Zhejiang-Sichuan Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】 East-West pairing-off poverty reduction an important political task assigned to Zhejiang Province by the CPC Central Committee and State Council. Since 1996, Zhejiang Province has undertaken the task of lifting 12 national poor counties (cities, districts) of Guangyuan and Nanchong in Sichuan Province out of poverty. Over the past 14 years, in accordance with the principle of “complementary advantages, mutual benefits, long-term cooperation and common development” and the guideline of “combining blood transfusion with blood making and combining poverty alleviation and cooperation”, based on three priorities of “entire village advancement, industrial support and labor transfer training”, Zhejiang implemented the aid projects, carried out economic cooperation and promoted the labor trainings, transfer and cadre exchanges, which is praised by the CPC Central Committee, the State Council as well as all circles of society, especially the cadres and masses in Guangyuan and Nanchong. According to statistics, as of the end of 2009, Zhejiang issued grants of 416 million Yuan in total for 12 counties (cities, districts) of Guangyuan and Nanchong, jointly built 280 new anti-poverty villages, 262 schools and 131 hospitals; helped 30,258 students through “1+1”; constructed 300 economic and trade cooperative projects worth 11.56 billion Yuan; organized practical skills trainings for 18,369 people and labor trainings and transfer for more than 80,000 people and organized cadre exchanges for 815 person-times. The construction of 280 new anti-poverty villages directly benefited more than 180,000 poor farmers and made an increase of 500-1,000 Yuan in the rural per capita net income of the project villages; through the construction of social welfare projects, it greatly improved the teaching conditions for more than 15,000 students in more than 200 primary and secondary schools, significantly enhanced the conditions of more than 100 township hospitals and made it convenient for more than 1.3 million people to see a doctor; through the infrastructure construction, county and town-level highroads of 1000 kilometers, 65387 small ponds and a number of demonstrative agricultural projects were successfully implemented; the talent and labor trainings trained more than 18,000 people for local areas, transferred about 80,000 labors and aided 32,000 students; through the implementation of 300 economic and trade cooperative projects, it created profit tax of more than 500 million Yuan for the twinned regions and provided more than 35,000 employments.

　　In 2009, under the high attention of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, the party committees, governments and departments at all levels in the province overcame the negative impact of financial crisis, sincerely did practical things and sought practical effectiveness for local residents, and achieved new results in the East-West pairing-off poverty reduction. As a result, great changes took place to the economy and social undertakings of Guangyuan and Nanchong. The CPC Central Committee and State Council put forward higher requirements for the East-West pairing-off poverty reduction and demanded the eastern provinces not only to continue the support but constantly increase efforts for the work, improve the working mechanism, standardize the working system and improve the work.

　　【Support for infrastructure construction】 In 2009, Zhejiang helped the twinned regions build 12 schools, 12 hospitals, village-level highroads of 79 kilometers, solved the drinking water problems of 30,000 people and aided 820 students. Boshu Town Bridge in Langzhong County built with funds of 1.3 million Yuan donated by Zhejiang Provincial Department of Transportation improved the traffic conditions of more than 9,000 people in five local villages, provided convenient traffic for the masses and promoted local economic and social development. The construction of a series of livelihood projects and infrastructure projects not only improved the living conditions of local people, but also promoted the rapid economic and social development of local areas.

　　【Economic and trade cooperation with the twinned regions】 In 2009, giving play to its comparative advantage in regional cooperation and exchanges and the political advantage of East-West poverty alleviation cooperation, relying on the platforms built by governments at all levels, agencies and industrial associations, Zhejiang created exchange and cooperation opportunities to strengthen the interaction and information communication between the two sides, and created conditions for the investment and business launching in the twinned regions to guide outstanding private enterprises in Zhejiang Province to achieve industrial gradient transfer. The economic and trade cooperation between the two provinces not only enhanced the economic development vitality and stamina of the twinned regions, but also promoted the development of the enterprises themselves in Zhejiang Province. According to statistics, throughout the whole year, Zhejiang signed 16 economic and trade cooperation agreements worth 1.261 billion Yuan with the twinned regions. The Sichuan-Zhejiang Cooperation Industrial Park built in Guangyuan with assistance of Zhejiang promoted the industrial poverty alleviation in the disaster-hit area Qingchuan County, guided and promoted the twinning and cooperation between Zhejiang and Guangyuan, promoted the enterprises of Zhejiang to concentrate and develop in Guangyuan City, strengthened the function of “blood making” and accelerated the pace of post-disaster reconstruction of Qingchuan as well. In 2009, Sichuan-Zhejiang Cooperation Industrial Park introduced six enterprises of Zhejiang and investment of 1 billion Yuan.

