Poverty Alleviation and Development in Zhejiang Province

　　【Overview】  With a large population and many mountain areas but relatively little land, Zhejiang always faces huge pressure on survival and an arduous anti-poverty task. In 1978, based on the poverty line of per capita income of 200 Yuan, Zhejiang had a poor population of 12 million and the incidence of poverty in rural areas was 36.1%, 5.4 percentage points higher than the national average. Since reform and opening up, especially since the beginning of the new century, Zhejiang Province has implemented the central government’s pro-poor policies and the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas (2001-2010)" and given play to the leading role of the government and the basic role of the market. Keeping pace with the times, based on local actual situations, the government has adopted targeted anti-poverty measures and made a historic breakthrough in poverty alleviation and development, achieving the leap from subsistence to moderate prosperity ahead of schedule.

　　【Review of poverty alleviation】  The history of Zhejiang’s poverty alleviation and development in rural areas from 1978 to 2007 can be divided into five stages:

　　First stage: Universal poverty reduction in rural areas (1978-1985). In 1985, the rural per capita income rose from 165 Yuan to 548 Yuan, the number of rural poor was reduced from 12 million to 5 million, and the incidence of poverty in rural areas dropped from 36.1% to 15.2%.

　　Second stage: Regional development-oriented poverty alleviation（1986-1993）. In 1993, the rural per capita income increased to 1745 million Yuan and the number of rural poor living below the low-income line of 500 Yuan was reduced to 2.8 million.

　　Third stage: Poverty alleviation in poor counties (1994-1999). In 1997, eight counties, namely Wencheng, Taishun, Yongjia, Yunhe, Jingning, Qinttian, Pan’an and Wuyi achieved the goal of shaking off poverty three years ahead of time and Zhejiang became the first province without poverty-stricken county in China. In 1999, the rural per capita net income in the province reached 3944 Yuan, the number of the poor living below the low-income line of 1000 Yuan was reduced to 600,000, and the incidence of poverty in rural areas dropped to 1.8%.

　　Fourth stage: Poverty alleviation in poor towns (2000-2002). Aiming to alleviate and eliminate absolute poverty in poverty-stricken towns, targeting at the 101 poor towns with rural per capita income below 1500 Yuan in 1999, the government implemented the “poverty alleviation program for a hundred towns”. In 2002, the rural per capita income in poverty-stricken towns reached 1922 Yuan, the number of poor people with per capita income below 1000 Yuan was reduced from 181,000 to 37,000, the poor towns shook off poverty as scheduled and Zhejiang became the first province without poor towns in China.

　　Fifth stage: Moderate prosperity of undeveloped towns (2003-2007). Aiming to reduce the relative poverty in undeveloped areas, enhance the capacity of farmers to gain more income and improve the level of the income, targeting at 361 undeveloped towns with rural per capita income below the national average (2,366 Yuan) in 2001, Zhejiang implemented “moderate prosperity project for undeveloped areas”. In 2007, the rural per capita income in the undeveloped areas reached 4500 Yuan, 102,000 rural households relocated from mountain areas, involving 363,000 people, and the rural per capita income in more than 80% of the undeveloped towns was above the national average. All the targeted tasks had been completed. Meanwhile, the number of the rural poor living below the low-income line of 1500 Yuan was reduced to 310,000.

　　In 2007, the Eleventh Party Congress of Zhejiang Province made the major decision to comprehensively implement the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households" from 2008. In early 2008, Eleventh National People's Congress of Zhejiang Province made the major decision for the implementation of the ​​"Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People". After the moderate prosperity project of undeveloped areas shifted the poverty relief task from mainly eliminating regional absolute poverty to focusing on eliminating regional relative poverty, this project changed the poverty relief targets from regional undeveloped towns to low-income rural households and extended poverty reduction areas from rural areas to low-income families in urban areas. From the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Undeveloped Towns" to the  ​​"Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People", Zhejiang was in a new era of building a moderately prosperous society to benefit all people in the province and its poverty alleviation and development strategy was again upgraded. Since 2008, Zhejiang Provincial government has successively issued the “Notice on the Issuance of Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People”, the “Notice on Pairing-off for the ‘Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households’ ” and the “Notice on the Development of 2009 Implementation Plan for the Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People”, and held three teleconference meetings to make full deployment on the implementation of the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households".

