A Prescription For China
Reuters一位求职者今年3月在武汉举行的一场招聘会上查看公司信息世界银行(World Bank)在周三公布的一份报告中表示，中国历史性的经济崛起使5亿左右的人摆脱了贫困，然而只是保持这样的增长还不能算是完成了任务。尽管世界银行对中国多年减贫纪录的回顾完成于金融危机爆发之前，这份报告却增大了中国政府加强社会保障制度扩大医疗和教育覆盖面的压力。近几十年来，中国在脱离计划经济的过程中，很多社会公益服务被废除了。随着政策制定者意识到这种缺失已经阻碍了居民生活水平的提高，政府开始重建社会公益服务。世界银行经济学家该报告主要作者之一Shubham Chaudhuri在北京接受采访时说，强劲的增长仍是必要的，但只有增长很可能就不够了。他说，这是大部分国家在向中等收入过渡时都会面临的挑战，中国只是更早而已。Chaudhuri说，对中国很多贫困人口来说，问题并不是整体经济增长得还不够快──尽管最近有数百万人被裁员，而是无论增速快慢，他们都不能从中受益。中国的贫困人口是这样的工人：没有接受过让他们可以获得一份更好工作的教育，或是家庭经济状况已经因一场急病而毁于一旦。Chaudhuri说，政府面临的挑战是要想办法让贫困人口能够利用中国充满活力的经济带来的机会。中国政府本周公布了全国医药卫生体制改革的新的细节。温家宝总理上个月也表示，扶贫对象覆盖4000多万人，这标志着中国扶贫开发进入一个新阶段。温家宝还说，今年中国将实行新的扶贫标准。学者们很长时间以来都在批评中国官方贫困线低得脱离了现实，提高扶贫标准是对此作出了让步。据北京智库中国发展研究基金会估计，2005年中国合理的贫困线应为人民币1,147元，较当年683元的官方农村贫困线约高68%。世界银行的报告也建议中国政府提高官方贫困线。中国的官方贫困线属于发展中国家较低的。举例来讲，中国的水平不足世界银行按照国际购买力标准提出的每日1.25美元的一半。不管使用哪种贫困定义，中国的成就都是令人瞩目的。1981年-2004年，中国约有5亿人脱贫，而极端贫困（缺衣少食）的现象几近消除。世界银行报告的作者们表示，在如此短的时间里令这么多的人口脱贫，这是史无前例的。中国的进步并非一帆风顺。报告作者们的分析显示，有两个时期（1990年-1993年，1999年-2003年），中国最贫困人口的收入实际上减少了。作者们写道，这反映出低收入人口受经济周期和政府农业政策转变的影响更大。这还表明，如果政府希望在减贫方面继续取得进步的话，就必须更多地关注那些能直接提高居民家庭收入的政策。Chaudhuri说，这确实需要观念上的转变。Andrew Batson相关阅读中国医改目标: 加大农村设施建设 2009-04-08世界银行下调东亚经济今年增长预期 2009-04-07中国以经济杠杆撬动世界 2009-04-06A股反弹并不说明刺激措施奏效 2009-04-06
China's historic economic rise has pulled about half a billion people out of poverty, but merely sustaining that growth won't complete the task, the World Bank said in a report Wednesday.Although the bank's multiyear review of China's record of poverty reduction was completed before the financial crisis, it adds to pressure on the Chinese government to strengthen its social safety net and broaden access to health care and education.Many social services were dismantled during the move away from the planned economy in recent decades. The government has started to rebuild them as policy makers recognize that deficiencies have hindered a rise in living standards.'Robust growth is still necessary. But growth by itself is no longer likely to be sufficient,' Shubham Chaudhuri, a World Bank economist who is one of the main authors of the report, said in an interview in Beijing. 'These are the kind of challenges that most countries face as they make the transition to middle-income status. China's just facing them earlier.'The problem for many poor people in China isn't that the overall economy isn't growing fast enough -- although millions have been laid off recently -- but that they can't benefit from what growth is there, Mr. Chaudhuri said.They are workers without the education to get a better job, or whose family finances have been devastated by a medical emergency. The challenge for the government, he said, is figuring out ways of 'enabling the bottom half of the population to take advantage of the opportunities presented by China's dynamic economy.'China's government this week provided new details on an overhaul of the national health-care system. And Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that the government will extend poverty relief to more than 40 million recipients, a commitment that he said 'marks the beginning of a new stage in China's efforts to reduce poverty through development.'Mr. Wen also said that China would adopt a new poverty line this year, yielding to longstanding criticism from scholars that the official poverty line is unrealistically low.The China Development Research Foundation, a think tank in Beijing, has estimated that an appropriate poverty line for China in 2005 would be 1,147 yuan -- or 68% higher than the official rural poverty line for that year of 683 yuan. The World Bank report also recommends that the government raise the official poverty line, which is one of the lowest of any developing country. For instance, it is less than half of the bank's international standard of $1.25 a day in purchasing-power parity terms.Regardless of which definition of poverty is used, China's achievement has been impressive. Around 500 million people exited poverty from 1981 to 2004, while extreme poverty -- not having enough food or clothing -- has been nearly eliminated. 'A fall in the number of poor of this magnitude over such a short period is without historical precedent,' the authors write.China's progress hasn't been entirely smooth. The authors' analysis shows that there were two periods -- from 1990 to 1993, and from 1999 to 2003 -- when incomes of the poorest part of China's population actually declined. That reflects how lower-income people are more affected by economic cycles, and shifts in government farm policy, the authors say.It also underscores the need for the government to focus more on policies that directly boost household incomes if they want to keep making progress in reducing poverty.'This will really require a change in the mind-set,' Mr. Chaudhuri said.Andrew Batson