　　【Poverty alleviation by training】  In 2009, Zhejiang invested more than 2 million Yuan to organize practical technical and labor skills trainings for local farmers of the twinned regions. Based on the industrial poverty alleviation in new villages for poverty reduction, it focused on the practical technical and knowledge trainings for the development of tea, edible fungus and pollution-free vegetables, the improvement of fruit varieties, aquaculture and livestock breeding. More than 2,000 people participated in the trainings in the whole year and more than 5000 labors were transferred successfully. Nanchong City was responsible for the training of leaders for becoming rich. Wenzhou, Huzhou, Jinhua and Hangzhou allocated 500,000 Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the twinned regions. Nanchong City organized two grassroots backbone training courses for 140 leaders for getting rich, introduced advanced production and operation ideology, strengthened the capacity for entrepreneurship and getting rich of local masses and enhanced the “blood making” capacity for local economic and social development. In addition, through training, survey and sending cadres, Zhejiang Province also carried out cadre and technical personnel trainings and exchanges for 296 person-times, which effectively improved the quality of local cadres and technicians.

　　【Achievements in pairing-off poverty reduction】 In 2009, Zhejiang achieved practical results in East-West pairing-off poverty reduction: First, it accumulated rich experience; secondly, it set up a number of models; thirdly, it achieved win-win situation.

1. “Dual Pairing” work. First, attention of leaders, implementation of measures and long-term contacts and extensive exchanges between the two sides are the primary premises for the “Dual Pairing” work. Secondly, always adhere to the theme of "poverty reduction, stability and development" and take it as the core task of “Dual Pairing” work to strengthen bilateral cooperation, which is an important basis for deepening the work; Thirdly, always adhere to the “combination of blood transfusion and blood-making and linkage of poverty alleviation and cooperation” and combine the resource and advantages of the two sides to achieve win-win situation, which is the basic driving force for the sustainable development of “Dual Pairing” work. Fourthly, use the grants for “blood making” and carry out multi-field all-round cooperation, which is the inherent requirement to deep the work. Fifthly, actively organize relevant provincial departments, districts, cities and counties, relevant enterprises and other social forces to participate in the “Dual Pairing’ work to form a work pattern of "vertical and horizontal integration, industry linkage, multi-layer interlacing", which is an effective form for the extensive implementation of  "Dual Pairing" work.

2. Exchanges in pairing-off poverty alleviation. Zhejiang Province has established the mechanism for the major leaders to carry out exchange visits once a year with the twinned regions and the mechanism for exchange visits of departments from time to time to coordinate the twinning assistance work, exchange information and strengthen negotiations. Meanwhile, they carried out multi-layer exchange visits and exchange activities, extensively mobilized all social forces, including nationwide enterprises of Zhejiang, to further implement the pairing-off poverty alleviation of Zhejiang and the post-disaster reconstruction in Sichuan. First, do a good job in receiving the visitors of the twinned regions. In 2009, after the disaster, Guanguan City organized a high-level party and government delegation to invite merchants in Zhejiang. Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government paid high attention to it. Relevant departments carried out a series of exchange activities and all circles of society provided much support for the activities of Guangyuan City, especially Qingchuan County in Zhejiang Province, making their activities a great success. Secondly, Zhejiang Province paid attention to give play to the advantages of private enterprises and organized the enterprises of Zhejiang to carry out investment negotiation activities in the twinned regions. On October 18, Zhejiang Economic Cooperation Organization organized 40 entrepreneurs of Zhejiang that participated in the Western China International Fair to conduct field research and exchange in the twinned region Guangyuan. They held the “Guangyuan-Qingchuan Conference on the Development of Sichuan-Zhejiang Industrial Park”, came to cooperative intents for a number of projects and achieved good results.

