Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hubei Province

　　【Overview】 Hubei is one of the key provinces for poverty alleviation and development and the construction of old revolutionary base areas. It has 29 poor counties (cities), 100 poor towns and 1,000 impoverished villages.

　　In 2009, Hubei Province made the following major achievements in rural poverty reduction: First, it solved the food and clothing problem of 400,000 poor people and lifted them out of poverty, 2.8 percentage points higher than the planned figure, and the number of the registered poor was reduced from 6.7096 million to 6.3096 million. Secondly, the rural per capita net income in 29 key poor counties was 2988 Yuan, 239 Yuan more and 8.69% up over 2008. Thirdly, entire village advancement projects were launched in 1376 poor villages and 70% of the task assigned for two years was completed that year. Fourthly, 10,394 households and 41,576 people were relocated for poverty reduction, respectively 3.9 percentage points higher than the planned figure. Fifthly, 54,715 poor labors received the “Rain Plan” labor transfer trainings, 9.4% higher than the planned figure, and the transferred employment rate reached 97.4%. Sixthly, it speeded up the construction of key old revolutionary base zone. In 2009, the rural per capita net income in the project areas was 757 Yuan more than that in 2008, reaching 3857.6 Yuan, and the production and living conditions were further improved. LGOP and the Ministry of Finance made assessment on the effect of the use of financial anti-poverty funds. Hubei was titled as Grade-A province and awarded financial anti-poverty funds of 10 million Yuan.

　　【Review of poverty alleviation】  Hubei Province's poverty alleviation work has undergone four stages:

　　First stage: Institutional reform promoted large-scale poverty reduction (1978 ~ 1985). In 1978, based on the national poverty line, in Hubei Province, 11.72 million poor people still had no adequate food and clothing in rural areas, accounting for 30% of the province's agricultural population. In 1985, the number of rural poor in Hubei was reduced to 7.18 million.

　　Second stage: Poverty alleviation by regional development（1986～1993）. During this period, Hubei Province successively identified a total of 38 poor mountain counties, of which 25 counties in four mountain areas were included in the 18 key mountain areas supported by the state, and 13 counties were provincial key counties for poverty reduction. By the end of 1993, the number of the province's rural poor dropped from 7.18 million to 3.94 million.

　　Third stage: "Seven-year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program" period（1994～2000）. Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government included all the 38 poor counties in mountain areas into the "Seven-year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program", and identified 12 poor counties for "Seven-year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program" in the province as well as “hundreds of towns and villages” in poverty-stricken regions for special support. As of the end of 2009, 5 poverty-stricken counties in the province achieved the goal of "Seven-year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program" one year ahead of schedule and the number of poor people in the province was reduced from 3.94 million at the end of 1993 to 500,000 by the end of 2000. Hubei achieved the goal of "Seven-year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program".

