Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hainan Province

　　【Overview】  Located in the most southern part of China, Hainan Province has a land area of 35400 square kilometers and a sea area of 200 square kilometers. It has two prefecture-level cities, six county-level cities, four counties, six national autonomous and a permanent population of 8.4926 million.

　　There are five national key counties, six provincial key counties and 720 key villages for poverty alleviation and development and 495,200 rural poor residents in the Province.

　　In 2009, the rural per capita net income of the 11 national and provincial key counties for poverty alleviation and development was 3941 Yuan, 309 Yuan more than that in 2008, up 8.5%; and this figure in the five national key counties was 3,215 Yuan, 260 Yuan more than that in 2008, up 8.8%; the rural per capita net income of impoverished villages was 2,359 Yuan, 195 Yuan more than that in 2008, up 9.0%, and the number of poor people was reduced to 450,200, with a decrease of 45,000.

　　【Review of poverty alleviation】 Since 2005, still focusing on entire village advancement, labor transfer training, industrialization poverty reduction and joint poverty alleviation, Hainan Province has been striving to solve the food and clothing problem of the poor and consolidate the food and clothing results. The rural per capita net income of the 11 national and provincial key counties for poverty alleviation and development increased from 2524 Yuan to 3977 Yuan, with an increase of 1453 Yuan per capita, and the number of poor people was reduced to 450,200. Over the five years, 541.50 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds was invested by the central government to support the planting and management of cash crops and tropical fruit of 6.6 million mu, covering rubber, betel nuts, tea-oil tree, green orange, mango, etc; the breeding of 560,000 poultries and 7,050 boxes of bees, and freshwater pisciculture of 2.4 million fishes. It has constructed village roads of 1,066 kilometers, 124 bridges and 355 drinking projects, dug 646 wells and 1920 biogas digesters and implemented 32 irrigation projects as well; built schools, cultural rooms and clinics of 58166 square meters, solved the road problem of 500,000 people, the drinking water problem of 140,000 people and the lighting problem of 20,000 people as well; held 1200 various trainings for 180,000 person-times, including 570 farmers’ practical skills trainings for 112,000 person-times, 388 rural labor transfer trainings for 39,800 person-times which helped 35,236 people get jobs, and 25 cadre trainings for poor villages for 2,375 person-times. Relevant central government departments, provincial directly administrated organs, enterprise and institutions invested a total of 170 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the pairing-off poverty reduction to support poverty-stricken areas to develop farming, breeding, infrastructure construction, education poverty alleviation and other social undertakings, which promoted the economic and social development in the poor areas.

　　【Investment in anti-poverty fund projects】 In 2009, 250.40 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was put in, of which 163.40 million Yuan was development fund, 62 million Yuan was work-relief fund, and 25 million Yuan was the development fund for minority areas. Among the development funds, 7.5 million Yuan was pilot mutual funds for poverty-stricken villages, 20 million Yuan was pilot funds for entire village advancement and contiguous development, and 2.5 million Yuan was loan discount fund. In addition, the provincial directly administrated units, enterprises and institutions jointly put in 45.09 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds.

　　The development funds are mainly used in entire village advancement, poverty alleviation by industrialization and poor labor transfer trainings. 86.13 million Yuan was invested in infrastructure construction, accounting for 64.5%, mainly for building rural roads, drinking water projects, bridges, culverts and small-sized irrigation projects to solve the road, drinking water and irrigation problems of the people in poor villages; 30.63 million Yuan was allocated for production development, accounting for 23%, mainly for supporting poor rural households’ farming and breeding to increase the income of farmers; 16.64 million Yuan was invested for trainings, accounting for 12.5%, mainly for labor transfer trainings, rural practical skills trainings, vocational education and poor villages’ cadre trainings to enhance the science and technology quality and labor skills of poor farmers.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2009, the region completed the scheduled village-level poverty alleviation task of 95 impoverished villages, including 27 “three guarantee” poverty-stricken villages, accounting for 28.4%. It had built rural roads of 229.7 kilometers, 29 bridges and 136 culverts, constructed 104 drinking water projects, dug 61 wells, implemented one irrigation project and solved the road problem of 137,000 people, safe drinking water problem of 47,000 people and irrigation problem of 300 mu of arable land as well.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】 It has expand the "two-year" or "three-year" vocational education enrollment, commissioned nine universities to set up 20 professional education courses and enrolled 1,400 students from poor families. At the same time, making use of the ten training bases in the province including the provincial Higher Technical School to hold 2 to 3-month short-term training courses, organize young people in poor areas to learn electronic, electrical, cosmetology and hairdressing as well as other basic knowledge and professional skills to provide the conditions for migrant workers. In 2009, the poverty alleviation departments held 464 various trainings for 42,800 person-times, fulfilling 102.2% of the scheduled task, including 307 practical technical trainings for 32,418 person-times, 79 labor transfer trainings for 7,893 person-times and 66 trainings for the cadres of poverty-stricken regions for 2,455 person-times.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 Hainan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, Hainan Provincial Department of Finance and Hainan Provincial Rural Credit Union jointly developed pro-poor policies by providing micro-credit loans, actively made use of poverty relief discount funds to liberate the scale of micro-credit loans and support poor rural households to develop rubber, betel nut, mulberry sericulture, pig raising, bee-keeping and other traditional industries. The government held the provincial work meeting on poverty reduction by providing micro-credit loans to introduce the experience of Tunchang, Qiongzhong and Wuzhishan in poverty reduction by issuing micro-credit loans. The city and county poverty alleviation departments developed annual plan for poverty alleviation by industrialization, cultivated good seeds and seedlings to support poor farmers to adjust the industrial structure, optimize and upgrade the traditional industries and develop special industries in rural areas; provided support for 118,000 poor farmers in planting and management of rubber, green orange, mango and other tropical fruit crops of 5866.7 hectares, breeding of 8,125 pigs, 264,000 livestock and 2.4 million freshwater fish as well as beekeeping of 4,550 boxes.

