Xiamen-Chongqing Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】 Xiamen municipal Party Committee and Government always attach great importance to East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation and take it as a major political liability for coordinated regional development based on the national situation. The Municipal Standing Committee and the executive meeting of the municipal government include East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation in the agenda as an important part.

　　In 2006, Xiamen municipal Party Committee and Government formulated the "Opinions of Xiamen Government on Counterpart Support and Xiamen-Chongqing Poverty Alleviation Cooperation". In 2008, according to Premier Wen Jiabao’s instructions of "accelerating the establishment and improvement of regional coordination and interaction mechanisms, focusing on studying the development of specific policies for industry transfer of central and western regions, guiding the industries in the eastern regions to transfer towards the western areas orderly; actively promoting foreign economic exchange and cooperation and exploring new models for border development and opening up", the "Opinions on East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation in 2008" of LGOP and the performance evaluation (tentative) methods, Xiamen Counterpart Support Office analyzed the social and economic development situation of the twinned regions to seek the areas for economic cooperation, initially formed the tentative methods for performance assessment of Xiamen’s counterpart support to show the work with specific data, and planned to put it into operation after the formal implementation of the performance evaluation methods of LGOP.

　　In 2009, Xiamen Municipal Government allocated 8 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the twinned regions, which significantly promoted the poverty alleviation and the development of social undertakings of the recipient regions. In order to enhance the development potential of the recipient regions, it took projects as the carriers in the use of funds to strengthen the “blood-making” function of the recipient regions.

　　【Measures for counterpart support】 First, establish leading agency for the counterpart support work. In order to guarantee the smooth implementation of the East-West poverty alleviation cooperation, from 1996 to 2000, Xiamen City set up the leading group for counterpart support work, Xiamen Party Secretary acted as the team leader and a member of the standing committee of Xiamen municipal committee of the CPC and the vice mayor acted as the deputy head. On January 20, 2001, it adjusted the members of the leading group. Vice secretary of the municipal party committee and mayor Zhang Changping acted as the team leader and vice mayor Ding Guoyan was appointed as the deputy head. In 2002, the vice mayor was appointed as the team leader to ensure the smooth implementation of the work under the correct leadership of the city party committee and government. Secondly, make reasonable arrangements of the anti-poverty funds. Among the cities assigned with the task of East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation, Xiamen has relatively less fiscal revenue. The municipal government attaches great importance to the counterpart work and arranges a certain amount of relief fund every year to meet the needs of counterpart support for Chongqing and Ningxia. Thirdly, conduct counterpart support project studies. The Municipal Standing Committee and the executive meeting of the municipal government conduct special studies and inspections on large-scale projects to ensure the feasibility of the projects. Fourthly, clarify the twinning relationship for the poverty alleviation cooperation. The government assigned the partner assistance task to the districts and mobilized the enthusiasm of all parties, establishing a work framework for further counterpart support work of Xiamen. Fifthly, according to the spirit of development-oriented poverty, the city decided that the counterpart support of Xiamen in the future must be combined with the Western Development and the expansion of domestic demands to help the city expand investment in mainland, expand domestic demand and participate in the Western Development. Sixthly, the leaders personally headed delegations to conduct in-depth field research in the twinned counties of Chongqing and Ningxia. Since 1996, the main leaders of the municipal party committee, government, NPC and CPPCC head Xiamen delegations to Qianjiang, Wanzhou and Wulong of Chongqing, and Haiyuan and Jingyuan of Ningxia for field research every year. In 2009, Vice Party Secretary of Xiamen City Chen Bingfa and the member of party committee and the party secretary of the general office Cai Taoguo respectively visited the twinned regions in Chongqing and Ningxia and got the firs-hand data for the further implementation of counterpart support in poverty alleviation.