　　Fourth stage: Poverty alleviation and development at the new stage（2001～2010）.  In 2001, 25 counties in Hubei were listed among national key counties for poverty alleviation and development and 8,614 poor villages were identified. In 2009, based on the new national poverty line, as of the end of 2008, there were a total of 10.3001 million registered “two-category people” in Hubei Province, of which 6.7096 million had annual per capita income below 1,196 Yuan and 3.5905 million had annual per capita income between 1,197 and 1,500 Yuan, respectively accounting for 16.69% and 8.93% of the total rural population of the province.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2009, a total of 648 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued in Hubei Province, hitting a record high, of which 497 million Yuan was from the central government, 122 million Yuan more than that in 2008, 151 million Yuan was provincial matching funds, 173 million Yuan was the work-relief funds of central government applied by the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, 40 million Yuan was anti-poverty funds for relocation-based poverty alleviation and 55 million Yuan was for work-relief demonstration projects. All the funds were used in the infrastructure construction and industrial development in impoverished areas and more than 80% was used for the entire village advancement of key poor counties.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】  According to incomplete statistics, in 2009, 397 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was put in the entire village advancement in the “three guarantee” villages, and 964 million Yuan was integrated for the construction of 5504 projects, averagely 989,000 Yuan for each village. There was a reduction of 47,000 in poor families and 181,000 in poor people. The rural per capita net income reached 2697 Yuan, 665 Yuan more than that before the project construction.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】  In 2009, Hubei Province allocated “Rain Plan” training subsidies of 40 million Yuan, averagely 800 Yuan for each. 100 “Rain Plan” training bases undertook the training task that year and signed poor labor training transfer contracts, practicing the contract system. At the same time, the activity of “connecting a hundred schools with a hundred enterprises” was carried out in Hubei Province and 93 training bases and 516 enterprises were involved in. 34,096 people received order trainings and 25,537 “Rain Plan” trainees got jobs, accounting for 41.1% of the total. A total of 2,686 grassroots cadres received trainings that year, including 2,121 party secretaries in the poor villages involved in entire village advancement. Meanwhile, 100 university graduates were arranged to support the grassroots poverty alleviation for “three supports and one aid”.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 In 2009, apart from the central governments’ interest subsidies of 11.25 million Yuan, Hebei Provincial government allocated matching funds of 30 million Yuan, and a total of 1.37 billion Yuan of interest subsidies was issued that year, 613 million Yuan more than that in 2008, to support 44 leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, featured backbone industries, farming and breeding industry of poor rural households and rural economic cooperative organizations. In the poor villages with leading enterprises, featured industrial bases of 1.2 million mu were built or improved, covering more than 400,000 rural families, and the per capita income growth was more than 200 Yuan. Pilot poverty relief mutual fund projects were launched in 64 poor villages of 15 key counties in the province. 8122 rural households participated in the “mutual society”, 10.90 million Yuan of mutual funds was issued and 4,283 member rural households borrowed money from it. Loan discount of 11.25 million Yuan was issued for poor households to support 12,700 rural families, averagely 1,782 Yuan per household. The repayment rate that year was 94% and the per capital income growth exceeded 300 Yuan.

　　【Poverty relief relocation】  After completing the first round of relocation of 52,500 households and 210,000 people, in 2009, the provincial government started the second round of poverty alleviation by relocation in the province and raised the subsidy standard from 1,500 Yuan per person to 2,000 Yuan per person. The provincial financial department arranged anti-poverty funds of 60 million for relocation that year, of which 20 million Yuan was financial budget funds, 15 million was financial anti-poverty funds, 20 million was work-relief funds and 5 million was nationality development funds.

　　【Construction of old revolutionary base areas】 First, the province completed the entire village advancement inspection and acceptance of the key villages in 303 old revolutionary base areas and 27 “revolutionary central areas”. 100% of the funds were issued and 100% of the projects were implemented. Meanwhile, the province launched entire village advancement projects in 1583 key villages in the old revolutionary base areas in 2009 and issued 97.5 million Yuan of old revolutionary base construction funds. According to the survey, 90% of the task was completed that year. Secondly, the province increased support for old revolutionary base areas. In 2009, the provincial financial funds for the 27 towns in the “central district” of the old revolutionary base areas rose from 100,000 Yuan to 300,000 Yuan. 37 projects were launched and 8.1 million Yuan of supporting funds were issued that year. The provincial directly affiliated departments invested 10.61 million Yuan in the construction of old revolutionary base areas. Plus the fund allocated by the central government, in 2009, a total of 116.21 million Yuan was put in the construction of old revolutionary base areas in the province. Thirdly, we strived for funds of 42.5 million Yuan to support the entire village advancement pilot projects in the old revolutionary base areas with lottery welfare funds in Yangxin County and Macheng City to explore ways of multi-channel support for the construction of old revolutionary base areas. Fourthly, the government increased propaganda on old revolutionary base areas. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government organized media to carry out the publicity activity with the theme of "travelling in the old revolutionary base areas”. On September 30, 2009, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government had “A letter of Greeting to All the People in the Old Revolutionary Base Areas of the Province” printed in Hubei Daily.