　　【Financial service-based poverty alleviation】  Since 2008, the province comprehensively launched the micro-credit projects for poverty alleviation. The provincial financial department arranged 1 million guarantee fee for each of the 29 counties and issued 380 million Yuan of micro-credit loans in 2009, promoted the income growth of 14,600 rural households; the number of low-income rural households’ village-level pilot mutual funds organizations reached 152, and more than 11,000 rural households (including more than 4900 low-income rural households) participated in the organizations. A total of 35 million Yuan of central and provincial financial funds were issued, the equity capital of village-level mutual funds amounted to 46.2 million Yuan and more than 76 million Yuan were issued for rural households to develop production in 1,5200 batches. The first batch of ten pilot villages including Longquan and Changshan were put into normal operation and 1025 rural households were involved. The mutual funds amounted to 3.7077 million Yuan, 364 households received loans of 2.6805 million Yuan and the average income growth for each household was 4000 Yuan. In 29 counties, a total of 738 million Yuan of loans were issued to rural households based on forest ownership mortgage. All the rural cooperative financial agencies launched pilot agricultural credit risk compensation projects and were encouraged to increase credit support for agriculture. In 2009, the financial department allocated 30.89 million Yuan as agricultural risk compensation funds. Policy agricultural insurance projects were fully launched. Three types of insurance were added, namely dairy cattle, vegetables and forest insurance, the number of the participants reached 228,700 and the premium income was 208 million Yuan; a total of 53900 disaster-hit rural households participated in the insurance system and received compensation of 164 million Yuan. The number of rural housing insured farmers reached 10,031,200, with insured rate above 98.6%.

　　【"Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People"】 This program includes the  "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households" in rural areas and the "Moderate Prosperity Project for Undeveloped Areas" implemented in urban areas. In 2009, the number of low-income rural households with per capita net income above 2500 Yuan reached 600,000, involving 1.48 million people, and this figure in the 29 provincial key counties reached 400,000, involving 980,000 people. Through the implementation of the "Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People", Zhejiang Province achieved four transitions in the field of poverty alleviation and development:

　　1．Poverty alleviation range: Extended from undeveloped towns to the whole province and from rural areas to cities and towns. The implementation of the "Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People" covered all the counties (cities, districts) with low-income families in the province.

　　2．Poverty alleviation targets: Extended from people in undeveloped towns to low-income rural households and the villages concentrated with low-income families, and from rural households to urban low-income families. The targets of the "Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People" were 1.11 million low-income rural households and the urban households with per capita disposable income two times lower than local urban minimum living standards, covering 2.71 million people.

　　3．Poverty reduction goals: Expanded from eliminating regional relative poverty to eliminating relative class poverty. The basic goals of the implementation of the "Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People":

　　①The basic goals of the implementation of "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households": By 2012, make the per capita net income of more than 70% of the rural low-income households (excluding those covered by the “minimum living security system”) exceed 4000 Yuan; achieve the non-agricultural employment of at least one of the family members of the low-income rural households with labor force or arrange the labors to serve featured agricultural industrialization; all the low-income rural households meeting the conditions for minimum living allowances should be covered by the minimum living security system; the rural minimum living standards for all counties (cities, districts) shall be improved to 2500 Yuan or more; basically eliminate absolute poverty; education assistance shall cover all rural low-income households medical relief shall cover all the low-income rural households with per capita income 1.5 times below the local rural minimum living standards; housing assistance shall cover all the masses in difficulties among low-income rural households; and the proportion of  rural low-income households’ per capita education and health care spending in basic living expenses shall basically reach the average level of local rural areas.

　　②The basic goals of the implementation of the "Income Growth Project of Urban Low-income Families": By 2012, make the per capita disposable income of more than 70% of the urban low-income households (excluding those covered by the “minimum living security system”) exceed four times the local urban minimum living standards in 2007; provide jobs for at least one family member of the “zero employment” households with the ability to work and employment will; education assistance shall cover all urban low-income households, medical relief shall cover all the urban low-income households with per capita disposable income 1.5 times below the local urban minimum living standards; and the proportion of urban low-income households’ per capita education and health care spending in basic living expenses shall basically reach the average level of local urban areas.

