Poverty Alleviation and Development in Qinghai Province

　　【Overview】Located in the northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Qinghai Province covers a total area of ​​722,300 square kilometers and has a population of 5.573 million and 54 ethnic minorities.

　　The six prefectures, one region and one city in Qinghai all have poverty-stricken villages and the province has 15 national key counties and 10 provincial key counties for poverty alleviation and development. It has now a poor population of 1.3836 million, including 1.0436 million farmers and 340,000 herdsmen, accounting for 37.6% of the agricultural and husbandry residents.

　　【Investment to poverty alleviation fund projects】 In 2009, the central government allocated financial anti-poverty funds of 616 million Yuan for Qinghai, 95 million Yuan more than that in 2008, up 18.3%, which was the largest figure over the years. The provincial, state (prefecture, city) and county-level financial departments invested 1.104 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds, of which 77 million Yuan was from the provincial government, 3.62 million Yuan came from the state (prefecture, city) governments and 29.7887 million Yuan was from the county governments. Meanwhile, 12 million Yuan of loan discount funds was issued to guide credit loans of 830 million Yuan for poverty alleviation.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】 734 million Yuan was invested in entire village advancement, of which: 382 million Yuan was financial anti-poverty funds and 352 million Yuan was integrated funds. The entire village advancement projects were launched in 381 impoverished villages of 39 counties in 8 states (prefectures, cities) to support 72,500 poor families, involving 326,100 people. 12.21 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was invested and the entire village advancement projects were launched in 23 impoverished minority areas of six towns in Xunhua County and Hualong County, which benefited 2497 rural households and 11,900 people. Qinghai completed the entire village advancement task for 68 impoverished minority villages (Sala Nationality) one year ahead of schedule.

　　【Pilot projects of relocation】 41.79 million Yuan of pilot off-site relocation fund was issued for the province. 20 projects were implemented and 1,595 poor families and 7,604 people were relocated. The average subsidy for each family was 25,000 Yuan.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】 In 2009, the province invested 2 million Yuan to train more than 3,500 poor labors, of whom more than 1,000 were sent to Hunan Changsha Global Education Group, invested 3 million Yuan for practical skills trainings of 30,000 people for entire village advancement and put in 1.3 million Yuan to train 969 poverty alleviation and development cadres above village level in and outside the province.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 Through entire village advancement, it has set up 53 featured industrial bases. 41 national and provincial leading enterprises in poverty alleviation by industrialization led more than 340,000 rural families (including 211,300 poor families) to gain more income, with average annual growth of 1780.5 Yuan. In the 15 national key counties, a total of 527 professional mutual aid cooperatives were set up with more than 40,000 members.

　　【Pilot projects for the effective convergence of the “two systems”】 In Zeku County, pilot projects for the effective convergence of the rural minimum living security system and pro-poor policies were launched, which issued basic living allowances for 2,021 families and 7,300 people, and the government launched the supportive projects for the objects of poverty alleviation and development at the same time.

　　【Pilot projects for mutual funds in poverty-stricken villages】 A total of 17.95 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds was invested in the province and the pilot projects for village-level mutual funds were launched in 121 impoverished villages, covering 16,200 families. 6,642 poor households participated in the mutual funds and paid 1.0971 million Yuan of mutual funds. So far, 6.9351 million Yuan loans were issued in total.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 In 2009, 27.08 million Yuan of provincial project funds was issued by Liaoning. The 13 cities (enterprises) of Liaoning Province responsible for supporting 15 national key counties in Qinghai Province invested a total of 9.49 million Yuan, the central organs invested anti-poverty funds of 7.9462 million Yuan and introduced funds of 2.2 million Yuan; the government mobilized the provincial organs to put in 11.7454 million Yuan of project funds and introduce 67.3877 million Yuan; the garrisons and armed forces invested in 5.321 million Yuan and donated materials, built schools, provided financial aids for student, trained medical personnel, etc. At the same time, the government promoted the further implementation of the activities of “joint construction by villages and enterprises” and the partnership was built between 217 enterprises and 353 villages. The enterprises, through promoting village advancement by industrial development, project construction and recruitment, established the bases for featured industries in poor areas, which increased the income of more than 50,000 rural families and absorbed 529 migrant workers. In 2009, a total of 33600 party cadres and people from all circles of society participated in the activities of “helping each other among rural households and residents”, helped 24,700 poor families, invested in 5.1099 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds (including materials) and strived for project funds of 466,000 Yuan

　　【International cooperation projects】 After the implementation of Sino-German financial cooperation Haidong sustainable development projects in poor rural areas, human and livestock drinking water, rural income growth, capacity building and technical training programs with total investment of 105 million Yuan (including German government grant of 5 million Euros and domestic funds of 52.35 million Yuan) in 101 poor villages of 13 towns in three national key counties - Minhe, Hualong and Xunhua, 66,200 people have shaken off poverty steadily.