3. Win-win pairing-off poverty alleviation. In 2009, Zhejiang helped the twinned regions achieve the “win-win” situation of supporting the basic industry, focusing on key work, paying attention to intelligent assistance, establishing related mechanisms and promoting development. First, it promoted the development of the twinned regions. According to statistics, in 2009, Zhejiang donated money of 36.2 million Yuan to 12 counties (cities, districts) in Guangyuan and Nanchong, including 5.74 million Yuan from provincial units and 30.46 million Yuan from various cities. It helped the twinned regions build 24 new anti-poverty villages, 12 schools and 12 hospitals; provided assistance for 820 students through the model of “1+1”, signed 16 economic and trade cooperation project agreements worth 1.261 billion Yuan; and organized practical technical trainings for 4,479 people and labor trainings and transfer for more than 5,000 people. Secondly, it helped the economic development in Zhejiang. In 2009, through the platform of the “Dual Pairing” poverty alleviation, the departments concerned organized and trained more than 5000 labors for the enterprises in Zhejiang, which effectively solved the employment problem of the businesses. In the twinned regions, Wahaha, C&U Group, Qingchunbao and other enterprises of Zhejiang Province actively participated in local state-owned enterprises’ restructuring, opened up markets, established product sales network, developed important agricultural resource and farm produce processing industry and achieved significant effects, which promoted the adjustment of economic structure in Zhejiang Province and provided a platform for the development of Zhejiang “outside the province”.

　　【Measures for East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation】 1. Attention of leaders. The pairing-off poverty alleviation involves a lot of work and covers a wide range of areas. In 2009, Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government attached great importance to pairing-off poverty reduction. To implement the spirit of national poverty alleviation conference and further promote the pairing-off poverty alleviation in the next stage, Zhejiang Provincial government held the provincial work conference on twinning assistance and domestic cooperation and exchanges at the beginning of the year. Vice Governor Mao Linsheng summarized the East-West pairing-off poverty reduction of the province and made deployments for future work. More than 200 people attended the event, including the city, county (city, district) commanders, leaders of relevant units directly under the provincial government and the commanders of the helping departments. In the institutional reform soon after the meeting, the provincial cooperation office – the functional department responsible for the East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation of Zhejiang was promoted as a department at the provincial level (renamed as “Zhejiang Provincial Office of Economic Cooperation and Exchange”), which further consolidated the foundation of East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation of the province.

2. Specific tasks. According to the “Guidance on 2009-2010 East-West Pairing-off Poverty Reduction” issued by LGOP and the relevant spirits of the leaders of Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, Zhejiang Provincial Office of Economic Cooperation and Exchange, as the functional department responsible for the East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation of the province, actively negotiated with the poverty alleviation offices of Sichuan, Guangyuan and Nanchong and, based on consultation with various parties, timely issued the "Guidance Opinions on 2009 Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation of Zhejiang Province" to clarify the guideline, work priority and relevant protection measures for future work. According to the Guidance Opinions, relevant city and provincial departments must develop annual implementation plan for local twinning assistance work based on their actual situations, guide the county (city, district)-level cooperation departments to develop the work plan, clarify the job objectives and specific tasks, practice objective management and improve the annual assessment system. Meanwhile, Zhejiang Provincial Office of Economic Cooperation and Exchange successively held the provincial work conference for the directors of the cooperation offices (pairing-off assistance offices) and the “Dual Pairing” work conference for relevant provincial units, implemented relevant spirits, summarized the pairing-off poverty alleviation since 2008 and checked the work done in 2009.

3. Improved mechanism. According to the new situation and new tasks of the pairing-off poverty alleviation in the new era, Zhejiang Provincial Office of Economic Cooperation and Exchange, as the functional department responsible for the East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation of the province, took the good opportunity for implementing the spirit of the national poverty alleviation and development conference to establish the new mechanism for “Dual Pairing” work, and formulated the “Outline of the Program for “Dual Pairing” Work of Zhejiang Province (2009-2012)” to further clarify the work priorities, standardize the manners of working and increase the means of work. First, further improve the performance assessment mechanism. Through cross-examination, expert assessments and annual statistical evaluation, it strengthened the performance assessment for twinning assistance, standardized the poverty alleviation project management and improved the effectiveness of the aid projects; Secondly, build the project management mechanism. It has initially established the system for verification and registration at the beginning of every year and year-end inspection and assessment system to promote the standardization of the aid projects.

　　(Zhejiang Provincial Office of Economic Cooperation and Exchange and Exchange)