Poverty Alleviation and Development in Jiangxi Province

　　【Overview】  Covering an area of 166,900 square kilometers, with a population of 44 million, Jiangxi Province has 11 cities, 99 counties (cities, districts) and 21 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development. 75% of the towns in Jiangxi are old revolutionary base towns and 84% of the counties (cities, districts) have old revolutionary bases.

　　In 2009, the effectiveness of the province's poverty alleviation and development was mainly embodied in the five “basic trends” of the development of impoverished areas and poor people.

　　1．Basic trend of continuous income growth: The per capita income in the key villages for poverty alleviation and development reached 2357 Yuan, 11% up over 2008; and the per capita income in the 21 key counties reached 2649 Yuan, 9% up over 2008, 1 percentage point higher than the provincial average. Based on the state’s new poverty line, the rural poor in the province decreased to 1.259 million, accounting for 3.8% of the total rural residents, 66,000 less than that in 2008, down 0.2%.

　　2．Basic trend of continuous improvement of infrastructure: In 2009, the government supported 9071 infrastructure projects, built roads of 23,000 kilometers for key villages and immigrant resettlement areas, 2308 ponds and reservoirs, 714 bridges and 511 drainage and irrigation stations, dug 10071 biogas digesters, solved the drinking water problem of 244,500 people and further improved the basic production and living conditions.

　　3．Basic trend of booming of leading industries: In 2009, the government supported 2983 leading industrial projects, directly supported 440,000 rural households and 1.84 million people, added planting area of 113,200 mu for fruit, tea, mulberry, tobacco, medicine, etc, raised 5.953 million pigs, poultries and livestock, developed fish, shrimp and other special aquaculture area of more than 70,000 mu; and supported key villages to plant trees of 26,000 mu according to the overall deployment of "one major and four small" for afforestation.

　　4．Basic trend of gradual improvement of public welfare: New rural construction was carried out in key villages and immigrant resettlement areas. The province constructed a total of 4473 public welfare projects, newly built and repaired a total of 555 schools, 705 health centers and 355 cultural centers; cleaned 200,000 tons of rubbish, 28,000 sewage ditches and more than 10,000 roadblocks, updated village roads of 8,000 kilometers, improved 16,000 water supply projects and more than 50,000 toilets, and constructed 234 reservoir areas and model villages for resettlement of immigrants.

　　5．Basic trend of further development of social poverty alleviation: In 2009, the government raised and integrated industrial funds for rural road, safe drinking water, health care, radio and television, renovation of dilapidated buildings, rural power grids, school building, cultural venues, skills training, biogas projects, land rehabilitation, afforestation, ecological protection, irrigation, comprehensive agricultural development and the new rural construction, and the anti-poverty funds and materials from the units at all levels involved in fixed-point poverty alleviation, the non-public economic organizations supporting poverty reduction and all circles of society, valued more than 800 million Yuan, double the figure in 2008 and exceeding the total special anti-poverty funds of the whole province in 2009.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】   1．Matching funds for poverty alleviation: In 2009, a total of nearly 700 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was invested in the province, 15.95% up over 2008, of which 214.32 million Yuan was the matching funds of governments at all levels, accounting for 52.17% of the figure planned by the state for Jiangxi to allocate, and 44.69% of the figure required by the state for Jiangxi to allocate. Among the matching funds of governments at all levels, 123.60 million Yuan was from provincial government, 9.72% up over 2008; 52.86 million Yuan was from city government, up 7.4%; and 37.86 million Yuan was from county government, up 10.65%.

　　2．Poverty relief credit funds: In 2009, the provincial government arranged 20.50 million Yuan of poverty relief loan interest subsidies to support the issuance of 543 million Yan of credit loans and guide financial agencies to issue 1.53 billion Yuan of poverty relief loans, 32.6% up over 2008, of which 1.1 billion Yuan was poverty relief project loans and 430 million Yuan was loans for households. At the same time, the government comprehensively strengthened the performance management and organized the cities and counties to carry out carry out cross-evaluation. In 2009, Jiangxi was among the Four A-grade Provinces with the Best Poverty Relief Performance in China.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】 The province put a lot of efforts on the entire village advancement projects in 3069 key villages during the 11th Five-Year Plan period and raised 226 million Yuan to support the entire village advancement of 2,279 key “three guarantee” villages of 21 key counties in old revolutionary base areas; spent central lottery funds of 42.5 million Yuan to support the pilot entire village advancement projects in 30 key “three guarantee” villages in Ji’an and Yugan County, involving 310 projects, and 67.46 million Yuan of the funds were put in; increased efforts for supporting fixed-point poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and business poverty reduction to integrate resources of various channels to support the entire village advancement of the “three guarantee” villages.