China's historic economic rise has pulled about half a billion people out of poverty, but merely sustaining that growth won't complete the task, the World Bank said in a report Wednesday.Although the bank's multiyear review of China's record of poverty reduction was completed before the financial crisis, it adds to pressure on the Chinese government to strengthen its social safety net and broaden access to health care and education.Many social services were dismantled during the move away from the planned economy in recent decades. The government has started to rebuild them as policy makers recognize that deficiencies have hindered a rise in living standards.'Robust growth is still necessary. But growth by itself is no longer likely to be sufficient,' Shubham Chaudhuri, a World Bank economist who is one of the main authors of the report, said in an interview in Beijing. 'These are the kind of challenges that most countries face as they make the transition to middle-income status. China's just facing them earlier.'The problem for many poor people in China isn't that the overall economy isn't growing fast enough -- although millions have been laid off recently -- but that they can't benefit from what growth is there, Mr. Chaudhuri said.They are workers without the education to get a better job, or whose family finances have been devastated by a medical emergency. The challenge for the government, he said, is figuring out ways of 'enabling the bottom half of the population to take advantage of the opportunities presented by China's dynamic economy.'China's government this week provided new details on an overhaul of the national health-care system. And Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that the government will extend poverty relief to more than 40 million recipients, a commitment that he said 'marks the beginning of a new stage in China's efforts to reduce poverty through development.'Mr. Wen also said that China would adopt a new poverty line this year, yielding to longstanding criticism from scholars that the official poverty line is unrealistically low.The China Development Research Foundation, a think tank in Beijing, has estimated that an appropriate poverty line for China in 2005 would be 1,147 yuan -- or 68% higher than the official rural poverty line for that year of 683 yuan. The World Bank report also recommends that the government raise the official poverty line, which is one of the lowest of any developing country. For instance, it is less than half of the bank's international standard of $1.25 a day in purchasing-power parity terms.Regardless of which definition of poverty is used, China's achievement has been impressive. Around 500 million people exited poverty from 1981 to 2004, while extreme poverty -- not having enough food or clothing -- has been nearly eliminated. 'A fall in the number of poor of this magnitude over such a short period is without historical precedent,' the authors write.China's progress hasn't been entirely smooth. The authors' analysis shows that there were two periods -- from 1990 to 1993, and from 1999 to 2003 -- when incomes of the poorest part of China's population actually declined. That reflects how lower-income people are more affected by economic cycles, and shifts in government farm policy, the authors say.It also underscores the need for the government to focus more on policies that directly boost household incomes if they want to keep making progress in reducing poverty.'This will really require a change in the mind-set,' Mr. Chaudhuri said.Andrew Batson