Chinese government agencies and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a memorandum of understanding in Shanghai Thursday to establish an international poverty reduction center in China.

Liu Jian, minister of the State Council's Leading Group Office for Poverty Reduction, Khalid Malik, UN China Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, and Yi Xiaozhun, assistant to the Commerce minister, signed the MOU on establishing the International Center for Poverty Reduction in China.

The center will become a platform for exchanging experience on poverty reduction, especially the Chinese experience, worldwide and serve to push forward the realizing of the Millennium Development Goals.

The center also aims to strengthen national capacity on poverty reduction through drawing on the best available domestic and international expertise through policy research, analysis and training.

(Xinha News Agency May 28, 2004)