Beijing - Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】  In September 1996, the Central Anti-poverty Work Conference decided to assign Beijing to support the poverty alleviation in impoverished areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (hereinafter referred to as "Inner Mongolia") through building partnership. As of the end of 2009, Beijing provided anti-poverty funds of 616 million Yuan for free for the impoverished areas of Inner Mongolia, including material donations valued 275 million Yuan, and implemented more than 1,200 anti-poverty projects; built highroads of town or higher level of 560 kilometers; set up 33 schools, sent 1804 teachers to support the education, trained various talents of 51,000 person-times, built basic farmland of 359,000 mu; solved drinking water problem for 354,000 people and 1.415 million livestock, and solved the food and clothing problem of nearly one million people as well. The hand in hand activities of 100 "sister schools" it organized made the education in 12 counties (banners) under its responsibility take the lead to achieve the "two bases" standard of education.

　　In 2009, Beijing donated funds and materials of 37.8705 million Yuan for free for the poverty-stricken areas of Inner Mongolia, of which: 35.9295 million Yuan was city and district-level financial anti-poverty funds; 1.44 million Yuan was social donation; and 501,000 Yuan was material donation. It helped 230 poor students; provided jobs for 1,500 people and trained 4,008 technical persons; newly built roads of 73 kilometers and basic farmland of 13,700 mu; and solved drinking water problem for 4,035 people and 5,150 livestock.

　　【Review of East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation】The 14-year Beijing - Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region pairing-off poverty alleviation can be divided into four stages:

　　1．Fist stage (1997～1999): Main form: Taking financial aid and pairing-off assistance as the main forms. In 1997, 18 districts and counties of Beijing built pairing-off assistance relationship with 18 poor counties of Inner Mongolia designated by the state. During three years, Beijing and the involved districts and counties donated a total of 123 million Yuan of funds and materials to Inner Mongolia and the key counties, raised 72.84 million Yuan of matching funds together with local governments and the masses and constructed 456 anti-poverty projects.

　　2．Second stage (2000～2001): Mainly through the implementation of economic and technological cooperation projects, Beijing mainly supported Inner Mongolia to conduct technology development and ecological environmental protection. During the two years, a total of 650 economic and technological cooperation projects were implemented with cooperation funds of 19.68 billion Yuan. Meanwhile, in order to support the science and technology development and ecological construction, Beijing invested 20 million Yuan to help Inner Mongolia to establish a "technology development fund" and an "eco-construction fund". When Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region suffered from severe natural disasters, Beijing allocated special disaster relief funds and materials many times to help the regional government and people in disaster relief.

　　3．Third stage (2002～2005)：In March 2002, Beijing and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region signed the “Forum Minutes of the Exchanges and Cooperation between Beijing and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region” and decided that, from 2002 to 2005, Beijing Municipal and District (County)-level governments would provide 20 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the impoverished areas of Inner Mongolia to improve the production and living conditions. In this period, the top priority was put on the industrialization and urbanization of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which was mainly accompanied by the Project of Poverty Alleviation and Development in A Thousand Poverty-Stricken Villages in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, from which the helping-the-poor cooperation could be started in an all-round, multilevel and ranging manner. Meanwhile, they conducted poverty alleviation cooperation in personnel training, drought and disaster relief, etc. In 2002, Beijing arranged special funds of 20 million Yuan for well digging. A total of 400 wells were dug in 14 counties and banners in the desertification control area of Hunshandake Sand around Tianjin and Beijing, and water-saving irrigation area of 33150 mu were developed, which promoted the improvement of local ecological environment and the development of local farming and husbandry industry.

　　4．Fourth stage (2006-2010): In August 2007, Beijing and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region signed the “Framework Agreement on Beijing-Inner Mongolia Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation and Cooperation during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period” and decided that, from 2006 to 2010, Beijing municipal and district governments would allocate 25.60 million Yuan of grants and discount subsidy of 5 million Yuan per year to encourage the enterprises of Beijing to make cooperation with Gansu in ecological environment construction, energy development and the development of farming and husbandry industry. Through providing loan discount, it has supported nine enterprises in Beijing to make cooperation with Gansu in ecological environment construction, energy development and the development of farming and husbandry industry with total investment of nearly 10 billion Yuan.

　　【Poverty alleviation by infrastructure construction】In 2009, it newly built highroads of 73 kilometers and basic farmland of 13,700 mu, solved drinking water problem for 4035 people and 5150 livestock, and provided 2 million Yuan to support the relocation project of Dongda Immigrant Village in impoverished area, which improved the production and living conditions of the poor, laying a foundation for accelerating the development of poverty-stricken areas.

