Distinguished leaders, Ladies and gentlemen,Good morning!As a scholar who studies development and on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, I am very honored to be here to share with you my views on China’s reform and opening up and its poverty alleviation works. This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. The past 40 years is a miracle in terms of poverty reduction. China was one of the poorest countries in the world back in 1978 when China first launched reform and opening up. According to the indicators of the World Bank, China’s per capita GDP was merely $156. We tend to believe that Africa is exposed to most of the problems and challenges related to poverty. But in 1978, the average per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa was $490. China was not able to represent even one-third of the average per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa. Like other poor regions and countries around the world, 81% of the population lived in rural areas and lived on agriculture, and 84% lived above the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. But from 1978 to 2017, China achieved an average annual growth rate of 9.5% for 39 consecutive years. In 2017, China’s per capita GDP reached $8,640, emerging as an upper-middle-income country. At the same time, China has also become an industrial power. Among China’s exports, 97% are manufactured products, so China is also known as the world’s factory. During this period, over 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty. China has contributed over 70% of the world’s poverty reduction efforts in the past 40 years. I am here to give you a shot in the arm by sharing China’s experience of reform and opening up in the past 40 years. That is, no matter how poor a country is, as long as it has the right ideas and the right policies, even if it has been mired in poverty for a long time, it may change its destiny and become prosperous in less than two generations. Confidence is important, but how to achieve such confidence? I would like to make three points based on China’s reform and opening up experience.First, agricultural modernization must be achieved. Because in a poor country, the vast majority of people are living in rural areas where traditional agricultural production prevails. Under this model, productivity is very low and poverty is inevitable. Agriculture should be transformed first to change the fate of the majority of poor people. When I was studying at the University of Chicago, my supervisor Professor Schultz pointed out that agricultural productivity must be improved and traditional agriculture must be transformed into modern agriculture. Farmers can turn the sand into gold if they are offered modern science and technology. To employ modern science and technology, you need the nourishment of something modern, something that echoes with the times so that science and technology can be fully leveraged. In poor rural areas, the harvest largely depends on weather conditions, which adds difficulty to the survival of the variety nowadays. Under such circumstances, aside from modern science and technology, conservancy in rural areas must also be improved. In addition to the conservancy, modern science and technology should also include fine variety, fertilizer, machinery, and equipment. In this case, rural areas must also be connected to the market. The above modern means of production can be purchased from the market. With modern agricultural science and technology being utilized, productivity will be improved. The products must also be launched to the market so as to avoid the paradox of rising productivity but flat income. Therefore, agricultural modernization is at the top of the agenda to get rid of poverty. It can be said that China leads the world in this respect.Second, Aside from agricultural modernization, industrialization must be achieved. Any country in the world was once a poor country despite its high income level today. All the countries look exactly the same when they are poor. They are all built on traditional agriculture. For a poor country to transform into a middle-income and even a high-income country, agriculture should have a smaller percentage in the national economy while industry should have a larger percentage. For instance, major exporters of agricultural products such as the United States and Denmark are high-income countries, but their agricultural population is usually less than 5% of their entire population. The agricultural labor force also accounts for less than 5% or even only 1% or 2% in the total labor force. Industrialization is a necessary condition to transfer a large agricultural population. I believe we all know the importance of industrialization to promote the prosperity of a country. But how can we achieve successful industrialization? One key lies in developing labor-intensive manufacturing industry that is in line with local comparative advantages in the early stage of development. This is because labor-intensive manufacturing has a lower capital threshold. As poor areas often suffer from capital shortage, the labor-intensive industry with lower capital requirements can better align with local comparative advantages. Moreover, developing labor-intensive manufacturing industry can most efficiently produce jobs and transfer rural labor force from agriculture to modern manufacturing industry. This is of vital importance for poverty reduction because employment holds the key to poverty reduction. Furthermore, only the industry that conforms to comparative advantages is able to form competitive advantages, which paves the way for capital accumulation, foreign exchange generation, and tax increase. Comparative advantages allow a country to gradually transform its low value-added labor-intensive industry to high value-added capital and technology-intensive industries. Therefore, my second point is industrialization and such industrialization must comply with the local comparative advantages.Third, we should properly handle the relationship between the market and the government. I think we are all aware of the importance of the market in modern society. With competition in the market, resources can be more effectively allocated. Resources with a lower utilization rate somewhere should be allocated to more efficient enterprises and industries. Only market competition is able to boost people’s enthusiasm. Market competition knocks out those who lag behind. All enterprises and employees must work harder, master advanced technologies, and enter a good industry, so as to stand out amid the market competition. At the same time, the market provides a platform for entrepreneurs to bring into play their business talent and discover new opportunities to promote industrial technology progress and overall economic development. However, the government also plays an indispensable role in ensuring sound economic development. The main reason, as I have mentioned before, is that to transform rural areas, modern technologies and modern infrastructure must be in place. Market failure might occur along with the supply of these technologies and infrastructure, which must be addressed by the government. The government should provide new agricultural technologies and infrastructure that improves water conservancy in rural areas. This is not only the case in agriculture. In the process of industrialization, we should develop sectors that are in line with comparative advantages such as labor-intensive manufacturing industry, because labor factors involve low production cost. We should also improve infrastructure and business environment to transform the market’s comparative advantages into competitive advantages and to reduce transaction costs. Generally speaking, a poor country has an underdeveloped infrastructure and business environment. The government needs to change the status quo by providing necessary infrastructure and related policies for industries that conform with the comparative advantages and transfer to competitive advantages. However, for a developing country, the government has limited resources at its disposal and limited executive ability. Therefore, the government needs to strategically employ its limited resources and customize the infrastructure and business environment for a specific industry of a specific region. One effective measure is like what China did since its reform and opening up, establishing special economic zones, or export processing zone and industrial parks. Under the background of a nationwide underdeveloped infrastructure and business environment, these special economic zones, export processing zones, and industrial parks now have made significant headway and can quickly transform those industries consistent with comparative advantages into ones with competitive advantages.Helpless widows and widowers, orphans and the lonely, as well as the sick and the disabled, exist in any society in the world. There are also people who are temporarily unemployed due to changes in industrial development and economic structure. These groups of people need help from the government so as to avoid falling into the poverty trap. The above is a must for a government to fulfill its role and particularly for a country like China that has experienced transformation from a planned economy to a market economy. Prior to the transformation, there must be industries with intensive capital, underdeveloped technology but inconsistent with the country’s comparative advantages. No protection subsidies are given in a market open to competition. It is difficult for such large and mostly state-owned enterprises to survive. If the government fails to play its role and denies necessary protection subsidies during the transition period, these industries are likely to collapse in the process of transformation, causing massive unemployment. In addition, many of these industries are related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. Without these industries, people’s lives and economic development will suffer. In this process, therefore, China upheld a result-oriented approach and gave necessary protection subsidies to these traditional industries during the transition period at the beginning of the reform and opening up. Simultaneously, China also supported the development of labor-intensive industries in accordance with China’s comparative advantages. Industrial parks and export processing zones were established and efforts were made to solicit business and investment. As a result, these industries will be able to turn their comparative advantages into competitive advantages and become competitive in both domestic and overseas markets. This also reflects the government’s indispensable role in the transition period.China has much experience to offer. But given limited time, I am only able to share the above three points of views for your reference. First, agricultural modernization. Second, industrialization. Third, proper management of the market-government relationship.This meeting has been a great success. It allowed us to exchange experience and bolstered our confidence. I believe that with our joint efforts, we will accomplish our common goal of building a community of shared future for mankind free of poverty.Translated by Mo Hao