　　【Pilot projects to lift people out of poverty for moderate prosperity】 Based on the successful experience of Xianhong in the pilot new rural construction projects, Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government decided, since 2009, to arrange 70 million Yuan per year for the construction of pilot projects to lift people out of poverty for moderate prosperity in seven poor counties in mountain areas, namely Baokang, Wufeng, Danjiangkou, Dawu, Yingshan, Tongshan and Hefeng, which is under the responsibility of 33 provincial directly administrated department headed by seven standing members of the Provincial Party Committee. Obvious changes must take place within three years, and the demonstration counties for shaking off poverty and getting rich and advanced counties for new rural construction in mountain areas must be established within five years to lay a solid foundation for building a comprehensively well-off society. Last year, 8.99 billion Yuan was actually invested in the construction of key projects, while the planned investment was 11.87 billion Yuan. According to statistics, in 2009, the GDP of the 7 key pilot counties reached 27.776 billion Yuan, 14.5% up over 2008; industrial value added was 7.773 billion Yuan, 12.9% up over 2008; financial revenue amounted to 2.555 billion Yuan, 21% up over 2008; rural per capital net income reached 3462 Yuan, 10.4% up over 2008; and the number of poor residents was 637,100 at the yearend, 60,400 less than that in 2008, with a decrease of 8.7%.

　　【Pilot contiguous development projects】  Based on the pilot contiguous development projects in Dawu, Jianshi and Hong’an County with investment of 29.5 million Yuan, in 2009, the government put in 20 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to construct pilot projects for contiguous development in Zhushan County and Enshi City to explore new ways for the combination of entire village advancement and regional development.

　　【Pilot projects for poverty alleviation by science and technology】 In 2009, for the first time, the province got 2.5 million Yuan of funds for poverty alleviation by science and technology from the state and it used the funds in the pilot projects in Yun County and Changyang County for poverty reduction by technology.

　　【Pilot projects for the convergence between poverty alleviation and development and the minimum living security system】  In 2009, the pilot projects for the convergence between poverty alleviation and development and the minimum living security system were launched in Xiaochang and Luotian County. On this basis, the government started data filing for “two kinds of poor people” in the whole province.

　　【Pilot program of mutual funds】 In 2009, 9 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds were allocated to construct pilot projects of mutual funds in 60 poor villages in Hubei Province with the purpose of exploring solutions to the difficulties of poor villages and poor families in getting loans.

　　【Scattered poverty alleviation】 The flooded reservoir areas, low-lying lake area, flood flowing districts, flood areas, schistosomiasis epidemic areas and remote mountain areas outside the 29 key poverty-stricken counties and cities are the scattered poverty-stricken regions in Hubei Province. In order to highlight key points, the provincial government identifies 300 key poor villages from the “hundreds of towns and villages” every year and arranges financial anti-poverty funds for the entire village advancement in these villages. Meanwhile, the local governments of these scattered poverty-stricken cities, counties (districts) constantly increased the matching funds, organized the party organs, enterprises, units and social groups to participate in the poverty alleviation and development. By 2009, 1,200 villages had completed the construction of entire village advancement projects and 157,300 poor people successively received adequate food and clothing and shook off poverty.

　　【Industrial poverty alleviation】  In 2009, according to the requirements of “giving full play to the role of industries in poverty alleviation” put forward by No.1 Document of the central government, the provincial directly administrated departments gave full play to the advantages of various departments and all increased support for the industrial poverty reduction in poor areas.