　　【Poverty alleviation by relocation】  In accordance with the assigned task of relocation of 50,000 people for poverty reduction and the relief standard of 3,500 Yuan per capita, the provincial government allocated 150 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for relocation and the city and county-level governments issued 25 million Yuan of matching funds to support the relocation of 11,725 households and 53,408 people, 6.8% beyond annual plan. The NDRC’s arrangement of biological relocation of 3,373 people and work-relief relocation of 7,280 people were included in the 2009 relocation-based poverty alleviation plan and the government arranged more than 20 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the infrastructure construction in the resettlement areas.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 Poverty relief loan interest subsidies were issued to support 180 industrial poverty reduction projects, which promoted the development of more than 40,000 poor households. “Mutual Funds” pilot projects were launched in all the key counties and a total of 29.75 million Yuan of funds was arranged to support the establishment of 190 village-level mutual funds, covering more than 9,800 poor rural households. The contiguous development pilot project in Ningdu County was further promoted, the pilot area was expanded to Yudu and Le’an County and 39.50 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds was provided for the pilot project. Through giving full play to the leading role of 20 national poverty alleviation leading enterprises and 100 provincial poverty alleviation leading enterprises, it has increased the income of more than 80,000 households, with average income growth of more than 180 Yuan for each family.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】  33 million Yuan of funds was arranged for transfer training and poverty reduction by technology advancement and the training subsidy standards were improved. Through combining the “Rain Plan” with the development needs of the provincial industrial parks and the development of local competitive industries, the province further promoted the transfer employment and entrepreneurial skills training of migrant workers; helped 4,061 children from poor families to receive vocational technical training and linked it with the financial aid system for “two kinds of backward students”; continued to implement the "Rain Plan" projects in villages. In 2009, the province organized “Rain Plan" trainings for 41,757 people, accounting for 104.58% of the total according to the annual plan, including 25,047 poor young labors, and the employment rate reached 96.61%. Meanwhile, the government organized practical skills and part-time agricultural trainings for 122,064 people and supported and implemented a number of demonstration and promotion projects for poverty alleviation by science and technology.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】  In 2009, the provincial social poverty alleviation experience exchange meeting was held in Jiangxi. The poverty alleviation office and the organization department jointly promoted the fixed-point poverty alleviation themed "Getting Rich under the Party Leadership and jointly Building the New Countryside". A total of 1,937 units at all levels participated in the fixed-point poverty reduction in poverty-stricken villages, of which 248 were the units directly under the administration of the central or provincial government. 1,757 state-owned enterprises and private businesses were organized to carry out “village-business cooperation” and “glory career” activity in impoverished areas; 87,000 party members and cadres were arranged to help 95,700 poor families; 2,749 university graduates were sent to poor rural areas to act as the “village officers” for the “three support and one assistance” program; 5 million Yuan of social donations were raised to support the public welfare and poor teachers and students in impoverished areas; “Love package” donation activity was organized and raised 2.4346 million Yuan in total, which was awarded “Outstanding Contribution Award” by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. At the same time, the province promoted industrial poverty alleviation, foreign-funded poverty reduction and social donation work, and came to agreement with the Political Department of Jiangxi Military Region on the opinions on the arrangements for the troops above regimental level (including the regimental level) in Jiangxi to carry out fixed-point poverty alleviation.

　　【Poverty alleviation measures】  1．Strengthen leadership and strive for the support of all levels of party committees and governments for poverty alleviation and development. We strived to drive the provincial party committee and provincial government to continuously include poverty alleviation and development into the province’s livelihood projects, and strived to get five targets of “Advanced Counties in Poverty Reduction” from the 35 praised provincial “Advanced Counties in Agricultural and Rural Work”, especially put efforts on drawing the high attention and care of major leaders of the provincial government.

　　2．Understand the situation and take the initiative in anti-poverty work. Based on the new situation and new task of anti-poverty work in the new era, we made comparison and reflection according to the scientific development concept, summed up the basic experience in the past and found out and analyzed the problems and gaps, providing a reference for improving the targeted anti-poverty work and relocation in the new era.

　　3．Clarify ideas and always adhere to the right direction of poverty alleviation and development. Based on the in-depth investigation, we identified five basic directions for further promoting the scientific development of poverty reduction in the province at the new stage and made deployments the four work priorities and ten specific tasks for 2009, laying a good foundation for achieving the overall, coordinated and sustained development of poverty reduction and clarifying work ideas.

　　4．Stir thoughts to promote the scientific development of poverty alleviation and development work. We implemented the strategy and policy system for the poverty reduction and development at the new stage, put forward five major issues and organized large-scale researches in the province, resulting in a new round of ideological emancipation. Meanwhile, through combining the forces of poverty alleviation system, we strived to explore a way of scientific development of the poverty alleviation and development at the new stage.

　　5．Focus on implementation to ensure the poverty reduction will benefit impoverished areas and poor people. The province adjusted and improved the poverty relief targets, project planning and work priorities of the poverty alleviation and development at the new stage, based on the steady progress in the implementation of "office efficiency" campaign, further improved the work system and mechanism, clarified objectives and responsibilities and strengthened the demonstration, guidance, supervision and evaluation work.

　　6．Find a suitable position to consciously serve the overall development of the province. We actively integrated into the province's overall poverty alleviation and development and, based on the major decision and plan of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government for the construction of Poyang Lake Ecological Economic Zone, proposed to explore ideas and measures for developing the models for biological poverty reduction in the special poor areas of Poyang Lake basin to promote the construction of a “Green Biological Jiangxi”.

　　7．Create a good atmosphere for poverty alleviation and development. The province has done a good job in propaganda based on the overall deployments and work priorities of poverty alleviation and development, strived to find out models in grassroots and practice and the working experience with Jiangxi characteristics; comprehensive strengthened the development of websites, briefings and “The Construction of the Old Revolutionary Area” for poverty alleviation and development; strengthened cooperation with national and provincial major media to regularly organize propaganda for poverty reduction; and combined publicity with field research to publicize the research achievements.