On June 5, 2020, the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), the Beijing Representative Office of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation), and Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development co-held the webinar on “International Poverty Reduction and Development Trend”. This event also is within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP) and the Gates Foundation.

Ms. Su Guoxia, Spokeswoman of the LGOP and Director-General the General Department, attended and addressed the meeting. Dr. Liu Junwen, Director-General of IPRCC, and Dr. Tan Weiping, Deputy Director-General of IPRCC, were present at the meeting. Ms. Li Yinuo, Director of the Gates Foundation China, delivered a themed speech on behalf of the Gates Foundation. Prof. Peter Lanjouw of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development presided over the opening ceremony. More than 100 experts and scholars from the World Bank, Georgetown University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and other domestic and international research institutes and international organizations joined the webinar.

Ms. Su Guoxia introduced China’s progress in poverty alleviation, anti-pandemic responses and priorities of work in the next phrase, and she placed high expectations on the webinar and related research. Prof. Martin Ravallion from Georgetown University made a keynote speech on “Relative Poverty Standards set by the International Experience and Insights for China.” He observed that “weakly relative poverty” could be used to prescribe standards for relative poverty. Prof. Chen Shaohua chaired the seminar session, in which Prof. Zhu Ling from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Prof. Zhang Qi, President of the China Institute for Poverty Alleviation of Beijing Normal University, and Prof. Gan Li from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics exchanges their views on the Martin’s report. The webinar was conclude by a Q&A session, and Prof. Martin and Prof. Chen took and answered questions from the floor.