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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 24-- Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith hailed China for its great success in combating poverty in a recent interview with Xinhua, saying that China's poverty reduction work should be an example for other developing countries. According to official data, China has lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty over the past several decades, representing over 70 percent of global poverty reduction. China is making fast progress towards eliminating poverty, with the number of impoverished rural residents declining from nearly 100 million in late 2017 to 16.6 million by the end of 2018. "We have a lot to learn from China, and it's very impressive that China could eradicate poverty in just four decades, and I think that other countries can learn from that," Kanharith said. The Cambodian minister attributed China's poverty reduction achievement to the right policy decisions made by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government and the hard work and patriotism of the Chinese people. Kanharith said he first visited China in 1992 and had witnessed a remarkable change in the country's socio-economic development in the past decades. In 1992, when he visited China, he spent long time on the way from the airport to downtown Beijing. "At that time, I didn't see a lot of cars, just millions of bicycles," he recounted. "Ten years later, I came again. I spent just about 30 minutes from the airport to Beijing and there were very few bicycles." | 