　　【Construction of old revolutionary base areas】 First, do a good job in the transfer of construction of the old liberated areas in the province to ensure the continuous construction of these areas; Secondly, hold provincial forum on building old liberated areas and make clear the functions of the construction of old liberated areas; Thirdly, conduct thorough investigations, re-record the list of villages in the old liberated areas and establish a database for the villages of old liberated areas; Fourthly, organize the city and county poverty alleviation office directors and some organ staffs to visit the old liberated areas in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei; Fifthly, hold trainings to learn relevant documents and business knowledge on the construction of old liberated areas; Sixthly, draft the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas” and report to the provincial government; Seventhly, implement the plan for the construction of old revolutionary base areas with the special funds. In 2009, a total of 47.50 million Yuan was invested in the construction of old revolutionary base areas in the province, covering 28 villages and 161,356 people in the old revolutionary base areas. The province had built village-level roads of 152 kilometers, 14 bridges, 40 culverts, 6 drinking water projects, cultural rooms of 2,170 square meters and seniors’ home of 14,823 square meters, rebuilt houses for 34 rural households and participated in the construction of four civilized biological villages.

　　【Joint efforts on poverty alleviation】 The province issued the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Joint Poverty Alleviation”. The number of helping units increased from 134 to 164 and the number of the aided regions increased from 45 towns to 157 administrative villages. The provincial work conference on joint poverty alleviation was held to summarize the experience of joint poverty alleviation over the three years, make deployments for the work in the next stage and award the advanced units and individuals. Three trainings on poverty reduction were held and a total of 340 people attended the trainings, including the poverty alleviation team members and the party committee secretaries of the aided villages.

　　In 2009, 408 leaders from the organs directly under Hainan Provincial Government visited the poor areas to give instruction to the work and directly introduced funds of 45.09 million Yuan. They mainly supported the planting and management of tropical cash crops and fruits of 466.7 hectares, breeding of 21,000 poultries and livestock; built roads of 18.1 km, 6 bridges (culverts) and constructed 8 drinking water projects; solved the road problem of 16,400 people and drinking water problem of 29,000 people; repaired and consolidated tunnels of 7 kilometers, newly added and recovered irrigation area of 86.8 ha; built biogas digesters for 122 rural households, assisted the construction of 15 civilized villages; provided financial aid for 2406 poor students; held 15 labor dispatch training courses for 1,513 people; organized 1087 cadres to study in non-local areas and held 68 rural practical technical trainings for 6,500 person-times. The enterprises concerned invested 17.817 million Yuan to construct rural drinking water projects, harden rural roads and participate in the construction of civilized ecological villages, etc, which benefited 25,000 person-times and assisted 2,113 poor students. The military and police forces in Hainan invested 6.657 million Yuan and provided manpower and vehicles to support the construction of civilized ecological villages in impoverished areas, organized medical teams to carry out free consultations in rural areas. They provided free medical services and medicines valued more than 10,000 Yuan for more than 800 local farmers.

　　The Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection (Provincial Supervision Department) is responsible for helping Maodao Town of Wuzhishan City and personally implemented and coordinated the implementation of 33 poverty alleviation projects with investment of 16.334 million Yuan; built teaching buildings, student dormitories and canteens, staff kitchens and bathrooms for three primary and secondary schools; constructed five drinking water projects, roads of 5 kilometers, village-roads of 16.52 kilometers and three cultural rooms; built dams, reservoirs and canals, improved irrigation area of 405 mu and farmland of 600 mu; organized three batches of more than 20 teachers to visit the schools including Haikou No.1 Middle School, coordinated Haikou City Education Bureau to sent 11 teachers to support Maodao Middle School; organized 12 rubber tapping, pig raising and rice cultivation technology trainings for more than 1800 person-times and released 2500 manuals; organized 63 rural surplus labors to participate in skills trainings in the provincial technical school; and assisted local party committee to select new village-level cadres and made 24 young people act as the village cadres.

