A major poverty alleviation scheme

Cheng Xizhong – China Economic Net

This week, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced in Islamabad a major livelihood project called “Ehsaas Riyayat Ration Scheme” to help solve the difficulties faced by the ordinary people in life.

“Ehsaas Riyayat Ration Scheme” is a government project for a discount on basic food items for needy persons, alleviating their poverty.

According to the Poverty Alleviation Division of the Pakistani government, in the context of soaring international food prices, the Pakistani government has not raised food items prices but announced that it will provide a monthly subsidy of 30% for daily essentials to 20 million households.

Under the targeted subsidy for the poor and middle class, the prices of flour, cooking oil, ghee, pulses, etc. will be considerably reduced. In addition, the distribution of Rs.71 billion cash assistance will also be started.

The announcement of the Ehsaas Riyayat Ration Scheme by the Pakistani government also shows that driven by the construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Pakistan’s economy grew by as much as 5.6% in the last fiscal year, and exports of various goods and services have been increased by a large margin. Therefore, Pakistan’s financial strength has been strengthened.

Since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, the Pakistani government has been committed to eradicating poverty and improving people’s living standards. This has been one of the major objectives of governance. This fully reflects the Imran Khan administration’s concept of governing for the people and is highly appreciated by the general public.

At the end of 2020, China, which accounts for one-fifth of the world’s population, announced to the world that China had accomplished the task of poverty eradication. So far, under China’s current standards, all the rural poor had been lifted out of poverty, and absolute poverty and regional overall poverty had been eliminated.

Over the decades of reform and opening up, 750 million Chinese have successfully lifted themselves out of poverty, contributing more than 70% to the world’s poverty reduction. They have achieved the poverty reduction goal of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has visited China many times. He is very familiar with the situation in China and has been greatly inspired by China’s great achievements in eradicating poverty.

“If we can learn from any country in the world, that is China,” he said after returning from the recent visit to China. He highly praised China’s development model, saying that the Pakistani government hopes to learn from China’s development model to accelerate economic growth and eradicate poverty.

The writer is a visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Special Commentator of China Economic Net, former Defense Attache in South Asian countries