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hina, having dramatically reduced its poverty rate on account of its meteoric rise in the global economy, believes its experiences can prove useful for Southeast Asia, its envoy to the region has said.

During a symposium on poverty eradication held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, earlier this week, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Huang Xilian said China was willing to share its expertise with ASEAN member states to help improve the prosperity of their citizens and achieve other global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“As the Chinese proverb goes: ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,’” Huang said on Tuesday.

“China is willing to share experiences with all parties to help realize the common and sustainable development goals in our region.”

On Monday, dozens of local community representatives voiced their concerns in a series of discussions with senior government officials, experts, international organizations and other actors in sustainable development.

Quite aptly, one of the problems raised was the diminished fish population available for local communities to catch in that part of Cambodia.

Forum participant Toun Heng, the deputy head of Chong Kneas, a small village located near Tonle Sap lake just 16 kilometers from Siem Reap, was wary of the impacts that dwindling fish stocks had on his community, given their heavy reliance on the fisheries sector.

He said pollution was one of the reasons for the shrinking catches in Southeast Asia’s largest lake, which was one of the most productive freshwater fisheries in the world a few years ago.

“A lot of people live in floating houses […] There’s no land for farming, [and we solely] rely on fishery activities. So if there’s no fish, it is a problem for our livelihoods in general,” he said.

The problems faced by residents of Chong Kneas portray the complexities of implementing the SDGs at the grassroots level.

Countries around the world, including those in ASEAN, have committed to achieving the 169 targets under the SDGs by 2030.

Meanwhile, the rapid rise of China has seen it lift over 800 million people out of poverty over the span of four decades. Its rapid economic growth had contributed over 30 percent to global economic growth in that time, Huang said.

ASEAN itself has managed to reduce extreme poverty from 48.8 percent in 1990 to just 7.2 percent in 2013, although the envoy noted that progress was not uniform across member states.

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Haoliang Xu said that, while the ASEAN economy had grown significantly in recent years, it still needed “stronger social protection”.

“Not everybody can benefit from growth, especially marginalized populations,” said the Chinese national, who is also the UN Development Programme’s regional director for Asia and the Pacific. China, he said, played an important role in providing financial support for the SDGs.

A number of Chinese institutions took part in the Siem Reap symposium, including the International Poverty Reduction Center in China, the Foreign Affairs Office of Guizhou province, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation China Secretariat and Yunnan Minzu University.

ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee said the symposium aimed to promote the implementation of the SDGs in ASEAN in a way that complemented its Vision 2025, and sought to explore ways to integrate these goals at the regional and sub-national levels.

“Achieving the SDGs will only be possible if we make concerted efforts to address the issues,” he said on Tuesday. “To ensure the effectiveness of such implementation, the local government should be the key drivers of the SDGs.”