Holding the forum in China carried special significance, he said."China's experience shows that poverty can be reduced at scale when clear vision, national ownership, broad-based growth, rural development, infrastructure, job creation and targeted public support work together," he said.

Robert Walker, professor emeritus at the University of Oxford and a professor at Beijing Normal University, said the partnership is a support for the world in achieving the SDG goals.

"Sharing expertise and knowledge would be essential, not for its own sake, but as a tool for reform, to make the world better, to ensure that poverty can be addressed," Walker said.

Heidi Kuhn, founder of United States-based NGOs Roots of Peace and Pax Agricultura and a World Food Prize laureate, called for broader global cooperation.

"I think China today has done something very extraordinary," Kuhn said. "I am certainly inspired, and I hope together we can work to plant global gardens for food security all over the world."

zhaoyimeng@chinadaily.com.cn