　　【Poverty alleviation by training】 The involved districts and counties of Beijing supported the poor banners and counties of Inner Mongolia to carry out farming and husbandry practical technical trainings and labor transfer trainings in various forms. Yanqing County, which has relatively weak economic strength, organized poor labor skills trainings for 56 people and rural practical skills trainings for 44 person-times in the implementation of anti-poverty projects. As a result, great changes took place to the poor villages in Xinghe County.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】The industrial poverty alleviation in 2009 gave priority to anti-poverty projects to support the development of local featured industries. Beijing supported the 1000-square meter constant temperature cold storage extension project of Manzhouli Wuxing Agricultural Products & Logistics Co., Ltd with special anti-poverty funds. The project provided employment for 100,000 people of Inner Mongolia and lifted about 10,000 people out of poverty. The anti-poverty project of “Xing’anment Keyouqianqi Mutton Sheep Deylot Feeding and Breeding Communities” in Dabagou Village of Keerqin Town and Julitegacha Village of Guiliuhe Town supported by Haidian District have gradually formed a complete industrial chain composed of mutton sheep feeding, feed supply, veterinarian, mutton’s cold storage, processing, transportation and selling. Shijingshan District paid attention to the development of leading industries of Ningcheng County and gave full play the role of greenhouse vegetable growing, edible mushroom cultivation, processing of edible wild herb, seedling base construction, mutton sheep feeding, farmers’ practical technical trainings and poor labor transfer trainings, which directly benefited nearly 30,000 rural poor in Ningcheng County.

　　【Poverty alleviation in health and education】In 2009, the education system of Beijing organized 36 trainings for 940 person-times, and provided financial aid for 120 impoverished students. Haidian District built a pairing-off-assistance relationship with 21 grassroots health clinics in Keyouqian Banner and 11 doctors of the clinics were sent to study in the hospitals of Haidian District. According to the demands of recipient areas, they also sent experts to the recipient hospitals from time to time and set up difficult and severe clinical consultation and referral green channels; continued to provide resident doctor and specialist trainings for the medical staff of recipient hospitals for free and provided relevant medical equipment for the township clinics of Keyouqian Banner. Haidian District Education Commission donated the “2007 and 2008 Excellent Courseware of Haidian District” and dispatched excellent teachers to give lectures in the schools of Keyouqian Banner, Inner Mongolia and help local teachers’ trainings during vacations. Shijingshan District donated computers and medical devices and trained teachers for the poor schools in Ningcheng County, and organized medical staff trainings for 105 person-times for the clinics in poor towns and the hospitals directly under the administration of county-government.

         【Industrial poverty alleviation】 In 2009, Beijing offered discount funds of 5 million Yuan to support the cooperation of eight enterprises in energy production, integrated management of desertified land, organic agriculture development and modern farming applications, including Beijing Daihai Electric Power Company Limited, Beijing Bolaisi Industrial Co., Ltd, Makarova Group, etc. Fangshan District guided two powerful private enterprises - Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. and Beijing Kaida Hengye Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd to continue the poverty alleviation cooperation and invest two projects in Balinzuo Banner, Zhalute Banner of Chifeng City and Daqintala Town of Naiman Banner in Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia. A total of 90 million Yuan was put in and more than 3,000 rural families benefited from the projects. The “High-yield Red Bean and Soybeans Project on Inner Mongolia Base” of Beijing Kaida Company promoted high-yielding fine varieties of 12,000 mu, resulting in more than 2,000 Yuan of income growth per family of local farmers. The beef cattle industry base project of Beijing Zhuo Chen Company let to an income growth of about 42,000 Yuan for each rural family.

　　【Experience in East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation】  1．Party and government leaders at all levels attach great importance. Over the 14 years, Beijing’s major leaders such as Jia Qinglin, Liu Qi and Wang Qishan and the major leaders of Inner Mongolia made exchange visits, held talks and conducted field researches for many times and successively signed a series of important documents such as “Agreement for Beijing to Provide Technology Development Funds for Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region”, “Agreement for Beijing to Provide Ecological Environmental Construction Funds for Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region”, “Agreement on the Comprehensive Technological Cooperation and Exchange between Beijing and Inner Mongolia” and the “Framework Agreement on Beijing-Inner Mongolia Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation and Cooperation during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period”.

