Poverty Alleviation and Development in Fujian Province

　　【Overview】 In 2009, Fujian province continued to implement the rural minimum living security system and determined the minimum living standard of 1200 Yuan. A total of 777,000 people were covered by the rural minimum living security system, accounting for 3.3% of the total rural population in the province. In the whole year, a total of 594 million Yuan of minimum living allowances were issued in rural areas, averagely 67 Yuan per person per month.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】In 2009, the provincial financial department allocated nearly 300 million Yuan for poverty reduction and the financial anti-poverty funds provided by the city and county-level financial departments also rose by more than 20% over the previous year. In 2009, the credit unions in the province issued a total of 260 million Yuan of micro-credit loans to rural households and 17 national poverty alleviation leading enterprises received loans of nearly 400 million Yuan. The government supported China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation farmers to implement farmers’ self-reliance projects and increased the loan capital of 20 million Yuan. Meanwhile, it launched pilot projects of loan guarantee service for poor households in Pingnan County and increased loans of 100 million Yuan.

　　【Poverty alleviation by providing micro-credit loans】 First, continue to provide micro-credit loans for poverty reduction. The provincial financial department arranged interest subsidies of 10 million Yuan to promote credit cooperatives to issue loans of 140 million Yuan for rural households living in poverty or with difficulties in livelihood, resulting in an increase of more than 100 million Yuan in the income of the masses; Secondly, promote the construction of pilot projects for village-level development mutual funds. The province launched pilot projects in 52 villages of 8 counties, covering 2,610 households, and issued 11.14 million Yuan to support more than 1,400 poor households to develop production, resulting in average increase of more than 3,000 Yuan for each household; Thirdly, promote the construction of pilot projects for micro-credit loan guarantee services. The government launched pilot projects of micro-credit loan promotion association for poverty reduction in Pingnan County to explore micro-credit loan guarantee system for rural households; in 2009, more than 12 million Yuan of loans were issued to middle and low-income rural households and 700 rural households in 35 poor villages of 6 towns received loans; Fourthly, based on the NGO management mode, the government launched self-reliance projects of rural households in Fu’an and Xiapu County jointly with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. In 2009, 12,088 loans valued 55 million Yuan were issued to the two counties to support 9,652 rural households. The repayment rate reached 100%.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】 As of 2009, the government identified 436 key provincial villages, 558 city-level key villages and 2,725 county-level villages for poverty alleviation and development, of which 70% were old revolutionary base villages.

　　In 2009, it continued the second round of entire village advancement and the 2,242 provincial, city and county-level key villages can all complete the task of entire village advancement. By the end of 2009, the government issued 594 million Yuan for the 228 provincial key villages to support the projects related to water, electricity, road, medical, health and technology in the poor villages, which promoted the comprehensive economic and social development in the key villages.

　　【Poverty alleviation by relocation】 The Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government has, for 16 consecutive years, included projects for the benefits of the poor (mainly poverty alleviation by relocation) into practical projects for the masses, further increased support and enhanced the standard of subsidy to 2,500 Yuan per person. For the masses in old revolutionary base areas and ethnic minority areas, the government provided additional subsidies for the livelihood, and the Forestry Bureaus, Construction Commission, Land Bureau, the National Religious Committee and National Development and Reform Commission provided preferential relocation policies, provincial financial department and related sectors arranged more than 3 million Yuan of special funds for the infrastructure construction in the migration zones. In 2009, more than 2.5 billion Yuan of public welfare project funds was invested, 76,000 people were relocated and 413 residence spots were constructed.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】 The province practiced the system of “one training for one households and one employment for one family”. The provincial financial department arranged 40 million Yuan of funds to organized special trainings for those covered by the minimum living security system and the poor people with the ability to work, aiming to increase employment opportunities and better serve them. In 2009, a total of 33,000 rural poor labors received trainings, of which 28,000 labors were transferred after receiving trainings.

　　【Pilot projects for convergence of the two systems】  In 2009, the province carried out pilot projects for convergence between poverty alleviation and development and rural minimum living security system and promoted the construction of pilot projects from many aspects such as poverty line determination, poverty relief target identification, poor households’ information collection, registration and filing, and the development and implementation of pro-poor policies for households. In the 214 administration villages of 17 towns, a total of 5,726 rural poor households were identified, covering 23,550 people. Meanwhile, the government established electronic files for the poor and put forward seven pro-poor policies based on the causes of poverty, including “one policy for one family”, etc.

　　【Research on poverty line】  In 2009, the poverty alleviation office and the provincial statistic bureau investigation team jointly carried out the research on the poverty line of Fujian Province in the new era and initially calculated the proportion and number of the rural low-income people in the province, analyzed the causes of poverty and proposed the poverty line for rural areas in the new era based on the poverty lines of other provinces especially the eastern developed provinces in China.

　　【university student village official】  In 2009, 100 university students were arranged to participate in the fixed-pointed poverty alleviation as part of the “Three Supports and One Assistance” in Fujian Province. They mainly went to support 81 poor towns in 20 undeveloped counties. The Provincial Party Committee Organization Department sent 945 college students to poor villages for practice.

