Interview: UN capital investment agency to increase cooperation with China for poverty reduction

Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, executive secretary of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), speaks during an interview with Xinhua at his office in New York, Dec. 4, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Fengguo)

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- "China's approach in targeted poverty alleviation over the many years is a lesson, I think, for many countries around the world," executive secretary of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Pradeep Kurukulasuriya said in an interview with Xinhua.

"What China has done over the last so many years is a model for many countries to learn from. Countries that are involved and expecting also to reduce poverty are finding ways to learn and replicate models that have worked," Kurukulasuriya said.

The UN system is powerful in supporting dialogue, negotiation, capacity building, policy reforms, regulations and so on, all of which are very important to achieve development objectives, he said.

Equally important, especially as development assistance goes down, is to try and figure out ways in which private sector finance can start to flow into a development context that it previously has not. "This is where the UNCDF comes in," he said.

The UNCDF is essentially a financial de-risking platform, which means it provides confidence to private investors, institutional investors, multilateral development banks, and development finance institutions to come into markets that they otherwise would think are too risky, he said.

Calling China an important partner for many of the countries that the UNCDF supports, Kurukulasuriya said that its strategy on long-term investment, strategy on investing in renewable energy, and strategy on poverty reduction "are all important lessons that we have to be able to learn from and take to other countries."

Kurukulasuriya said he was "very excited" about his coming visit to China. "I'm hoping that through this interaction, I can incentivize partners from China to support investments in the developing world and ensure that businesses thrive in the countries that we're supporting, which is ultimately in everyone's interests," he noted.

As a hybrid development and finance organization established by the UN General Assembly in 1966, the UNCDF is positioned to act as a catalyst in high-risk markets, particularly in the least developed countries, small island developing countries, fragile and conflict-affected countries, according to the official website of the UNCDF. ■