Scholars hail poverty alleviation measures in Tibet

Experts and scholars have shared their experiences in developing China-Africa relations, and in particular, how the Tibet autonomous region has been lifted out of poverty and moved toward prosperity, at the 16th China Lecture held in Nyingchi on Friday.

Themed around the economic, social and cultural development of Tibet, the event brought together more than 80 participants from the China-African Institute, the regional academy of social sciences, and various institutes in Nyingchi. More than 50 participants, including government officials, scholars and university students from African countries such as South Africa, Sierra Leone and Nigeria attended the event online.

Sun Xiangjun, an official from the regional academy of social sciences, said that since the 1950s, Tibet's social productivity has been rapidly liberated and developed, and it has undergone earth-shaking changes.

"Absolute poverty has been historically eliminated in the region. It has achieved social harmony and stability, people enjoy happiness and wellbeing, the ecological environment quality maintains good momentum, and the excellent traditional cultures receive better protection, inheritance and development," Sun added.

Xu Wuda, deputy head of the rural economy institute at the academy, spoke about how the autonomous region has eliminated absolute poverty.

"Precise strategies have to be made to deal with the selecting of aid targets, project allocation, the use of funds and different measures for different households," said Xu.

"To achieve targeted poverty alleviation, the first step is to accurately identify poverty, organize grassroots cadres to carry out surveys in villages and households to find out the distribution of impoverished populations, the causes of poverty and the assistance needs."

Xu said between 2012 and 2020, nine teams conducted more than 193,000 visits to people across the region to carry out poverty alleviation work.

"The successful practice and valuable experience of eliminating absolute poverty in Tibet has deepened the understanding of poverty reduction work in border and ethnic areas of China, and it has enriched the development of anti-poverty theories in high-altitude areas," he said.

Adetoro Olaniyi Banwo, vice-dean at the Confucius Institute at the University of Lagos, and Alpha Mohamed Jalloh, director of the China-Africa Institute at the University of Makeni in Sierra Leone, hailed the achievements made in Tibet in terms of poverty alleviation.

Banwo said if African countries can learn from these valuable experiences, they could create a better social environment.

Jalloh said that African countries should learn from China's experiences of how to build large-scale infrastructure to connect their transportation, energy and mobile communication networks, laying the foundation for development.

Contact the writers at palden_nyima@chinadaily.com.cn