　　【Fujian – Ningxia Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation】 With the high attention from both governments of Fujian and Ningxia, the 13th Joint Meeting of the 2 province was held. Based on the poverty reduction program approved by the meeting, the governments implemented the measures for two provinces to learn from and support each other in poverty reduction, promoted poverty reduction by science and technology advancement, developed Juncao industry and constructed Juncao demonstration projects in three counties, namely Yongning, Yanchi and Haiyuan of Ningxia; sent the sixth batch of 18 cadres to work in 8 national key counties in the southern mountain areas of Ningxia and keep abreast of their current work.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】  In 2009, through cooperating with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, the provincial “two committees” for poverty alleviation, democratic parties and social organizations, the provincial poverty alleviation office carried out various forms of social poverty reduction activities, supported the provincial family planning association and women's federations to organize family planning micro-credit loan and Heroine microfinance loan projects, continued to implement the "Making Pregnancy Safer 120" Project, supported Zhenghe, Pingnan, Changting, Liancheng, Shanghang, Yongding and Wuping County to implement the "Making Pregnancy Safer 120" Project and carried out a series of health care delivery, medicine delivery and helping poor students activities.

　　【Poverty alleviation measures】  1．Make a breakthrough in the welfare project for the poor. First, promote the concentrated resettlement, large-scale resettlement and relocation of entire villages. Among the 60,000 people involved in relocation program, 43,056 were covered by the concentrated resettlement, accounting for 71.7% of the total. 413 residence spots were constructed, including 119 large-scale residence areas for at least 100 households; and 331 natural villages were relocated, including 94 with more than 30 households. Secondly, increase investment to public welfare projects through various channels. A financial subsidy-oriented off-site relocation mechanism with public inputs as the core, fund integrated by relevant departments and great support from social forces has been gradually established. According to incomplete statistics of 50 counties, in 2009, 2.118 billion Yuan was invested in off-site relocation, of which 196 million Yuan was from the provincial financial departments, 59 million Yuan from the city and county financial departments and 1.742 billion Yuan from countryside and farmers. The welfare project for the poor became an important channel and a highlight to expand rural demands. Thirdly, increase efforts for the integration of funds for infrastructure construction in the concentrated resettlement spots of public welfare projects for the poor. More than 33 million Yuan was raised from the Provincial Agriculture Office, Communications Department, Development and Reform Commission, National Land Agency, Department of Construction and the Old Revolutionary Base Office and more than 20 million Yuan were issued by city and county-level financial departments to support the infrastructure construction of the welfare projects to benefit the poor. Especially the 54 provincial demonstration zones for the welfare projects to benefit the poor have played a good leading role in the project construction.

　　2．Explore a new model for loans to poor households. First, micro-credit promotion association pilot projects were launched in Pingnan County, mainly covering the establishment of guaranteed and venture capital. Through cadres’ guarantee, forest right mortgage, assessment of the orchard, the introduction of guarantee agencies and other means, we built a relatively complete system for loan guarantees to farmers, to eliminate the "worries" of financial agencies in providing loans for poor households. Meanwhile, the government explored the establishment of a convenient and effective information service platform to provide follow-up services for poor households. Secondly, support NGOs to participate in micro-credit program for the poor. Through cooperating with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, we launched micro-credit loan projects for farmers' self-reliance projects in Fu'an and Xiapu County. Specific measure: invest 5 million Yuan for free in each county of Fujian Province for rolling use and entrust China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to manage the funds. Adhering to the principle of non-profit and supporting the poor farmers, implement the micro-credit loan program for rural households.

　　3．Continue to enhance the level of entire village advancement. In each provincial key village for poverty alleviation and development, first, pairing-off poverty alleviation was carried out. Each provincial directly administrated unit must establish the pairing-off poverty reduction work system and the government selected one of them for each poor village; Secondly, bundle up the funds. 15 relevant provincial departments raise more than 40 million Yuan for the construction of provincial key villages. The funds for key villages are part of the aiding units’ annual budgets and are under unified management and are issued based on the decided amount of investment. The funds are all issued by the government, breaking the restriction of "unified channels and unified use". Thirdly, send cadres to give instruction. The Provincial Party Committee Organization Department sent a provincial cadre to act as the first party secretary of the village for three years, separated from the former unit. The cadre lived in the village and the relevant expenditure is paid by the department he serves with, not increasing burden on grassroots government and local farmers. According to incomplete statistics, in 2009, 582 department and bureau-level leaders and 1,056 division-level (and below) organ cadres conducted surveys and researches in the key villages. The key villages received anti-poverty funds of 180 million Yuan in total, including bundled funds of 40 million Yuan. The aiding units and the units that sent cadres invested in 140 million Yuan to support the key villages, averagely 800,000 Yuan or so for each village.

　　4．Establish and improve a long-term mechanism for cooperation between Fujian and Ningxia. Explore effective approaches to the pairing-off cooperation in poverty alleviation, forming a poverty reduction mechanism for the combination of government, enterprises and social forces. First, hold joint meetings. Each year, the two provinces hold joint meetings in turn on the poverty alleviation by cooperation between the two provinces, participated by major leaders, issue annual "minutes of meeting" and determine aiding projects and measures. Secondly, build partnership at various levels. Fujian Province has established a leading group for the support for Ningxia and the Provincial Party Committee’s division chief acts as the team leader. Under the leading group, it has set up an Office for Helping Ningxia to take charge of routine work. More than 30 provincial departments have been assigned relevant tasks in the program and the helping contents are clarified every year. Eight coastal economically developed counties and districts of Fujian Province are responsible for supporting eight counties in the southern mountain areas of Ningxia. Thirdly, implement the cadre attachment system. The government formulated the "Provisional Measures of Fujian Province on the Management of the Cadres Involved in Counterpart Support", which clearly states that the government must give the same treatment to the cadres involved in counterpart support in poverty alleviation and the cadres sent to support Xinjiang, and makes clear the regulations on the cadre selection, management, service and use to ensure the counterpart support can be smoothly provided for Ningxia.