Award-winning Report Praises China for Tackling Poverty but Urges Nation to Reduce Inequality

Award-winning Report Praises China for Tackling Poverty but Urges Nation to Reduce Inequality

June 20, 2007

    BEIJING, June 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- China's 2005
Human Development Report, an assessment of the nation's
progress in confronting the destabilizing development gaps
that have emerged between urban and rural communities,
coastal and interior regions, women and men and other
segments of society, is one of five Human Development Award
winners whose authors will be honored by the United Nations
at a ceremony in New York this week.

    (Logo:
http://www.xprn.com.cn/xprn/sa/20061107113358-34.jpg )

    The independent Report, commissioned by the United
Nations Development Programme and entitled Development with
Equity, is the first of its kind by China-based researchers
and scholars to take a hard look at some of the most
critical human development issues facing their nation,
including inequality between urban and rural dwellers and
between men and women. Experts say that the China study is
remarkable not only for its findings but also its frank
discussion of obstacles to reform in China, such as
corruption. 

    "This Award is a great honour not only for the
authors but also everyone else who made the tremendous
effort to make this research work, accomplished
independently by Chinese scholars, a success," the
Report's main authors Li Shi and Bai Nansheng said in a
joint statement.  "We believe the analytical results
and policy implications provided in this Report have
brought about a significant influence on reforming the
national development strategy in China."

    Since the report was released, the Chinese Government
has taken a number of measures in recent years that reflect
the vision of human-centred development that the report
embodies. Agricultural taxes are now being abolished,
compulsory education for the rural poor is being promoted
through the renovation of school buildings and distribution
of free textbooks, and more than 150 million farmers are now
enrolled in a pilot medical insurance scheme for rural
areas.

    The Report states that while the number of people
living in absolute poverty in rural China has dropped from
250 million to 26 million since the late 1970s, in many
rural areas the public health care system is near collapse,
maternal mortality is nearly twice as high in as in cities,
and women are 2.6 times more likely to be illiterate than
men. These challenges, according to the authors, could
undermine the country's rapid advances, which have seen GDP
increases of approximately 10 percent per year over the same
period.

    The authors also cite the traditional Chinese 'Hukou'
system -- a nationwide household registry that restricts
where a person may work and live-which they say discourages
people from pursuing jobs and education opportunities
elsewhere and fosters discrimination against China's 140
million rural migrant workers. 

    "China has made some remarkable progress in human
development. But the Report shows there is still work to be
done," said Kevin Watkins, director of the Human
Development Report Office headquartered in New York.
"When a country's economic gains are being shared very
unequally, everyone ultimately loses. Only through free and
equal access to education, health care and jobs can a
country attain its full potential in human
development."?

    The Report urges widespread reforms, including
increasing investment in public education, providing
universal access to health care, curbing corruption by
making the Government more transparent, reforming the tax
code, and widening access to the judicial system so victims
of discrimination have a better chance of obtaining redress.


    The team behind the Report will be presented with a
United Nations Human Development Award for excellence in
policy analysis and influence at a ceremony at the UN
Headquarters in New York on 20 June. They will be joined in
the spotlight by four other winning entries hailing from
India, Costa Rica and Guinea-Bissau, along with an
Asia-Pacific regional report on trade. At the event, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will also present a lifetime
achievement award for contribution to human development to
the Inuit climate change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier.

    Judges for the Human Development Awards include Crown
Prince Haakon of Norway, Princess Basma of Jordan,
President Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia and Dr. Gita Sen of
Harvard University and the Indian Institute of Management.
Previous awards were given in 2000, 2002 and 2004.


    For more information, please contact:

    Zhang Wei
    Tel: [phone]