　　【Poverty alleviation publicity】 In 2009, the province formulated and issued the "Evaluation Schemes for Poverty Alleviation and Development Information Work of Qinghai Province", held press conferences, set up Qinghai TV reporter station in Qinghai Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Bureau, increased efforts on the construction of information publicity network platform and strengthened trainings on information campaign staff. Throughout the year, the province compiled and issued 131 "Poverty Alleviation and Development Briefings" and nine "Circulars on Poverty Alleviation and Development Work", had 165 articles on poverty alleviation and development printed in the national and provincial newspapers, reported poverty alleviation and development work in the provincial TV for 49 times and carried out 8 city radio interviews and 6 provincial radio interviews.

　　【Poverty alleviation measures】  1. Strengthen the building of poverty alleviation and development institutions. In 2009, in the provincial government reform, it strengthened the establishment of provincial poverty alleviation and development agencies, took the lead in the establishment of provincial poverty alleviation and development bureau and included it into the agencies directly under the provincial government, and increased the internal organs, staffing and leadership positions.

　　2．Raise the poverty line. Based on data filing and survey on the situation of poor people in the agricultural and pastoral areas in the province, approved by the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, Qinghai raised the poverty line to 1,300 Yuan for agricultural areas and 1,500 Yuan for pastoral areas. On this basis, there are a total of 1.3836 million poor people in rural pastoral areas (including 1.0436 million farmers and 340,000 herdsmen), accounting for 37.6% of the total population in agricultural and pastoral areas in the province.

　　3．Straighten out the poverty alleviation and development management system. Changed the entire village advancement project management system as: the state, prefecture and city-level poverty alleviation and development departments are responsible for the local project inspection and approval, the county-level poverty alleviation and development departments are responsible for the project implementation, the provincial government made the records and Qinghai Poverty Alleviation and Development Bureau sends experts to the states, prefectures and cities to carry out inspection. It has improved the management system featured "overall responsibility under provincial government, planning by regional government, implemented by county-level government and directly serving villages and households", which greatly enhanced the enthusiasm of poverty alleviation departments at all levels.

　　4．Create the poverty alleviation model of contiguous development. The province established the poverty alleviation and development mechanism for division of labor and cooperation among the members of the Leading Group to jointly promote poverty alleviation, coordinated 12 provincial departments to jointly issue the "Notice on the Integration of Funds to Jointly Promote the Poverty Alleviation by Entire Village Advancement in Qinghai Province", shifted the short-term centralized single-type model of poverty reduction to contiguous development by entire village advancement focusing on boosting development by featured industries; adopted a variety of models for poverty alleviation and development, including cooperative operation, joint operation, contractual operation, joint-stock cooperation, leasing, joint construction by villages and enterprises, company leadership, etc; strived to build a government-led large-scale poverty alleviation and development mechanism with poverty alleviation as a platform and the masses as main body through coordinated linkage, business participation, resource sharing, mutual benefit and entire village advancement, and explored a path of poverty alleviation and development featured contiguous development, industry leading, large-scale operation, overall progress and long-term benefits, which is suited to the actual situations of Qinghai Province.

　　5．Create a grand pattern of poverty alleviation. Poverty alleviation and development no longer rely only on poverty alleviation and development departments but on joint efforts of all departments and social forces. We held a forum for provincial democratic parties to participate in poverty alleviation and development, signed "A letter of Intent for Further Strengthening the Cooperation between Qinghai Poverty Alleviation and Development Bureau and the Democratic Parties" and explored the ideas, models and approaches for the democratic parties to participate in poverty alleviation and development; actively reported to the Provincial People's Congress and CPPCC Provincial leaders on the scientific development of poverty alleviation and invited the Provincial People's Congress and provincial CPPCC members to inspect and guide the anti-poverty work and visit the project sites, arousing high attention of the NPC and CPPCC on poverty alleviation and development, laying a good foundation for further building a grand pattern of poverty alleviation and development.