4. Approaches to poverty reduction: The main approaches to the implementation of the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households" include industrial development, employment training, downhill relocation, infrastructure construction, social assistance, promotion of regional cooperation, financial service support and social assistance. These "eight actions" fully reflect the requirements for the new rural construction and the new round of rural reform and development. The main approaches to the implementation of the “Income Growth Project of Urban Low-income Families” include support for employment and entrepreneurship, expansion of the coverage of social security and social charity care. These "three actions" aim to promote employment, improve the level of protection and promote the increase income of urban low-income families.

　　【Relocation-based poverty alleviation】  In 2008, the subsidy provided by provincial financial department for each rural household involved in downhill relocation was increased to 5600 Yuan and 149,000 people were involved in the relocation in undeveloped areas. Based on whole village relocation, the province promoted rural homestead reclamation and, since 2007, the province's new land reclamation homestead area reached 118,800 mu, of which a considerable part was the homestead reclamation area in the relocation.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】  Since 2008, the province organized trainings for 703,000 rural labors in undeveloped areas, including 235,600 low-income rural households, and transferred 258,600 people, including 101,200 low-income residents.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 By the end of 2009, the 29 counties provided support for 7985 leading enterprises (including cooperatives), covering 413,000 members, and 49 major vegetable bases of 14,000 mu, with radiating area of 294,000 mu, and the annual increased benefits exceeded 500 million Yuan; Since 2008, the provincial government provided great support for the processing with supplied materials in 29 counties and issued processing fee of 6.896 billion Yuan, and the number of the employees for processing was increased to 728,900; the government provided great support for the development of the rural households engaged in “farmers’ happiness” operations and the number of such operators was increased to 3765, the employees totaled 28,200, and the annual revenue reached 760 million Yuan, which effectively promoted the income growth.

　　【Poverty alleviation by infrastructure construction】In 2009, Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government expanded the city's leading role in rural development, accelerated the construction of rural roads, drinking water projects of millions of farmers, village renovation and rural information, promoted the equal allocation of public resources between urban and rural areas and between regions, and improved the production and living conditions of low-income rural households. Since 2008, the province newly built or rebuilt rural village road embankments and pavement of 7152 km and road network of 5515.5 km; regular buses reached 903 administrative villages with village-reaching rate of 91%; 210 rural bus passenger lines were transformed and the integration rate of urban-rural passenger transport reached 45.7%. The province continued to carry out the activities of "one hundred architectural designing units to rural areas and ten thousand designers to rural households”. The provincial government provided support for the development of plans for more than 300 villages in 21 undeveloped towns.

　　【Social assistance】 “Social assistance coverage action” was implemented in the province. At the end of 2009, a total of 698,200 people were covered by the minimum living security system. The urban minimum living allowance was 339.74 Yuan per person per month, the rural minimum living allowance was 216.3 Yuan per person per month, and the expenditure of the basic living allowance was nearly 213.3 billion Yuan in the past two years. A total of 30.35 million people participated in the new rural medical system, the participation rate was above 92% and the level of per capita funding reached 179 Yuan. All the families with annual income below 150% of the minimum living standards were covered by the medical assistance. In rural areas, the 42,989 people were covered by the “five-guarantee” system and the concentrated support rate reached 95.5%. Meanwhile, the government increased assistance for rural housing and completed the renovation of dilapidated buildings for a total of 48,800 needy families, comprehensively promoted the construction of disaster prevention projects, and invested 816 million Yuan to build more than 10,000 sites for disaster prevention and resettlement of 3.33 million affected people.

　　【Poverty alleviation through regional cooperation】  Since 2008, it has newly signed 840 contracts for aboriginal collaborative projects and provided 267.57 billion Yuan for the projects, and newly signed 108 contracts for the businesses in Zhejiang to participate in new rural construction and issued 57.33 million Yuan for the projects. Over the two years, the province has organized trainings for more than 100,000 labors and transferred employment for 102,600 people, including 25,000 trained people. The governments of developed areas and the provincial government have implemented 48 aboriginal collaborative projects in undeveloped areas and provided capital of 39.83 million Yuan.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】  From 2008 to 2009, the provincial party committee and provincial government organized 295 units to form 29 aiding teams to provide assistance for 2000 “villages concentrated with low-income households”. A total of 12415 cadres of provincial aiding units went to the villages to provide assistance. A total of 220 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds were issued and 192 million Yuan of project funds were introduced. Meanwhile, the government launched the "Care Action for the Youth from Low-income Households", established the "Maxima" medical aid fund for the youth of low-income families and organized the "Rainbow Action" – a large-scale fund-raising activity for donation of TV sets to needy people in rural areas, which raised funds of 83.516 million Yuan and donated TV sets for 152,000 needy people.

