Ningbo-Guizhou Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】To unify the partner assistance for Guizhou, Ningbo City Party Committee and Government held the city's poverty alleviation work conference to make deployments, organized the units concerned to carry out project research in the twinned regions and enhanced the coordination and instruction. At the same time, through promoting and coordinating the two places’ party and government delegations to carry out exchange visits, it accelerated the construction of government aid projects. According to statistics, in 2009, the governments at all levels of Ningbo City and all circles of society launched 278 aid projects in Guizhou and issued grants of 59.86 million Yuan of funds and materials to the recipient regions, including 123 government aid projects with investment of 27.55 million Yuan, 159 anti-poverty projects supported by caring citizens and all walks of society with investment of 23.31 million Yuan of funds and materials. The projects mainly involved the construction of new rural model villages, support for the development of agricultural industry, the improvement of rural production and living conditions, technical trainings for township cadres, leaders of new rural construction and labor forces, as well as support for education.

　　【Labor transfer training】In early 2009, impacted by the financial turmoil, migrant workers faced a grim employment situation. In order to help the migrant workers in the twinned regions achieve stable employment, on the one hand, Ningbo continued the traditional labor cooperation and, on the other hand, explored new models for sustained labor cooperation. First, it strived to provide jobs for the poor migrant workers in the twinned areas. In February, relevant enterprises and human resource companies of Ningbo City were organized to hold in Qianxinan prefecture the "Ningbo – Qianxinan Meeting on the Employment and Recruitment for Rural Labor Transfer Trainings", which provided more than 3,500 jobs for the rural labors and recruited some poor “two-backwardness students” (unable to continue their studies after graduating from junior or senior middle school) to Ningbo to participate in the work-study program. Secondly, it guided the human resources market and enterprises of Ningbo City to timely release employment information in the twinned regions to lead the migrant workers to move towards Ningbo orderly; Thirdly, it conducted in-depth school-enterprise cooperation. To further promote the ongoing school-enterprise cooperation between the two places, it built an exchange platform for the students of the twinned regions to obtain employments and for the enterprises in Ningbo to seek talents. At the end of April, Ninghai County Talents’ Entrepreneurial and Practice Base of Guizhou Commercial College was officially founded in Ninghai County Human Resources Development Service Center. With the economic recovery and the increase in corporate employment, it grasped the opportunity and, through designated trainings and school-enterprise cooperation, guided enterprises to build a long-term effective mechanism for labor cooperation with the twinned regions. In December, it organized the labor employment service departments and large human resources companies to visit Guizhou for field research and negotiation, and came to agreement with Guizhou and the twinned regions to invest for local school running, set up human resources companies and carry out order-type rural labor transfer trainings. In order to update the East-West labor docking models, it set up Ningbo-aided Labor Transfer Training Base for Western Areas - the first national human resources construction base for East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation of LGOP.

　　【Construction of model villages for counterpart support】According to the requirements of “three guarantee” of LGOP, through negotiation with Guizhou Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, in 2009 and 2010, Ningbo was twinned with 16 old revolutionary base poor villages in Qiandongnan Prefecture and Qianxinan Prefecture for the poverty alleviation and development by entire village advancement and ensured no less than 500,000 Yuan of investment was issued for each village. In early 2009, through field visits, it completed the claim of the 16 villages and initially determined and launched the first batch of specific projects. To ensure that more than 100 "Ningbo-Guizhou pairing-off poverty alleviation demonstration villages" would be constructed within five years from 2006 to 2010, the units concerned all increased efforts on the construction of new rural demonstration villages and determined a total of 53 projects with investment of 13.5 million Yuan, accounting for 40% of the total amount of funding. Nearly 100 demonstration villages were constructed. Meanwhile, it also increased support for agricultural industry. In 2009, it newly determined the 750-mu oil tea tree base in Qiandongnan Prefecture and 1600-mu high-quality peach tree base in Qianxinan Prefecture to combine the new rural construction and entire village advancement with the construction of efficient agricultural demonstration bases and link infrastructure construction with the support for competitive industries to further increase sources of income for the poor and enhance the self-development capacity of rural areas.