　　1．Support infrastructure construction. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the Provincial Department of Transportation built village-level asphalt (cement) roads of 23,900 kilometers in 29 key poverty-stricken counties and 80% of the administrative villages had access to asphalt roads and cement roads. Meanwhile, according to the principle of "policy guidance, multi-channel financing", it raises funds to support the construction of rural roads in the old revolutionary base zones every year. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the Provincial Department of Water Resources arranged 1 or 2 water infrastructure projects for each poor county and the investment in irrigation infrastructure construction was 10% higher than that in other areas. In 2009, the central government increased investment of 240 million Yuan for safe drinking water projects in the province, of which 197 million Yuan was used in poverty-stricken areas. Hubei Province State Land and Resources Department increased investment in poverty alleviation and development from many aspects such as land development and management, low hilly land reform and basic farmland projects. In 2009, it invested 507 million Yuan for the key project construction in the poor ethnic counties and 7 pilot counties for shaking off poverty for moderate prosperity. The Provincial Power Grid Company implemented the fourth batch of 60 poverty relief projects with total investment of 71.03 million Yuan to expand electricity coverage in poor rural areas, improve drinking water conditions and build roads in mountainous areas. The Provincial Department of Housing and Urban Construction actively promoted the construction of pilot counties for shaking off poverty for moderate prosperity and launched the entire village renovation in 459 villages; arranged the renovation of dilapidated buildings for 23,600 rural poor families in 25 key counties with subsidies of 118 million Yuan, averagely 5,000 Yuan for each family.

　　2．Support the improvement of basic living conditions. The Provincial Health Department raises funds for the medical poverty reduction in old revolutionary base areas every year to improve the subsidy standard for farmers to participate in cooperative medical system in poor counties, aiming to establish a standardized county hospital and town clinic in each poor county and each administrative town and one qualified medical room in each administrative village by 2011. Hubei Provincial Population and Family Planning Commission implemented incentives policy for rural family planning. The proportion of the financial burden on the provincial government for the family planning in poor counties is 20% higher than that for other counties; and the proportion of transfer payment for family planning fees in poor counties is 20% higher than that in other counties. Hubei Provincial Department of Civil Affairs is responsible for the data filing of the “two kinds of poor people” and the convergence between the rural minimum living security system and poverty alleviation and development. In 2009, the targets of the rural minimum living security system increased from 1.4 million to 1.725 million. It provided more than 25 million Yuan for the poor areas in old revolutionary base areas to address the living, health, housing and other practical difficulties of more than 3,500 targets of preferential treatment. Hubei Disabled Persons' Federation established 100 poverty alleviation demonstration bases and lifted more than 13,000 disabled people out of poverty through providing recovery poverty relief discount loans. Meanwhile, it renovated many dilapidated buildings for rural poor people with disabilities. The central, provincial and municipal governments provided a total of 5000 Yuan subsidy for each family. 8,400 dilapidated buildings were renovated, which benefited 13,440 poor people with disabilities.

　　3．Support poor people to improve the basic quality. Hubei Provincial Department of Education has applied for nearly 100 million Yuan for the school relocation and rebuilding in the four reservoir area counties, carried out pairing-off poverty reduction among the students in more than 70 universities and aided 175,000 students from poor families, with subsidies of more than 35 million Yuan. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, Hubei Province Federation of Trade Unions organized donations for poor areas in the disaster-hit regions and raised more than 10 million Yuan, and it trained more than 5,000 migrant workers as well. It invested 3.65 million Yuan for the poor farmer trainings and county labor union’s infrastructure construction in Shi’en County, which build partnership with it in the poverty reduction. The Provincial Youth League Committee implemented “Project Hope” and raised 40 million Yuan to help 10,000 students and built 37 Hope primary schools. The Provincial Bureau of Sports invested Sports Lottery Funds of 32.5 million Yuan for the "Snow carbon project" construction in the province's poverty-stricken areas. The Provincial Bureau of Radio, Film and Television strived to basically achieve, by 2010, the goal of one movie per month for each village in poor areas, and will strive to complete the universal access of radio and TV program in more than 20 natural villages. The Provincial Department of Culture gave priority to poor areas and invested 149.74 million Yuan of special funds. It developed pairing-off poverty alleviation plan and has issued 5.3178 million Yuan of project funds. The Provincial Department of Commerce and the Provincial Department of Education recruited more than 7000 people from impoverished areas for seaman dispatch trainings. The minimum monthly income of ordinary seamen is $ 500 and the monthly income of senior seamen is more than $1200. The Provincial Women's Federation launched "thousands of heroine domestic workers training project" and trained more than 90,000 domestic workers for 10 old and new border counties and districts. More than 85% of the trainees got jobs. At the same time, it carried out the “Caring Action for Poor Single Mother” and coordinated with the provincial poverty alleviation office to include the 224 poor single mothers into the provincial poverty alleviation and relocation program that year. The Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security participated in the recognition and awarding activities of "Top Ten Enterprises and Top Ten Individuals with Outstanding Contributions to Poverty Alleviation in the Province", constantly increased personnel support for remote areas under arduous conditions, helped to train 106,000 rural labors and transfer 107,000 employments for the key poverty-stricken counties and the reservoir and dam areas in the Three Gorges and the South-to-north Water Transfer Project in the province.

