How China, India, Vietnam lifted millions out of poverty

China has contributed to over 70 percent of the poverty reduction across the world

Nigeria can take a cue from China, Vietnam and India as it embarks on its poverty reduction goal, especially since these countries also had to contend with widespread poverty in the past.

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari recently inaugurated the Steering Committee of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) to achieve an ambitious goal of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within a decade.

China, India and Vietnam all show it is possible to reduce poverty drastically, lifting more than half of their population out of poverty. BusinessDay studied each of these countries and found three distinct ways they were able to reduce poverty.

It was by achieving strong economic growth, human capital development and through social welfare programs.

Their stories hold lessons that Nigeria can learn from to achieve its goal of lifting half its population from poverty.

China’s miracle

China has contributed to over 70 percent of the poverty reduction across the world, making itself a country with the most people lifted out of poverty in the world. According to the 1.9 dollars poverty line, China has lifted 850 million people out of poverty, with the percentage of people living in extreme poverty falling from 88 percent to 1.85 percent by the end of 2020.

The Chinese people have transformed China from a poverty-stricken and backward nation to a country of prosperity. The country, which could not meet the needs of its people, has developed into the world’s second-largest economy, the largest trader of goods, the largest industrial country and the largest holder of foreign exchange.

China’s rapid reduction in poverty went hand in hand with a long period of sustained economic growth and this fuelled a massive increase in incomes. From a GDP of 367.8 billion yuan in 1978, it has grown to more than 100 trillion yuan by 2020. China has also increased its per capita

There was also much focus on the poorest rural areas. The government has relocated millions of people from remote villages into apartment complexes. Although this strategy has been largely criticized as the people could not choose where they wanted to live or the jobs they wanted.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping has continually emphasized how education is key in breaking the inter-generational transmission of poverty. Since 2011, China’s budgetary spending on education has remained 4 percent of GDP. In 2018 alone, nearly 100 million students from families with financial difficulties were subsidized nationwide. According to Standard Chartered projects, by 2030, around 27 percent of China’s workforce will have a university education – that’s about the same as Germany today.

Secondary vocational schools played an instrumental role in the country’s poverty alleviation plans, helping upskilling and integrating young people into the labor market and providing high-quality technical skills. This helped to reduce the rate of unemployed people.

Vietnam’s Đổi Mới strategy

Vietnam is another country that has also seen a dramatic fall in extreme poverty rates over a similar period. Vietnam succeeded in reducing its extreme poverty rate from 61.3 percent to 1.9 percent from 1990 to 2018, putting it roughly on par with China. However, because the population of Vietnam is a small fraction of China’s, its success in reducing poverty only accounts for about 3.2 percent of global poverty compared to China’s 70 percent.

After World War II, the Vietnam economy was left badly shaken and left in ruins. It key growth infrastructures such as rail, bridges, roads, and canals were destroyed. The war created more than ten million internal refugees, one million war widows, more than 750,000 orphans, 350,000 disabled war veterans, and left three million people unemployed.