　　The State-owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission of Hainan Province was responsible for helping Xinxing Town of Tunchang County. It invested more than 400,000 Yuan to support Shenni, Xinyuan and Ganchang to build publicity and cultural room and basketball courts and install satellite cable TV, donated technical books, purchased TV sets and office furniture for them, released to the masses piglets and rubber seedlings, supported the construction pig-raising cooperatives and provided rubber seedlings, piglets and fertilizers for farmers, which resulted in an per capital income growth of 3,500 Yuan. Meanwhile, it contacted technicians to organize practical technical trainings for farmers, organized more than 120 village committees’ cadres to visit Haikou and Sanya, provided financial aid for 12 students from poor families to complete their studies, organized people to send condolences to Party members in difficulties, poor households and the elderly, showed films for the masses and donated books to the villages’ cultural centers.

　　【Capital project management】 As of the end of 2009, there were a total of 5 pilot counties and 80 pilot poor villages for mutual funds in the province, 8,830 rural households participated in the mutual funds and the mutual funds amounted to 12.56 million Yuan, of which 12 million Yuan was the financial funds from the central government, 560,000 was paid by rural households and 6.482 million Yuan was issued as loans to 3,046 person-times. We organized four working groups together with the provincial department of finance to visit the cities and counties concerned, make assessment of the poverty alleviation work and report the results to the Ministry of Finance and the State Council; did a good job in poverty reduction statistics supervision, established poverty alleviation information management platform, upgraded and expanded system’s functions and enhanced the working efficiency of relevant organs.

　　【poverty alleviation team building】 In 2009, Hainan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office convened a democratic life conference of the party's leaders and cadres themed "strengthening the party spirit of the leadership and establishing and promoting good style", developed the "Opinions on the Studies of Party Center’s Theory Group in 2009" and the "Work Points for Party-building Work in 2009", organized party members and cadres to study the "Regulations on the Inspections of Chinese Communist Party (for trial implementation)", "Interim Provisions on the Implementation of the Party and Government Leader Responsibility System" and the "Opinions on Special Treatment of Outstanding Problems in Construction Work" and other related documents; carried out "Work Style Construction Year" activities, held four meetings on the construction of a clean government, organized trainings on discipline inspection, studied and practiced the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the CPC and the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 5th Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee, guided the party’s cadres and members to carry out self-examination, self-reflection, self-caution and self-motivation; carried out "laws to organs" activities and organized basketball and table tennis competitions in the system.

　　【Poverty alleviation publicity】 The province continued the “Poverty alleviation News” presentation, established an anti-poverty network covering all poverty alleviation offices in the province and all the 45 poor towns’ governments to expand the channels of information sources; organized training courses on poverty publicity, organized reporters to visit and study in other provinces; made use of news and media to report the pilot projects of joint poverty alleviation, poverty reduction micro-credit loans and anti-poverty mutual funds, the changes in the situation of impoverished villages and the models in poverty reduction to enhance the influence of poverty reduction work and promote the enthusiasm and initiative of the whole society to participate in poverty alleviation and development.

　　【Poverty alleviation measures】  1．Strengthen the leadership. Hainan Provincial Government established the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development with provincial governor as the team leader, vice secretary of provincial Party Committee and Vice-governor as the deputy head and relevant leaders of the development and reform department, financial department, agricultural, water conservancy and poverty alleviation departments or bureaus as the team members. It established the poverty alleviation work liaison city/county system for the Provincial Standing Committee and special personnel from various departments of the units directly under the provincial government were arranged to take charge of the poverty alleviation work. The provincial government held three provincial poverty alleviation work conferences and several standing committee meetings to summarize experience, carry out work studies, analyze problems, assign tasks and guide implementation. The key counties for poverty alleviation and development focused on poverty alleviation and adopted many powerful measures to ensure the successful completion of the poverty alleviation and development tasks based on local actual situations.

　　2．Improve institutions. In the institutional reform, the provincial poverty alleviation agency changed from a coordinating body of procedure to an institution directly under the government and the number of civil servants increased from 19 to 29, and the city and county-level poverty alleviation agencies changed from institutions to public functionary management units or units with public functionary management system as a reference with more duties and more staffs.

　　3．Highlight the key points. Carry out poverty alleviation based on “three concentrations”: concentrate the targets of poverty reduction, concentrate the poverty relief funds and concentrate to solve the prominent problems restricting the development of impoverished areas; focus on entire village advancement, industrial poverty alleviation, labor transfer trainings and joint poverty reduction, make clear the mandates and integrate all forces to implement the tasks one by one.

　　4．Supervision and inspection. In 2009, it held a special meeting to make deployments on the tasks, coordinated relevant departments and city (county) governments to promote the fund allocation progress and implement projects on schedule, organized mid-year progress checks, focusing on project implementation progress, carried out annual overall inspections on the work through a quantitative scoring system at the end of the year; and carried out follow-up check or auditing on the use of anti-poverty funds and project construction jointly with financial departments and auditing departments to ensure maximum benefits.