　　4．Support the construction of basic industry. The Provincial Department of Agriculture supported the construction of special areas in impoverished regions. In 2009, it issued 1.35 billion Yuan for the poverty reduction projects in 7 pilot counties for poverty shaking off and moderate prosperity, 10 poor minority counties and cities and 29 key poor counties and cities to increase the income of poor farmers. The Provincial Forestry Bureau gave priority to poverty-stricken areas in natural forest protection, returning farmland to forest, Yangtze River protection forest, forestry ecological programs for schistosomiasis prevention and collectively-owned forestry ownership reform, etc. In 2009, it invested 108.52 million Yuan for 7 pilot counties of shaking off poverty for moderate prosperity. The arrangements of Provincial Environmental Protection Department for financial aid and project construction in poor old revolutionary base areas in the province were above the provincial average. In 2009, it strived for 7.2 million Yuan of funds from the central government and arranged more than two projects for each pilot county of shaking off poverty for moderate prosperity, and 10.20 million Yuan was invested to support the poverty alleviation and development in Dabieshan, Lichuan City and Yingshan County. The Provincial Department of Technology implemented Dabieshan Project of Getting Rich by Technology. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, it introduced more than 40 foreign-funded enterprises to invest in Dabieshan to promote the development of local private enterprises. Through poverty alleviation and development by technology, it mobilized 60% of local rural households and 40% of the rural labors to create more than 60% of the rural revenue. The Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission issues 5 million Yuan of ethnic development funds every year to support the poverty alleviation relocation of minority areas. It organized and implemented “616” pairing-off support project and “1+1” twinning poverty reduction projects. In 2009, it launched more than 100 twinning helping projects in 10 poor ethnic counties including Enshi and Yichang, and 12 ethnic towns with investment of 28 million Yuan.

　　5．Support the foundation work of poverty alleviation. The Provincial Policy Research Office organized special working groups to conduct field research on poverty reduction in mountain areas, reservoir areas and old revolutionary base areas, and constantly provided decision-making reference and guidance opinions for the poverty alleviation and development. The Provincial Bureau of Statistics strengthened the infrastructure construction in statistical system in poor areas, established rural emergency survey network and took advantage of information resources to support poverty alleviation and development. The National Bureau of Statistics Hubei Investigation Corps established in the province 2,950 household poverty monitoring spots in 29 counties (cities) of the province and makes research and deployments on the poverty monitoring work based on the hot issues and difficult issues in poverty alleviation, making a positive contribution to accurate estimation of the number of poor people and the assessment on poverty reduction performance. The Provincial Party Committee Organization Department takes the lead every year to organize the member units of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development to make assessment on the Party and political cadres in impoverished areas of the province. It implemented the “dual strength” projects in poor areas to enrich people and improve infrastructure and organized 1 million party members to help 1 million poor families in the province. Good results have been achieved. The Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supervision Department led the provincial directly administrated units to support Tongshan County and implemented 17 poverty reduction projects in 2009 with investment of more than 40 million Yuan, which played a positive role in comprehensively completing the annual poverty reduction goal. The Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department implemented the "Information Disclosure Regulations", successively held several press conferences on poverty reduction and had special poverty alleviation articles printed in Hubei Daily to promote the implementation of pro-poor policies. At the same time, it organized media to report the results and experience of the "Travelling in the Old Revolutionary Base Areas”, “Conference on Awarding Double Top Ten in Poverty Alleviation” and “Pilot Projects of Shaking off Poverty for Moderate Prosperity”, which greatly promoted the poverty alleviation in the province.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】  1．Support from the units directly under the central government: 9 units directly under the central government are responsible for supporting 16 key counties and districts for poverty alleviation and development in Hubei Province. They directly invested 122 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds, introduced 108 million Yuan and invited 42 talents to implement 126 projects and introduce 33 technologies. A total of 744 poor students received financial aid, 88 training courses were held for 13,300 people and 1,566 labors were transferred, which greatly promoted the economic and social development in impoverished areas.