　　【Exchanges and trainings】In 2009, as for exchanges of cadres, Ningbo City sent six division-level cadres to Guizhou and Guizhou Province sent eight cadres to Ningbo for half-a-year exchanges and practice. Ningbo Industrial and Commercial Bureau received 21 cadres from the industrial and commercial field of Qiandongnan Prefecture for a two-month study. Meanwhile, the two places sent more than 650 people to each other for studies and field survey. As for cadre training, the city government organized new rural construction trainings for 168 party secretaries (mayors) of poverty-stricken towns in the undeveloped areas of Qiandongnan Prefecture and Qianxinan Prefecture. The trainings focused on introducing the new rural reform policies, new rural work systems, new rural economic organizations and new rural construction practices of the eastern regions. In addition, the Municipal Economic Commission and the units concerned in Xiangshan and Haishu District organized 11 trainings for the twinned counties and 359 people attended the trainings.

　　Meanwhile, a new round of education exchange and cooperation began in 2008 and has been effectively promoted. First, smooth progress was made in the implementation of the "project to enhance the quality of primary and secondary school teachers". In the first half year, it received a total of 50 excellent high school teachers from Qiandongnan Prefecture and Qianxinan Prefecture of Guizhou, who came to study in Ningbo for one semester; it organized a 14-member outstanding teacher team to give lectures in Qiandongnan Prefecture and Qianxinan Prefecture. Secondly, it further strengthened the “hand-in-hand” love twinning activities of a hundred schools. In May 2009, Ningbo Poverty Alleviation Office and the Bureau of Education organized the county and district education bureaus and 50 twinned schools to participate in the Ningbo-Guizhou “hand-in-hand” love partner support forum for schools, summarized the exchange activities and further clarified the work objectives and requirements.

　　【Economic exchanges and cooperation】In promoting economic exchanges and cooperation between the two places, facing the financial crisis, economic downturn and many other adverse factors, Ningbo adjusted the service modes and shifted the mode of "hitting out in all directions" to "making breakthroughs in key areas", tracked the enterprises with investment intentions, conducted good coordination and service assurance work and accurately took opportunities to timely help solve problems, which effectively promoted the cooperation. First, in the context of the Guizhou tour of the city party and government delegation and the coordination of the poverty alleviation department, Ningbo’s leading agricultural enterprise Fenghua Yile Food Co., Ltd. increased investment in Qiandongnan Prefecture of Guizhou. After investing for the construction of a 1000-mu blueberry base in Majiang County of Qiandongnan Prefecture to promote the development of local blueberry industry, Fenghua Yile Food Co., Ltd invested to build bases of 1000 mu and 1800-ton cold storage and processing workshop. Secondly, it held tourism promotion fairs to promote the activity of Ningbo citizens of "ten thousand people travelling in Guizhou". In August, it organized jointly with the Guizhou the "2009 Ningbo – Promotion Fair for Colorful Tourism Culture of Guizhou" to build a platform for the comprehensive cooperation between the tourism enterprises of the two places and promote the activity of "ten thousand people travelling in Guizhou". Thirdly, it built a platform for the marketing of agricultural products of the twinned regions in Guizhou. In April and June, on Ningbo Tea Expo and Food Fair, the city government provided exhibition information for the tea and agricultural production and processing enterprises of the two prefectures and coordinated the provision of free booths for them.

　　【"Warm lunch • education support by ten thousand people"】While continuing the love aid projects and the follow-up work of the education support by ten thousand people, to solve the difficulties of some poor students in the period of compulsory education in having lunch at school in Qiandongnan Prefecture and Qianxinan Prefecture of Guizhou, Ningbo City Poverty Alleviation Office and some related units jointly launched the activities of "warm lunch • education support by ten thousand people". Strongly supported by the sponsors and media at all levels, the activities were launched in enterprises, schools, social groups and institutions and 28 donations and charity activities were organized. A total of more than 100,000 citizens of Ningbo were involved in the donations and more than 3.2 million Yuan was raised to solve the lunch problem of the poor students in the period of compulsory education from 141 schools in Qiandongnan Prefecture and Qianxinan Prefecture of Guizhou and newly build dining-rooms for 28 schools, which benefited more than 15,000 needy students. The event was continuously reported by the municipal media. Zhejiang People's Broadcasting Station, Zhejiang TV and CCTV Newsweek all delivered thematic reports on the event, which enhanced the influence of Ningbo as a love city and was welcomed by the twinned regions and praised by all circles of society. Ningbo delivered a speech as a model city in social poverty alleviation on the National East-West Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation Work Conference in 2009.

 

　　(Li Wanquan, Ningbo City Poverty Alleviation Office)