Dalian-Guizhou Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】According to the deployments and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, in 1996, Dalian City began to provide partner assistance for Liupanshui City and Zunyi City of Guizhou Province. Dalian focuses on lifting the poor out of poverty in the twinning poverty alleviation for Guizhou and gives priority to infrastructure projects in the allocation of aid projects, such as the basic education, medical service, human and livestock drinking water and rural road and bridge building to improve the production and living conditions of impoverished areas. At the same time, Dalian increased support for industrial development and promoted the adjustment of single industrial structure of the recipient regions through giving play to the demonstration and radiation role of industrial poverty alleviation projects.

　　As of 2009, Dalian provided grants of 156.2826 million Yuan to Guizhou Province, of which 127.6826 million Yuan was issued in cash and 28.26 million Yuan was donated materials, and it implemented 514 aid projects. Based on the actual situation of the poverty-stricken mountain areas in Liupanshui City and Zunyi City of Guizhou Province, in accordance with the principle of accelerating the development of social welfare in impoverished mountain areas, it launched a number of public welfare poverty alleviation projects to improve the production and living conditions of poor rural households, built and rebuilt 121 Hope Schools, improved the schooling conditions of impoverished mountain areas and alleviated the difficulties of going to school of more than 50,000 poor students; invested to built a 2300-square meter book building for Liupanshui Nationality Vocational School, which is equipped with multi-media electronic reading rooms and multi-media electronic classrooms and is a large well-equipped book building in the middle schools in Liupanshui City. Meanwhile, it newly built and rebuilt 57 township hospitals and village clinics to solve the problem of seeing a doctor of the masses in impoverished areas and prevent the occurrence of local diseases; implemented 28 drinking water projects to solve the drinking water problem of 100,000 poor rural families and big livestock; newly built and repaired 38 highroads, bridges and channels, improved the traffic conditions of 42 key towns and 25 key villages for poverty alleviation and increased the economic development potential of impoverished areas. Jiaoba Town high mountain highway project in Wuchuan Autonomous County constructed with assistance of Dalian ended the history of carry things on the shoulder and back of the masses in four impoverished villages and was called “road of life and way to wealth” by local residents.

　　【Twinning assistance】Dalian City Party Committee and City Government attach great importance to pairing-off poverty alleviation and the major leaders often listen to the report on the twinning assistance, study and determine the work ideology and put forward specific requirements for the work. Based on the actual situation of Dalian City, in 2008, for the fifth time, Dalian adjusted the leading group for pairing-off poverty alleviation of the city, concentrated the forces to expand the team members to 38, providing an organizational guarantee for pairing-off poverty alleviation. Dalian organized many exchange visits with Liupanshui and Zunyi of Guizhou Province to promote the exchanges with the two cities in economic and cultural field, deepen the mutual understanding of the two sides and enhanced the friendship between the people of the two sides. In January 2008, Guizhou suffered a disaster of frost rain and snow, the worst winter weather in five decades. Dalian City Party Committee and Government sent a message of condolences soon after the disaster and donated 1 million Yuan respectively to Liupanshui and Zunyi City to support the disaster relief work of local areas. Through signing the “Counterpart Support and Economic Cooperation Agreement between Dalian City and Liupanshui and Zunyi’ and formulating the “Guidance Opinions on Guizhou’s Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation with Four Cities in 2009 and 2010”, it clarified the work priorities and strengthened the management of aid projects to make the aid projects bring economic and social benefits.

　　【Aid projects】 In the counterpart support, focusing on the work priorities, Dalian City adopted targeted measures based on the local conditions and achieved good results. First, it supported rural infrastructure construction, constantly increased efforts on basic education, medical service, human and livestock drinking water project construction and rural road and bridge building to improve the production and living conditions of the farmers in impoverished areas. Secondly, based on the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure in poor areas, it steadily increased efforts to support industry. In 2008, the technology poverty alleviation project through forage cultivation and cattle breeding aided by Dalian was a city-level major industrial restructuring project in Liupanshui. Dalian issued 2 million Yuan to subsidize 133 households to buy 666 cows and the project was completed and played an important role in the poverty alleviation in the impoverished mountain areas of Liupanshui City. Thirdly, it aided the implementation of science and technology demonstration projects to promote the sustainable economic development in poor mountainous areas. It invested 1.65 million Yuan to establish Zunyi City plant tissue culture center with a building area of ​​6,700 square meters and an annual production capacity of more than 20 million bottle seedlings. Meanwhile, it carried out the "two potato" detoxification and propagation studies and the annual production capacity was 1 million seedlings, for planting area of more than 60,000 mu. The implementation of this project raised the yield of virus-free potato to 2300 kg per mu in the impoverished areas of Zunyi City, more than 35% higher than that of normal potato. It implemented 77 technology projects integrating biogas digesters, livestock, tea and living environment improvement with investment of 12.82 million Yuan, which played a positive role in promoting agricultural science and technology in poor areas of Zunyi City. The "four in one" or "farming - biogas - toilets - planting" eco-agricultural projects constructed with assistance from Dalian integrated planting, breeding and toilet and pen improvement with biogas digester building as a link. Through the biogas digesters, human and animal dung and agricultural waste were recycled and changed into resources, which effectively protected the ecological environment and warmly welcomed by local cadres and masses of the poverty-stricken areas. It has promoted the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, promoted the sustainable development of rural economy, and achieved good economic, social and ecological benefits. In 2009, the "four in one" eco-energy projects were comprehensively promoted in 14 counties (cities, districts) of Zunyi City.