　　2．Support from the Provincial Council for the Promotion of Construction in the Old Revolutionary Areas (Provincial Foundation for Poverty Alleviation): In 2009, poverty relief funds of 31.375 million Yuan were added. They took the head to implement 9 grateful returning projects jointly with the city (prefecture, county) Councils for the Promotion of Construction in the Old Revolutionary Areas and absorbed inputs of 12.55 million Yuan. The city (prefecture, county) Councils for the Promotion of Construction in the Old Revolutionary Areas increased 320 grateful returning projects with investment of 85.62 million Yuan. After the completion of the above projects, it will benefit 8523 households and 42615 in the old revolutionary base areas.

　　3．Support from the Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Association. Founded one year ago, the Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Association has now 107 member companies and organizations and issues more than 70 million Yuan for helping-the-poor every year. In 2009, 20 member companies received 437.7 million Yuan of poverty alleviation loans and 13.13 million Yuan of financial fund discount subsidies to implement industrial poverty alleviation, which solved the food and clothing problem of the poor and lifted more than 200,000 poor farmers out of poverty.

　　4．Support from enterprises. In 2009, 850 enterprises participated in the poverty alleviation and development in the province and constructed 1020 cooperative projects with annual benefits of 1.32 billion Yuan, which lifted 185,000 people out of poverty.

　　5．Participation of universities and institutes: The Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government organized 14 universities and research institutes to provide support for 7 pilot counties in shaking off poverty for moderate prosperity through building partnership. Six professors from Huazhong University of Science and Technology including Song Ziliang, etc, based on in-depth investigation, jointly wrote articles to propose the establishment of “Pilot Area for the Economic and Social Development in Dabieshan Revolutionary Base”, which was affirmed by the major leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government and drawn wide concerns and attention. Huazhong Agricultural University has successively promoted 20 new varieties of plants and animals in more than 20 poor counties, covering an area of more than 100 million mu in total; and organized more than 300 trainings for the cadres of poor counties and towns and practical skills trainings for farmers, involving more than 1,700 county leaders, more than 2,600 town cadres, more than 60,000 agricultural technician persons and more than 1 million farmers.

　　6．Support from troops in Hubei. Guangzhou Military Region’s organs donated 1 million Yuan to promote the construction of “Bayi Hope School” in Zhushan County and solve the education problem of more than 2,000 school-age children in the reservoir inundation areas. The provincial military authorities were designated to help Zhushan County of Shiyan City and they have sent regiment-level cadres to act as deputy governors of the county for many years. Enshi Military Region implemented the "131" anti-poverty project to support the key poor areas in Enshi. According to the uniform arrangement of the provincial government and the provincial military region, in 2009, 7 units of the armed forces in Hubei provided assistance to 7 pilot counties in shaking off poverty for moderate prosperity, aiming to significantly increase, in five years, the income of the poor in the pilot county, obviously improve the infrastructure in the impoverished villages and promote the overall development of local social undertakings.