MOSCOW, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China has made a truly remarkable breakthrough in the fight against poverty and will certainly complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects this year, a Russian scholar has said.

China's poverty alleviation program has been implemented on an unprecedented scale, Sergei Luzyanin, a professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The number of impoverished people in China fell to 5.51 million at the end of 2019 from nearly 100 million at the end of 2012, and the poverty headcount ratio dropped to 0.6 percent from 10.2 percent during the period, official data showed.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita stood at 10,276 U.S. dollars in 2019, exceeding 10,000 dollars for the first time.

"The growth of Chinese welfare, the growth of the GDP per capita and the rate of the implementation of the anti-poverty program are impressive and prove the high efficiency of the efforts undertaken by the Chinese leadership," Luzyanin said.

"The facts speak for themselves. China has become a world leader in this area," he said.

Pointing to China's State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, Luzyanin said he believes that "the Chinese experience in the institutional solution of problems of this kind is of great interest to other countries."

In addition to government efforts, Chinese big businesses are also allocating a tremendous amount of money to combating poverty, Luzyanin said, noting that he sees a combination of public and private enterprises in the implementation of this important national task.

In his view, the COVID-19 pandemic affects China's poverty reduction, but its impact will not be critical.

Despite all the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, this year China will be able to achieve its goal of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, said the professor.