BEIJING -- China will try to better use foreign capital to facilitate its 
poverty reduction efforts, said an official with the State Council Leading Group 
Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. 
Ou Qingping, deputy director of the Center for the Administration of 
Foreign-funded Projects with the Leading Office, made the remarks on Monday at 
the Second ASEAN plus Three High-level Workshop on Poverty Reduction. 
Foreign capital is a "carrying vehicle" for China, through which the country 
can not only bring in a large amount of money but also advanced foreign 
concepts, technologies and methods for its work in poverty reduction, said Ou. 
The Leading Office set up the Center for Administration of Foreign-funded 
Projects in 1996. 
Over the past decade, China has been expanding the inflow of foreign capital 
to boost poverty alleviation efforts, including loans from international 
financial institutions like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and 
official development aid (ODA) from Japan, Canada and Britain. 
According to Ou, about 630 million U.S. dollars in the World Bank loans has 
been granted to China since 1996, covering poverty reduction in Sichuan, Guangxi 
and Yunnan. 
China uses foreign capital to increase investment in human resources, which 
helps to spread the use of knowledge and technology by the poor, said Ou. 
Huang Chengwei, an official responsible for administering foreign-funded 
projects for poverty alleviation in Guangxi, said residents in the 
poverty-stricken Jingxi County are now getting more chances to select, manage, 
supervise and evaluate their development projects. 
When the residents are well trained, they know what is best suitable for them 
and try to make decisions on their own. This strengthens their capacity to shake 
off poverty, said Huang. 
According to official statistics, by the end of last year, China had an 
estimated 23.65 million people earning less than 680 yuan (85 U.S. dollars) a 
year, living in absolute poverty. If the internationally accepted poverty line 
of one U.S. dollar per day is used, the country's poverty-stricken population 
stood at 120 million to 130 million.