The research project, “Research on the Belt and Road Initiative and the Poverty Alleviation,” applied by the Belt and Road School of BNU was approved by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) as the 2020 annual research project. IPRCC held an online kick-off meeting for research projects of 2020 on June 11, 2020. Prof. Hu Biliang, Executive Director of the Belt and Road School, the leading researcher of the project and the Chief Expert, attended the meeting and reported the research project plan.

Prof. Hu pointed out in his research proposal that 2020 is the last year for the plan of poverty alleviation and it is the right time to research on poverty reduction. In the Belt and Road Summit 2019, President Xi Jinping defined a high-quality Belt and Road development as open, green and clean, followed by a high-standard, people-centered and sustainable approach. The idea of people-centered approach coincides with the concept of poverty reduction. Since its inception, the BRI, experiencing seven years’ development, has provided new roads and extended new channels for poverty reduction of many underdeveloped countries, indicating positive correlation between the Belt and Road development and poverty reduction. Since the main participants of the Belt and Road initiative are developing and underdeveloped countries, it is particularly important to enhance their poverty reduction capabilities, reduce poverty-stricken population and finally eliminate poverty of these countries.

The International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) is an organization directly under the State Council Leading Group Ofce of Poverty Alleviation and Development(LGOP), jointly initiated and established by the Chinese government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other international organizations. It is an international platform in the feld of poverty reduction and development and a key channel for the Chinese government to carry out South-South Cooperation. After panel reviews and program evaluations, six projects were approved as the 2020 annual research projects this year.