　　【Poverty alleviation measures】  In 2009, Zhejiang Province launched the “Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People” and achieved a major transition of pro-poor strategy. Meanwhile, the poverty alleviation mechanism was further innovated.

　　1．Improve the organization and leadership mechanism. Improve provincial leading group for poverty alleviation and development, enrich member units of the leading group and make clear the functions of leading group and the team member's responsibilities.

　　2．Make innovations to the poverty alleviation mechanism. Establish and improve the large-scale poverty reduction mechanism integrating "special poverty alleviation, functional poverty alleviation and social poverty reduction" under the unified leadership of Party committees and governments. The leading group of poverty alleviation and development is responsible for the organization, poverty alleviation departments are in charge of the comprehensive coordination, functional departments respectively take related responsibilities and all social forces participate in the system.

　　3．Improve the work-fulfilling mechanisms. Provincial Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development holds a meeting in April every year to sum up the work done in the previous year, make deployments for the work that year and clarify the requirements for the special poverty alleviation, functional departments’ poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation as well as the job duties of the member units that year. In accordance with the spirit of the annual meeting of the Provincial Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development, the provincial poverty alleviation office holds a series of special meetings for the directors of poverty alleviation offices of the province on functional poverty alleviation, pairing-off poverty alleviation, processing with supplied materials and relocation to implement and promote the work. The poverty alleviation offices at all levels developed three-level five-year poverty alleviation plans for 5200 villages, 514 towns and 29 counties to clarify the poverty reduction goals, tasks, policies and responsibilities, and developed annual plan to implement the program to provide references for the poverty alleviation of provincial functional departments.

　　4．Standardize the management and supervision mechanism. The government developed the “Regulations on the Management of Low-income Rural Household Development Funds”, “Regulations on the Management of Award-for-Subsidy Projects in Processing with Supplied Materials”, “Management Measures on Downhill Relocation Projects”, “Implementation Measures of Pro-poor Micro-credit”, “Implementation Measures of Poverty Relief Discount Loans”, “Guidance for the Establishment of Mutual Aid Organizations in the Villages Concentrated with Low-income Rural Households” and “Management Measures for the Second Poverty Reduction Project in Wuxijiang Reservoir Area” to strengthen the management of poverty reduction projects and funds, improve special households’ allocation system, reimbursement system and publicity system to ensure poverty relief funds all are used in accordance with relevant requirements. It also invited intermediary organs to make annual assessments on the implement of poverty relief projects.

　　5．Establish information management mechanism. It has developed poverty reduction information management system, established three database respectively for collection of information on low-income rural households, villages concentrated with low-income rural households and youth from low-income rural families, established “Zhejiang Poverty Reduction Information Network” and “Website for Villages Concentrated with Low-income Rural Households” to conduct informationization management on special poverty alleviation, functional departments’ poverty reduction and poverty relief by building twinning partnership as well as the “eight actions”, and gradually use the information management system in project declaration. Meanwhile, it improved the poverty relief statistics monitoring, made annual updates to the database of low-income rural households and the villages concentrated with low-income families, and made analysis and assessment at the same time.

　　6．Improve the assessment and incentive system. It has included the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households" into the assessment content of annual target responsibility system of governments at all levels. The provincial government makes annual evaluation on the implementation effect of the counties and checks how the five-year target task is completed at the end of each government’s term. Meanwhile, the province has strengthened the assessment on the poverty reduction and pairing-off poverty alleviation of the functional departments and included the work into the annual work objective assessment of the government at the same level. The support for state-owned enterprises and institutions is included by the annual work objective assessment system of the SASAC and the authorities, and city and county governments make annual evaluation on the implementation of “one strategy and one cadre for one household”.