Government officials, business leaders and experts have gathered at the 2016 China Poverty Reduction International Forum in Beijing to share their views and experience in poverty alleviation.

Many believe the expansion of Internet access and the booming e-commerce could help achieve China's target to lift 55 million of its rural population out of poverty by 2020.

Bert Hofman, the World Bank's country director for China, Mongolia and South Korea says technological progress is a great propellant in poverty reduction.

He calls on the private sector, including small businesses, to join hands with policy-makers in bridging the income gap.

"I hope that the private sector initiative will help to spread the Internet and spread knowledge around the world. It's clear that government, the private sector and the international community have a lot to do to meet the challenge of Internet access to meet the challenge of spreading information around the world. And to bridge the digital divide as our most recent development report characterizes it, but progress is much possible. More efforts could be directed to the ICT policies to reform telecom industry universal service for broadband rollout and broader partnerships of public and private sectors."

During the forum, the Global Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth Portal was officially launched. It will now offer information on the latest research in poverty reduction and inclusive growth.

Hong Tianyun is Deputy Director of the Poverty Alleviation Office of China's State Council, the cabinet.

He hopes such platforms like the portal could facilitate communications between various countries to share their policies and best practices on poverty reduction.

"I hope through our website, we can share experience in poverty alleviation all over the country. Also we can share and learn from the effective methods and successful experiments from other countries. I just came back from Anhui province visiting and doing research in some poor villages. During my trip, some villages adopted the conditional cash transfer programs used by some South American countries, which have proven to be successful in local infrastructure construction and economic development."

China's latest five-year national development plan has incorporated the goal of ending the struggles of 55 million people living in poverty by 2020.

While China has been able to lift 700 million people out of poverty in the past three decades, it is now faced with tougher challenges in the last mile, a most critical moment in its fight against poverty.

Some worry that as China's economic growth slows, young rural residents who migrate to the cities for work will see fewer opportunities.

Irene Bain, Social Sector Specialist with the Asian Development Bank, believes to cultivate small businesses in the country-side via e-commerce could create job opportunities for labour that returns from urban to rural areas.

"So models like Alibaba and some out the logistics models that shrink the last mile and bring villagers and urban areas closer. Because when we are closer we know more about each other. It's easier to care about each other so for rural urban integration to really work it needs those closer linkages where urban areas support rural areas not just benefit from them. "

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba declared its ambition to enter the rural market in 2014. The company plans to invest 10 billion yuan, or 1.5 billion US dollars, to build service centers in small counties and villages to support the program. It hopes to solve the problems in goods delivery and boost sales of agriculture products by improving infrastructure in rural areas.

According to the latest survey from Ali-research, there are now 780 so-called "Taobao villages"-rural communities transformed into online business clusters by e-commerce , with each having an annual e-commerce transactions worth in excess of 10 million yuan, or 1.5 million US dollars.

Zhang Ruidong, senior expert at the research institute of Alibaba group, explains how the Internet is transforming the rural economy and helping reduce poverty.

"We focus on helping villagers develop the skills to earn money on their own. First we provide related services support to help more consumer goods reach the countryside while helping farmers to deliver their products to the cities. We also provide health and medical services to the villagers by making video diagnosis, which connect villagers with doctors from first-rate hospitals in big cities. We offer training courses for our partners in the countryside to master related business knowledge."

Many say while the effectiveness of these innovative ideas remains to be seen, they do help and make a difference in changing the lives of millions who are struggling below the poverty line.

Apart from the economy, experts also stressed the importance of improving the healthcare system and education in rural areas, as they can prevent those who recently left poverty from slipping back.

(CRIEnglish.com May 9, 2016)