Editor's note: To mark the fifth anniversary of China eradicating absolute poverty, China Daily is publishing a series of stories on how the country's poverty alleviation experience has not only helped the country wipeout severe deprivation, but has also taken root and made an impact around the world.

On a laptop screen inside a meeting room in a rural area of Hunan province, the face of Padith flickers to life.

The 54-year-old village chief of Thinsom — a small hamlet nestled in the mountains of Laos' Luang Prabang province — waves from his computer in a local government building, a translator seated beside him. Grinning, he asks in Lao, "Secretary Lu, can you hear me? Very happy to see you!"

On the other end, Lu Chuntao, first Communist Party of China secretary of Shibadong in Huayuan county — China's model antipoverty village — leans toward the camera.