Poverty Alleviation and Development in Gansu Province

　　【Overview】Located in the northwest inland of China, Gansu Province covers a total area of ​​454,000 square kilometers. It has 14 cities and prefectures, 86 counties (cities, districts) and 26.28 million people, including 17.8318 million rural people, accounting for 67.8% of the total. Gansu is a multi-ethnic province and the 54 ethnic minorities in the province account for 9.3% of the total population. In 2008, the number of the rural poor with per capita net income below 1196 Yuan was 4.424 million (sample monitoring data of the National Bureau of Statistics) and the incidence of poverty was 21.3%. Gansu Province has 43 national key counties, 3 provincial key counties and 6 “three west” counties for poverty alleviation. It has a total of 70 counties, cities and districts involved in poverty alleviation, including the key counties, accounting for 80.4% of the total counties, cities and districts in the province; 926 key towns and 8825 key villages for poverty alleviation, respectively accounting for 59.9% and 49.3% of the total.

　　In 2009, the rural per capita net income in 51 key counties reached 2,376 Yuan, with a growth rate above national average, and there was a reduction of 400,000 in poverty-stricken people.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2009, 1.408 billion Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was invested, of which 1.095 billion Yuan was various poverty alleviation funds mainly under the management of the provincial poverty alleviation office, 226 million Yuan more than that in 2008, up 26%. The funds from the central government reached 1.024 billion Yuan, up 28%, and the provincial matching funds reached 71 million Yuan. As of the end of 2009, all the financial anti-poverty funds were issued.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2009, entire village advancement projects and contiguous development projects were launched in 596 villages (including 26 pilot villages for post-disaster reconstruction). According to the requirements of “three guarantees” put forward by the LGOP, Gansu Province increased efforts on the project construction. In 2009, it comprehensively completed the entire village advancement project construction in minority areas. 150 old revolutionary base areas also completed the entire village advancement projects and 61% of the entire village advancement projects of “three guarantee” villages in the old revolutionary base areas had been completed.

　　【Poverty alleviation by relocation of the poor】 Since 2009, according to the overall ideology of classified guidance, the province issued the “Opinions on Increasing Support for the Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Minority Areas by Implementing Special Policies”, the “Opinions on further Increasing Support for the Poor Immigrants in Hexi”, etc. Meanwhile, through entire village advancement and contiguous development, the government increased support for disaster-hit areas, minority areas and Qingyang old revolutionary base areas.

　　In 2009, poverty alleviation by relocation was implemented for the poor in Hexi. Meanwhile, the Leading Group integrated the relevant project funds of the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Provincial Department of Finance, the Provincial Department of Water Resources, the Provincial Department of Construction, the Provincial Department of Education, Provincial Health Office, Provincial Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department, Provincial Department of Transportation and Provincial Department of Land and Resources and made the total anti-poverty funds for the poor’s relocation reach 100 million Yuan. The rural per capita net income of the 11 immigration towns in Jiuquan City was estimated to reach 1,522 Yuan, 138 Yuan more than that of the previous year, up 10%.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】 Lanzhou branch institute organized trainings for 1366 cadres, of which 920 were entire village advancement cadres, 398 were grassroots party members in impoverished areas and 48 were the trainees of the seminar on pro-poor strategy and policy system for county mayors. The province completed labor transfer trainings for 81,000 people in poor areas, including: “two kinds of backward students” trainings and normal skills trainings for poor families for 78,000 people, completing the training task for additional 30,000 “two kinds of backward students”; Beijing Fuping School Gansu “Longyuan Sister” Housekeeping Trainings for 2,000 people; overseas labor dispatch skills trainings for 960 people; and non-local labor transfer for 19,000 people. In the whole year, the province held rural cadre technology trainings for nearly 10,000 people in impoverished areas, arranged 11,300 technology demonstration households, organized farmer technician trainings for more than 400,000 person-times, and completed the construction of new fertilizer promotion project entrusted by China Training Center for Executives in Poor Areas for four counties of Gansu to implement, including Zhuanglang County, etc.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】The province has newly built potato bases of 98,000 mu, traditional Chinese medicine bases of 58,000 mu and 12,000 heliogreenhouses and newly planted pasture of 106,000 mu, greatly expanding the scale of poverty alleviation by industrialization. Meanwhile, it supported the development of 100 leading enterprises and increased the income of more than 500,000 poor rural families.

　　【Post-disaster reconstruction and infrastructure construction】In 2009, more than 94% of the first and second batch of pilot villages involved in post-disaster reconstruction and poverty alleviation and development in Gansu Province completed the scheduled task of house rebuilding and the infrastructure and income growth projects of the first batch of pilot villages have been completed. The province filed the records of 10,000 volunteer households and more than 40,000 people in migration which were reviewed for at least twice.

　　In 2009, the impoverished areas newly developed 112,000 mu of terrace, 69,000 mu of irrigation areas and catchment rainfall irrigation area of 6,600 mu, and overfulfilled the land governance and low-yielding farmland improvement task of 100,000 mu assigned by the provincial government.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 In 2009, the province actively coordinated with LGOP, 30 ministries and departments of central government and Tianjin City, and further strengthened the coordination and contacts among the 202 helping units under the provincial and central government, as well as the guidance and supervision on cities, prefectures and counties. In 2009,  LGOP arranged two large state-owned enterprises - China Banking Regulatory Commission and the State Electricity Regulatory Commission to support Gansu Province, making the number of helping units under the central government reach 30. Meanwhile, Gansu signed with Tianjin the East-West Strategic Cooperation “Agreement” on poverty alleviation at the new stage and the “Minutes” for strengthening East-West cooperation. Gansu Province has organized 60 cadres of health care system in relevant prefectures and cities to participate in the "2009 Tianjin • Seminar for Cadres on the Management of Health System in Western Areas" in Tianjin. The special TV program “Tackling” produced under the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China has been presented and won good social response.