The second Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and China  Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development will kick off on Wednesday to facilitate poverty reduction cooperation and experience sharing in the post COVID-19 era.

The online forum will promote the exchange of poverty reduction know-how between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries against various challenges in the post COVID-19 era.

The forum is expected to become an annual exchange scheme between China and the CELAC, boost in-depth cooperation in poverty reduction and rural development, and make greater contribution to the building of a community of shared future between the two regions.

On 31 August, 2021, the first CELAC-China Forum on Poverty Reduction and Development was hosted by the National Rural Revitalization Administration, created earlier in 2021 to facilitate the national rural vitalization strategy, alongside the International Poverty Reduction Center in China.

During the first forum in 2021, all parties vowed to make full use of the forum, a new platform for communication, to deepen mutual understanding and trust to lay a solid foundation for further sharing of poverty reduction experiences  and concrete cooperation in the future. 

All parties are determined to make efforts to mitigate the negative effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has made on poverty reduction and development and join hands to build a China-Latin America and the Caribbean community with a shared future.

China's policies and practices to eradicate absolute poverty are seen as valuable for Latin American countries to promote the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

Representatives and officials from the Latin American and Caribbean affairs department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Nations, and other CELAC member countries will attend the forum.