China's Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the opening ceremony of the Global Conference on Scaling Up Poverty Reduction, to be held in Shanghai from May 26 to 27, according to the conference's organizing committee.

Shanghai has made full preparations on security, medical service, transportation, reception and press service to ensure success of the conference, and everything is ready, said a spokesman for the committee.

Minister of Finance Jin Renqing, also the Chinese chairman of the conference, visited the Shanghai International Conference Center, where the conference is to be held, on Sunday and asked the staff members to provide best service for the conference.

Sponsored by the World Bank and the Chinese government, the three-day event has attracted more than 800 domestic and foreign participants, including leaders of foreign countries, representatives of international organizations and officials at ministerial level.

The conference, first of its kind, is aimed to accelerate efforts in reducing poverty through assessing best practices and sharing valuable knowledge among developing countries.

Developing country practitioners and policymakers from around the world will analyze over 70 cases of poverty reduction and illustrate successful and not so successful examples.

The cases provide high visibility to approaches that really worked in reducing poverty on a large scale within various economic, social, and institutional contexts. The conference has aroused great attention of the press. Over 500 Chinese and foreign journalists will cover the conference.

Jemal-ud-din Kassum, vice president of the World Bank, said Shanghai has rich experience and full capacity to hold large-scale international meetings and that he is very confident of the success of the conference.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2004)