Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province

　　【Overview】 Located in the southwestern part of China, at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Sichuan Province covers a land area of 485,000 square kilometers and has a population of more than 87 million. It has 21 cities (prefectures) and 53 minorities.

　　In 2009, Sichuan invested 2.068 billion Yuan of central and provincial anti-poverty funds and 6.64 billion Yuan of social anti-poverty funds. It completed the implementation of 932 poverty relief new village projects, 100% of the annual plan; developed industrial projects for 226,300 poor households, 226.30% of the scheduled tasks; built village-level roads of 1010.20 kilometers, 168.37% of the scheduled tasks; dug 60,900 biogas digesters, 121.80% of the scheduled tasks; organized labor poverty relief trainings for 68,200 people, 113.67% of the scheduled tasks; and supported 935,400 rural poor to improve production and living conditions, increase income and enhance self-development ability, 116.93% of the scheduled tasks. The former Sichuan Province Poverty Alleviation and Development Office was titled as Advanced Unit for National Unity and Progress and commended by the State Council.

　　【Review of poverty alleviation】  From 2001 to 2008, there was a decrease of 4.9197 million in the number of low-income poor people and 8145 poverty relief new villages were built. The per capita GDP of the 36 key counties for poverty alleviation reached 8062 Yuan, with an increase of 2.36 times, and the per capita budget revenue reached 228 Yuan, with an increase of 1.78 times, making a contribution to the construction and development in Sichuan Province and the poverty alleviation in the country. The experience of Sichuan Province in the poverty alleviation and development in the new century was affirmed by the state’s relevant departments, including the experience in “Sunshine Project”, “Large-scale Poverty Alleviation” strategy, poverty relief mutual aid society, contiguous development, “competition” of new villages and “first aid system” for poverty alleviation. Especially its achievements and experience in the pilot projects for poverty alleviation and development and building a harmonious society in Yilong County and the pilot projects for poverty alleviation and development and comprehensive prevention and control of Kashin-Beck disease in Aba Prefecture were respectively affirmed by the major leaders of the Central Committee of CPC and the State Council, arousing nationwide concerns.

　　【Key poverty alleviation and development projects】 1. Poverty alleviation projects in new villages. Taking the poverty alleviation projects in new villages as the sample project for poverty alleviation and development, increase efforts on the integration of resources and give priority to new villages in the allocation of anti-poverty project funds and other agriculture-related funds. In the whole year, the poverty alleviation projects were launched in 932 new villages. It ensured the timely project launch and implementation and ensured the project could bear fruits that year.

2. Anti-poverty project by labor input. The international financial crisis made many migrant workers return to home villages and resulted in the weaker employment ability of poor labors. To solve these problems, the government increased efforts on strengthened trainings and local employment arrangements to promote the transfer of employment of the poor labor forces. In the whole year, it organized trainings for 68,200 labors, completing 113.67% of the scheduled task.

3. Industrial poverty alleviation projects. Various regions all made early plans and provided advance payment for the implementation of industrial projects to encourage farmers to develop industries and support large-scale agricultural industrial projects. 100 million Yuan was invested that year to promote industrial poverty alleviation, covering 226300 poor families, 226.30% of the scheduled tasks, which increased the income of poor households, poverty-stricken villages and impoverished regions.

4. Poverty alleviation projects through village-level road building. The local governments all strengthened the integration of funds and mobilized masses to put in labors. Village-level roads of 1010.20 kilometers were built in the whole year, 168.37% of the annual task.

5. Poverty alleviation projects through biogas digester building. Local governments strived to overcome the difficulties of high cost and low subsidy for biogas digester building and adopted effective measures to accelerate the project construction progress. A total of 60,900 biogas digesters were built in the whole year, over-fulfilling the annual task.

　　【Pilot projects for poverty alleviation and development】 1. Pilot projects for poverty alleviation and development and comprehensive control of kaschin beck disease in Aba Prefecture. The government applied for 634 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds, hitting a record high; timely convened joint meetings and coordination meetings to prepare, approve and issue annual plans and issue the funds as soon as possible, developed "Pilot Project Management Approach", established and improved the work report, statistical monitoring and annual target management systems; organized supervision and inspections and gave research guidance to ensure the steady progress in this livelihood project determined by the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government

2. Pilot projects for contiguous poverty alleviation and development. The government held the provincial on-the-spot meeting on pilot projects for contiguous development in poverty alleviation to sum up the experience of pilot projects for contiguous development and make deployments for the work to be done in the next stage; further promoted the results of the pilot projects in Tongjiang County and Guang’an District and expanded the pilot areas from two counties to 18 counties and 19 contiguous areas, including Yanyuan County and Gao County, forming scale advantage. Meanwhile, the government also actively prepared for the “planning for the contiguous development in Ertan Reservoir of Panzhihua”.

3. Pilot projects for post-disaster restoration and reconstruction in impoverished villages. At the end of the year, smooth progress had been made in the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction in 2,516 affected poor villages in the province, the rebuilding of farmers’ houses had been basically completed and the infrastructure and farmers’ industrial development were both under orderly reconstruction.

4. Pilot projects for poverty relief mutual aid society in poverty-stricken villages. Mutual aid societies were set up in 807 poor villages in the province with funds amounting to 144 million Yuan, and 122,000 rural households participated in the mutual aid societies, of which 36,000 were poor households.

5. Pilot projects for the construction of old revolutionary base areas in Bazhong. To increase support for the poverty alleviation in old revolutionary base areas, the provincial government selected Bazhong – a representative city as the pilot area to speed up the development of old revolutionary base areas, issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Bazhong Old Revolutionary Base Areas” and put forward and determined the development objectives, functional position and measures for the construction of Bazhong Old Revolutionary Base Areas. By the end of that year, 97.712 million Yuan had been invested in two contiguous areas: Shaxi-Washi in Tongjiang County and Shangbamiao – Qingmu in Bazhou, accounting for 104.50% of the scheduled task.