　　2．Pair programming is an important measure for the pairing-off poverty alleviation. First, ensure the implementation of anti-poverty projects through close cooperation between relevant departments of Beijing and Inner Mongolia. Secondly, build twinning relationship between 18 districts and counties of Beijing and 18 banners and counties in Inner Mongolia to implement the cooperative projects. Thirdly, build twinning relationship between the grassroots units below districts (counties, banners) to constantly expand the coverage of the pair programming. As of the end of 2009, in the 18 districts and counties of Beijing, 326 departments, streets, hospitals, schools, enterprises, towns and villages were twinned with 600 relevant departments and units in 18 poor banners and counties of Inner Mongolia and good results were achieved. In 2008, Kulun Banner selected 10 branch-level cadres under the age of 30 to practice in Miyun County as department or town-level commander assistant. In 2002, Changping District concentrated funds for the irrigated land development of two villages including Hongsheng Village of Wumianjing Town solved the food and clothing problem of the poor in the two villages. In 2005, it again invested to support Hongsheng Village of Wumianjing Town to develop irrigated land and purchase small tail Han sheep. After the project construction in the two villages, all the villagers shook off poverty. Yingtaogou Village of Balihan Town is located deep in the mountain and the only road here is a mountain riverbed. In case of summer floods, there is no way out. When it snows in winter, it is very hard and dangerous to walk along the riverbed, which has a serious impact on the villagers' production and living. Shijingshan District invested 250,000 Yuan to build a 5,000-meter gravel road with a width of 5 meters and a height of 3 meters.

　　3．Adhere to "one target" and "two insistences".  "One target": target at poverty-stricken areas and poor people and adopt targeted measures for poverty alleviation. "Two insistences": First, adhere to development-oriented poverty alleviation. Through entire village advancement, labor transfer training and industrialization poverty alleviation, focus on the improvement of the production and living conditions of farmers and herdsmen and the cultivation of the projects to promote income growth; Secondly, adhere to the combination of poverty alleviation by economic growth and poverty reduction through science and technology, education and health development. While providing financial aid for the poor areas, through poverty alleviation by science and technology, Beijing guided the poverty-stricken areas to embark on the path of economic growth by developing featured resources; through poverty reduction by education development, it improved the teaching conditions and teachers’ quality in impoverished areas; through poverty alleviation by health development, it improved the medical conditions of impoverished areas to enhance the health level.

　　4．Strengthen basic research and innovate the model of poverty alleviation cooperation. In order to improve the level of poverty alleviation cooperation work, Beijing conducted targeted research on relevant themes. In recent years, jointly with relevant research institutes, it has successively carried out research on two themes – “Basic Research on Beijing-Inner Mongolia Comprehensive Economic and Technological Cooperation” and “Research on the Mechanism for Foreign Aid and Economic Cooperation Project Management in Beijing”, and actively explored new ideas and new methods for poverty alleviation cooperation under the new situation. On this basis, it formulated the "Regulations on the Management of Anti-poverty Funds for Beijing to Support the Poverty-stricken Areas of Inner Mongolia in Poverty Alleviation" and the "Regulations on the Management of Special Anti-poverty Funds for Beijing-Inner Mongolia Economic Cooperation".

　　5．Promote business cooperation and the industrialization poverty alleviation. As of the end of 2009, according to incomplete statistics, the enterprises of Beijing had invested hundreds of millions Yuan for the cooperation with Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Beijing Energy Investment (Group) Co., Ltd had launched 24 projects in Inner Mongolia, of which 23 were power generation projects and one was ecological protection and anti-poverty project, with total investment of 62.956 billion Yuan and average annual tax of 500 million Yuan. The projects directly provided more than 1000 employments and created a few thousand jobs. Private enterprise Beijing Bolaisi Industrial Co., Ltd invested 65 million Yuan to develop Wulanbuhe Desert, completed the construction of ecological bases of 155,000 mu in line with ecological management demonstration standard, and conducted desert fencing governance in the ecological zone of 90,000 mu along the Yellow River with vegetation coverage rate of more than 85%, which solved the relocation problem of 100 households and nearly 500 people. Beijing Glorious Land Company invested in the husbandry industrialization projects of Linxi County in Chifeng City, planted artificial grassland of 80,000 mu, restored pasture area of 55,000 mu and increased green area of 8,000 mu, which solved the employment problem of more than 4,000 rural surplus labors, resulting in an annual income growth of 26.40 million Yuan of more than 3,500 rural households.

 

 

　　(Economic Cooperation Office of Beijing Economic and Trade Commission)