start from a clean slate. We are confident that we are in the right place at the right time. We will focus on financing sustainable, smart, and green infrastructure.In conclusion, having lived in China for the last three years, I have seen first-hand the fruits of transformation in the country. When we look back, we realize that systematic steps taken in China’s reform process were well thought out and well implemented. The major achievements of China are clear for the world to see. We also believe that the Chinese experience can be scaled up globally to benefit poverty reduction efforts worldwide. China has given this world a blue print for poverty reduction.We congratulate the Government of the People’s Republic of China for organizing this important forum and commit that we will be a reliable development partner in China’s continued economic progress.Thank you.