6. Pilot projects in Guang'an flooded area. According to the poverty alleviation ideology of “integrating resources, overall linkage, contiguous development and gradation promotion”, it continued to promote the poverty alleviation and development in the flooded areas and successfully completed the pilot project construction.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 6.64 billion Yuan of social poverty relief funds was issued, of which more than 900 million Yuan was put in for free and more than 5.74 billion Yuan was introduced.

1. Fixed-point poverty alleviation by party and government organs. 1,780 cadres from 22 central organs, 182 provincial organs and 7,800 city and county organs went to the poor counties and units for poverty alleviation, invested and introduced nearly 4 billion Yuan of funds, launched 15,305 projects and dispatched 9,451 cadres to help 7,350 poor villages and train 600,000 people.

2. East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation. 7 cities and 47 counties (districts) of Zhejiang and 33 provincial designated helping units totally put in 36.20 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds, enterprises invested more than 1.14 billion Yuan, provided jobs for 2,817 people, paid taxes of 19.34 million Yuan, organized trainings for 4,479 labors and transferred 9,275 migrant workers. Aba Prefecture and Hangzhou City built partnership in poverty alleviation.

3. Social poverty alleviation. The Provincial Old Revolutionary Area Construction Promotion Society, the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Fund and the Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Association actively took advantage of their strengths to organize distinctive activities of helping the poor. In the whole year, they raised more than 50 million Yuan and introduced funds of more than 300 million Yuan for the poor areas. More than 500 private enterprises helped to set up more than 800 poverty relief new villages jointly with the villages, the poverty alleviation leading enterprises established industrial bases in impoverished villages and put in 1.44 billion Yuan. As a result, 2.46 million rural households joined in the industrial development and achieved per capital income growth of 513 Yuan.

　　【International Cooperation in poverty alleviation】 The construction of the fourth poverty alleviation project supported by the World Bank and UK Department for International Development went on smoothly. As of September 2009, 299 million Yuan was put in, accounting for 81.95% of the adjusted targets. The project activities were carried out in 519 villages in 86 towns of the six project counties in Sichuan Province - Pingchang, Mabian, Pingshan, Xuyong, Yuexi and Meigu, covering 883,100 rural households, and the results were affirmed by the inspection group of the World Bank UK Department for International Development. 5 million Yuan of donations have been prepared for the pilot projects of comprehensive poverty alleviation in Nanchong Rural Poor Communities supported by Zhongtai Huawei International Investment Co., Ltd. Community-driven development projects (CDD) and the World Bank’s fifth technical assistance project – Pilot Project for Mutual Funds in Wangcang County achieved periodical goal and good results.

　　【Poverty alleviation measures】  1.Importance attached by government and good leadership. Major leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government and department chiefs concerned about the poor and paid many visits to Bazhong, Guxu and other old revolutionary base areas, Liangshan, Ganzi, Aba and other minority areas as well as Guangyuan and other disaster-hit areas to carry out field researches for poverty alleviation, solve problems and difficulties of the poor. The provincial government successively held the plenary session of the leading group for poverty alleviation and development and the leading groups for the pilot projects of Aba poverty alleviation and development and comprehensive control of kaschin-beck disease, seminars on the construction of Guang’an flooded areas and Bazhong old revolutionary base areas as well as the on-the-spot meeting on provincial poverty alleviation and development to make deployments on the poverty reduction work, which further strengthened the leadership of poverty alleviation.

2. Improve the system and self-management. Under the leadership of the party committee and governments at all levels, various poverty alleviation offices in the province continued to consolidate and deepen the “activities of studying and practicing the scientific outlook on development" and the activities of improving the effectiveness of administrative organs and strengthening the leading team building for poverty alleviation as well; According to the overall requirements on efficiency construction of "strengthening the sense of responsibility, improving working methods, optimizing combination strength and enhancing capacity", they focused on institution building and standardized management, and greatly improved the self-development capacity. The former provincial Poverty Alleviation Office formulated the "Notice on Streamlining Documents to Improve the Quality" and the "Procedures for Organs to Enhance Efficiency", which further enhanced the efficiency of institutions; Meanwhile, the government launched poverty alleviation cadre trainings and held 6 trainings the whole year for more than 500 people; and implemented organ’s internal financial budget system to strengthen the financial management.

3. Strengthen survey and research and do a good job in publicity. 2009 is the survey and research activity year of the province’s poverty alleviation system. The member units of the provincial leading group for poverty alleviation and development and the poverty alleviation offices at all levels wrote high-quality valuable research reports. The former provincial poverty alleviation office completed a few researches, including “Research on Countermeasures on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan at the New Stage (2011-2020)”, “ Research on Policies to Speed up the Development of Old Revolutionary Base Areas”, etc; recovered the “Poverty Alleviation in Sichuan”, newly issued internal magazines of “Priority Work for Next Month” and “Poverty Alleviation Briefings”, etc; opened up the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government network information delivery system and organ document transmission system; publicized the poverty reduction results on the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, issued the “Brilliant Achievements in Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development” in the fifths press conference on poverty alleviation and development on the “Glorious 60 Years: Achievements in Economic and Social Development in Sichuan” held in September; completed the manuscript of "Annals of Sichuan Province - Poverty Alleviation and Development" and compiled the "Wenchuan Earthquake Relief in Sichuan – Data of Poverty Alleviation Office"  and prepared to compile the "Wenchuan earthquake disaster relief records of poverty alleviation departments".