This project concluded at the end of 2001. It achieved its objectives of developing relevant methodologies to identify and quantify the nature of past and present public investments in China, assessing comparative growth and productivity consequences of these investments, and evaluating priorities for future public investments in Chinese agriculture. The final dissemination conference was held in Beijing on 5-6 November 2001, attended by more than 100 policymakers and researchers from the central and provincial governments in China along with researchers from India, Vietnam, Japan, Australia, and international organizations. By coincidence, this conference was held in the week that China formally joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This conference has had an enormous impact on the thinking of future investment strategies in rural areas of China-a major topic of the Beijing conference. Immediately after the conference the Director-General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) briefed President Jiang Zemin about the project findings.

The conference participants were concerned about possible negative effects on the poor (often smallholders) in less-developed western areas of China, while at the same time congratulating project collaborators for their efforts. Based on these concerns and feedback, IFPRI and its Chinese partners are planning to launch a follow-up study to analyse how smallholders in less-developed western areas can adapt under the WTO, and to define what government policies, particularly investment policies, can assist them to prosper in the future.