　　【Counterpart support for Chongqing】As for the counterpart support for Chongqing, in 2009, Xiamen launched 65 aid projects and allocated relief funds of 2 million Yuan. Based on the actual situations of Qianjiang District and Wulong County, these projects were mainly launched to support poverty alleviation leading enterprises, improve the rural roads and support labor transfer, etc. As Wanzhou District Industrial Park of Chongqing was initially formed with certain advantages as a port in the southwest areas, focusing on building the ability of the recipient regions for economic development through inviting merchants, Xiamen City helped it establish the immigrant employment base, introduced large-scale profitable enterprises for the base to achieve the updating of industrial structure, helped Wanzhou establish good investment environment for merchant inviting and enhance its competitiveness in introducing production-oriented enterprises and solved the problem of shortage of industries, immigrant resettlement and reservoir stability, which provided a large number of jobs, expanded the investment channels of enterprises in Xiamen and achieved win-win situation. Since 2009, Xiamen invested 12 million Yuan for three consecutive years (4 million Yuan per year) to help the twinned regions construct standard plants of 12000 square meters in the immigrant employment bases and build a platform to attract more enterprises of Xiamen to invest in Wanzhou, promote the industrial development of Wanzhou and increase employment opportunities for the poor in Wanzhou, Qianjiang and Wulong. Meanwhile, in order to support the enterprises of Xiamen to invest in Wanzhou, through negotiation of the governments of Xiamen and Wanzhou, the enterprises of Xiamen do not need to pay rental for business operation in the plants built with assistance of Xiamen City, but the enterprises must employ a certain number of poor people. In 2009, the plants were being built. After the project construction, it will accelerate the pace of industrial development, increase the economic aggregation and employments in Wanzhou, promote the employment of the poor and speed up the pace of shaking off poverty and getting rich. As Wulong County of Chongqing is mountainous with little land area, it is very difficult to lift the poor out of poverty. The county took tourism as the pillar industry and Xiamen municipal party committee and government provided support for it. Xiamen Municipal Economic Development Bureau, Xiamen Tourism Bureau and Xiamen Department of Publicity organized 30 tourism enterprises and media of the city to conduct field research in Wulong to promote the common development of tourism industry in Wulong and Xiamen. Supported by the governments of the two sides, the tourism industry of Wulong witnessed rapid development.

　　Under the powerful guidance of the governments of Xiamen and Chongqing, more and more enterprises of Xiamen invested in Chongqing. In 2009, through the coordination of Xiamen Counterpart Support Office, 100-mu Chongqing Yudong Jitian Wanzhou International Trading Logistic Industrial Park Project with investment of 1.6 billion Yuan from Jitian Investment Holding (Xiamen) Co., Ltd was officially launched in Wanzhou. In 2009, Wanzhou Port bonded warehouse was set up with investment of more than 20 million Yuan. This project will create the top-ranking modern logistic center of the reservoir area, promote the rapid development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industry of Wanzhou and increase employments for a large number of poor people to lift them out of poverty.

　　On June 5, 2009, Jiweishan Minery of Tiekuang Town, Wulong County of Chongqing witnessed mountain collapse. After the accident, Xiamen Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government sent a letter of sympathy to Wulong County on June 6 and mobilized the citizens to donate relief funds of 500,000 Yuan for the county.

　　【Counterpart support for Ningxia】As for the counterpart support for Ningxia, Xiamen City launched 23 aid projects and allocated 2 million Yuan of relief funds in 2009. It gave play to the leading role of the sending cadres, highlighted the support for three economic industries, three social projects and three livelihood projects as well as the construction of three platforms, insisted on three coordination: coordinated development of economy and social undertakings, coordinated development between urban and rural areas and coordinated development between counties and new districts, and strived to achieve the three objectives - wealthy people, economic prosperity and social harmony. Over the years, Xiamen invested a total of 7.806 million Yuan in kind or in cash for Haiyuan County, of which 6.1 million Yuan was relief funds and 1.706 million Yuan was ten batches of materials, and launched 30 aid projects. For Jingyuan County, it invested 6.8 million Yuan, launched 21 aid projects, donated materials valued 1.2 million Yuan and achieved good social benefits.

　　(Xiamen Counterpart Support Office)