There is no perfect recipe if there is not a good chef who puts his own seasoning on it. Thus, the experience of China to shout from the rooftops to overcome poverty in its territory, is applicable to its government and its citizens due to their own particularities, but that does not mean that the same A, B, C work for any another country.
The Ambassador of Venezuela in China, Giuseppe Yoffreda, is amazed at the steps that the Asian country has taken in the eradication of poverty, but he is also aware that these experiences can only be applied in our country if we adapt them to our idiosyncrasies and our own reality.
“China strengthens the eradication of poverty thanks to its digital governance system, which consists of systematizing everything, from the identification system, to the production and distribution systems,” explains the diplomat, noting that thanks to these controls no citizen is left out of the government project to get out of poverty.
“They (the Chinese government) have the digitized survey of all areas, from a village, through companies to large production and export systems. Everything is within that digital governance system, which is a system that favors decision-making”, adds the Ambassador.
Yoffreda has visited some villages in different provinces of China to feel first-hand the experiences of overcoming poverty, looking for a way to “tropicalize” the practices and somehow transfer them to our country. He has had the opportunity to share with its inhabitants to make a direct exchange of knowledge within the framework of the Chinese policy of revitalization of rural spaces.
“Initially they take a census of all the inhabitants of the village, see what their needs and productive capacities are, and then integrate them into the Chinese economic system. There they see which are the ones that have more or less economic strength and they act accordingly”, he said while explaining that a province, city or company that sponsors their growth is assigned to the weakest ones.
He states that “this sponsorship consists of giving them the tools, assessing their strength and helping them to develop”, involving the entire village in the production, processing and marketing of their strongest items. All this supported by technological development and digital tools.
The organization as a successful model
Beyond any ideological differences, there is no doubt that the Chinese Communist Party is at the forefront of the entire process for China to get out of poverty. “In China the government structure is integrated with the political structure of the party. This guarantees the cohesion of all policies and makes all institutions align within a structure that allows reaching an objective”, says Yoffreda, indicating that these objectives have dates, short, medium and long term goals and are fully met.
The head of Venezuelan diplomacy in China says that the permanent system of monitoring and control of these processes is carried out by the party, which ensures that everything programmed is carried out.
“The party is a governing body that integrates this entire process. The guidelines that come out from President Xi Jinping reach the villages through the party, which is in charge of planning, visualizing and integrating this village so that everything works”, he assures.
Yoffreda has been able to see firsthand the value of grassroots organizing in China. “The willingness and attitude of the people to put their grain of sand to get out of poverty is totally positive. They have absolute confidence in the government’s planning and they all join forces to make this happen, understanding that the policies made by the government are for the benefit of the population”, he assured.
He comments that the discipline and work capacity of the Chinese people bets that everything will work as planned, since they are confident that all their efforts will have visible results in the short term, as they have already experienced in various aspects of that country. “You see the result and then the attitude is totally positive,” he said.
The difficult tropicalization
In the opinion of Ambassador Giuseppe Yoffreda, one of the most complicated aspects of bringing the experiences of overcoming poverty in China to our country involves understanding ourselves with our culture and with our political system. In this sense, the diplomat lamented that in Venezuela we do not all row the boat in the same direction.
“We do not have a political opposition that watches over the country. Given the lack of leadership and the lack of plans and projects, the only goal of the Venezuelan opposition is destruction. His inability and his greed goes far beyond the vision of a country, ”he sentenced.
He considers that national development passes through the sum of the collective effort in pursuit of a common objective. In the Venezuelan case, the diplomat thinks that with an opposition without a country proposal, with individual and sectoral interests, it is difficult to navigate a safe path towards sustained growth.
He cited the case of the Monómeros company as an example of the destructive and ambitious power of the opposition that does not want the national good. “In almost three years they led the first Venezuelan production company in Colombia to failure and total destruction,” he said.
He considers that tropicalizing the Chinese experience in Venezuela goes through understanding ourselves and knowing where we want to go as a nation, something that is not achieved by the way in which the violent and surrendering sectors of the opposition have proposed to the country.
shared future
Venezuela maintains excellent political, economic and friendly relations with China. Our country has signed the three initiatives that the Asian nation has presented to the world: the Belt and Road initiative, the Global Security initiative and the Global Development initiative; all framed in the alternative that China has presented in the face of globalization and that it has called the Society of Shared Future.
Yoffreda believes that this “exchange of strengths” proposed by China is a way of demonstrating that “there are possibilities for development without running over anyone and without stealing from anyone, as is done from other axes of economic power,” says the diplomatic representative.
In that sense, he says that he is trying to open, through diplomacy, an ideal space for Venezuelan merchandise on Chinese soil, where he assures that there are enormous opportunities. “President Xi has proposed the Shared Future initiative to move towards complementarity, I help you-you help me. There is always going to be a mutual benefit,” he maintains.
Yofredda is convinced that the popular power in Venezuela is prepared to take this leap for the economic well-being of the country, taking as an example the form of organization of the Chinese people and adapting it to our way of seeing the world.
“The popular organization of Venezuela has come from less to more. Since the arrival of the revolution there has been a process of constant training and handing over of responsibilities, which has been preparing him for the role that corresponds to him historically”, he said.
He also said that he is confident that experiences such as those of rural villages in China can be perfectly applicable in Venezuela for the expansion of agroecological tourism. “Our country has a lot of potential for agroecological tourism like the one that is taking place in China, where the citizen goes to the outskirts of the cities and has lodging, recreational tours, meals and services, which these regions are beginning to develop,” he pointed out. .
Giuseppe Yoffreda has been in charge of Venezuelan diplomacy in China for almost five months, and has just served as Ambassador for just over three years in Qatar. Previously, he was part of diplomatic delegations of our country in the Asian giant, so his relationship with this power has years of experience.