　　【Cooperation poverty alleviation participated by enterprises】Based on the scientific concept of development, under the principle of "complementary advantages, mutual benefits, long-term cooperation and common development", Dalian City Party Committee and Government carried out economic cooperation in various forms. Dalian has some advantages in technology, human resources, capital, location and market information. The recipient regions have a vast territory, rich natural resources, low labor costs and huge market potential, and have gradually become the priorities of the national investment in infrastructure. We should combine the advantages of both sides to build a platform and create conditions for their long-term mutual benefit cooperation, find out common grounds of the two sides based on their actual needs and respective advantages and make a breakthrough in the key points to achieve mutual complementarity and common development. Dalian Shenhong Industrial Co., Ltd invested to establish a nickel-molybdenum deep processing base in Leshan Town, Zunyi County of Zunyi City. The company is composed of the processing factory and the mine and the total project investment was 50 million Yuan. The project was put into production in 2009. The completion of the project solved the employment problem of more than 300 surplus labors and created a stable source of income for local poor. Dalian Heavy Industrial Hoisting Group Co., Ltd participated in the bidding of "West Power to East" program of Liupanshui City for many times and. Dalian Shide Group's sales network was widely known in Guizhou. All these have laid a good foundation for the long-term cooperation and common development of the two places.

　　【Personnel exchanges and training】 In the counterpart support, through helping Zunyi and Liupanshui train cadres, dispatching experts to teach advanced agricultural technologies, sending volunteers to support education in impoverished areas and employing labors of Guizhou, Dalian helped the two cities’ grassroots cadres and technical personnel enhance their abilities and helped poor farmers to improve the scientific and cultural qualities. Dalian City successively sent 136 cadres to Liupanshui and Zunyi City and the two cities sent 164 cadres to Dalian for practice. Meanwhile, Dalian trained 658 professional technical persons for Guizhou, especially took the lead to arrange young volunteers to support the education of Pan County in Liupanshui City, being the first of its kind to send young volunteers to support education of impoverished areas in China. In 1997, Dalian City’s five young volunteers including Li Dejun and Li Guangyu gave up abundant life of the city, including four who resigned from public office, voluntarily went to support education in poor mountain areas of Pan County, Guizhou Province and were praised by national leaders. In the implementation of the national "East-west Educational Partnership Program", Dalian City successively sent five batches of more than 30 young volunteers to support the education of Pan County. From 2000 to 2006, Dalian sent two batches of 66 teachers to support the education of Guizhou, which was welcomed by local cadres, the masses and students. In 2006, Dalian Municipal Party School held four trainings for the political cadres of Liupanshui City and a total of 161 grass-roots political cadres participated in the trainings.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 In the East-West poverty alleviation cooperation, under the principle of "powerful government guidance, wide public participation and mutually beneficial cooperation between enterprises", Dalian carried out effective publicity campaign for all walks of society to better understand the living status of the masses in poverty-stricken areas of western regions, aiming to arouse the concern of the whole society about poverty-stricken areas. As a result, all circles of society showed a positive attitude towards poverty alleviation. Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce in Dalian and Dalian Qi Xiuyu Employment Agency actively participated in local cooperation and labor dispatch. Dalian University provided 420,000 Yuan to help Liupanshui Teachers’ School build the multi-purpose hall, lecture hall and electronic reading room. Dalian Heating Co., Ltd donated 200,000 Yuan to help Yangxing Town of Zheng’an County newly build a Hope Primary School. Meanwhile, it established Yangxing Township Poverty Alleviation Education Foundation as the long-term poverty alleviation spot, which has awarded 10 outstanding students and subsidized 43 needy students.

　　(Dalian City Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation Office)