Poverty Alleviation and Development in Zhejiang Province

　　【Overview】 2010 is the third year for the implementation of income growth program for low-income population in Zhejiang Province. Under the correct leadership of the provincial government and with the support of LGOP, the governments at all levels and various departments in the province overcame difficulties, made steady progress, comprehensively completed the scheduled annual task of income growth of low-income people and maintained a good trend of further poverty reduction and sustained income growth of low-income people. The low-income rural households with per capita net income exceeding 2500 Yuan in Zhejiang Province increased by 562,000; 26 underdeveloped counties (cities, districts) and Huangyan District, Wucheng District and relevant towns in Lanxi City (hereinafter referred to as 29 counties) completed the off-site relocation of 78,000 people; the 29 counties recorded income of 5.08 billion Yuan through processing with supplied materials and organized trainings for 300,000 farmers. From 2008 to 2010, the per capita net income of 820,000 low-income households (2.04 million people) exceeded 2500 Yuan, of which 323,000 households (808,000 people) were in the 29 counties.

　　【Poverty line】 With the income growth of rural residents and the constant improvement of rural consumption level, the rural poverty line in Zhejiang Province has also been gradually enhanced. In the stage of key problem tackling for poverty reduction in poor towns, the stage of building a moderately prosperous society in underdeveloped towns and the stage of helping low-income farmers become wealthy in the new century, based on the actual situation of the province, Zhejiang determined the periodic poverty lines by itself. At the stage of key problem tackling for poverty reduction in poor towns from 2000 to 2002, the poverty line is 1500 Yuan of per capita net income; in the stage of building a moderately prosperous society in underdeveloped towns from 2003 to 2007, the poverty line changed to 2366 Yuan, and in the stage of helping low-income farmers become wealthy from 2008 and 2012, the poverty line is 2500 Yuan.

　　【Fiscal investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2010, Zhejiang issued a total of 476 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds (excluding functional poverty relief funds), of which 349 million Yuan was for off-site relocation, 72.12 million Yuan was for the development of the villages concentrated with low-income rural households (including the production funds for the villages concentrated with low-income rural households and subsidies for mutual funds organizations), 12 million Yuan for poverty relief microcredit interest discount and 20 million Yuan of awards for processing with supplied materials, with a total increase of 10 million Yuan (development funds for minorities) over the previous year. In addition, the provincial financial department also issued 1 billion Yuan of subsidies for the fiscal operation and development of less developed regions, which was allocated as general transfer payment for the modern agricultural development, new rural construction, infrastructure construction and livelihood protection in less developed regions. Driven by the provincial government, the city and county government in less developed areas also increased investment of poverty relief funds. The city financial department put in 135 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds, 12.25 million Yuan more than that issued in the previous year, up 10%; and the county government issued 433 million Yuan, 72.16 million Yuan more, up 20%.

　　【Featured farming and breeding】 According to the requirements for large-scale, standardized ecological agricultural development, the province steadily promoted the construction of food production functional areas and modern agricultural parks, vigorously developed tea, fruit, bamboo shoots, oil tea, edible mushroom and other featured agricultural production bases, and supported industrial and commercial enterprises to invest in and develop efficient ecological agriculture, extend agricultural industrial chain and increase agricultural value added. Meanwhile, it effectively strengthened support for irrigation and water conservancy construction, development of facility agriculture, purchase of agricultural machinery, building of forest roads, promotion of agricultural technology and development of farm produce brands, and vigorously developed leading agricultural enterprises and farmers’ cooperatives to increase farmers’ income. In 2010, there were a total of 8,047 poverty alleviation leading enterprises and professional anti-poverty cooperatives in the 29 counties and the cooperatives had a total of 416,200 members.

　　【Processing with supplied materials】 Taking advantage of the large number of private enterprises, sound development of the market and foreign trade as well as the convenient traffic in the province, Zhejiang actively developed processing with supplied materials, leaving marketing as the responsibility of clients. Taking supplied material processing as an important measure to increase the income of farmers through encouraging entrepreneurship or local employment in rural poverty alleviation and development, it strengthened policy support, built service platform, developed broker team and expanded the coverage, forming the employment structure of “no idlers anywhere anytime”. From May 26 to 29, 2010, the provincial government held in Yiwu a meeting on the supplied material processing of Zhejiang Province. 450 brokers from 40 counties provided skills training, sample display and negotiation service for free and agreements were reached on 1256 projects with processing fee of 113 million Yuan. Meanwhile, the work conference was convened to make further arrangements for accelerating the processing with supplied materials. In 2010, 806,000 people engaged in processing with supplied materials in the 29 counties and got paid 5.08 billion Yuan. The per capita income of the employees for processing was 6300 Yuan, and the provincial financial department issued 20 million Yuan of special funds to support the development of processing industry.

　　【Farmhouse leisure tourism】  Taking farmhouse leisure tourism as an important way to increase the income of less developed regions and low-income rural households, the province made scientific layout, developed operation themes, innovated the development mechanisms, improved the supervision models and strengthened policy guidance and public services to support farmers’ entrepreneurship and employment and promote the construction of ecological civilization, transformation of agriculture and the integrated development of urban and rural areas as well. In 2010, a total of 3,953 households and 29,600 people in the 29 counties engaged in farmhouse leisure tourism business and recorded operating income of 790 million Yuan.

　　【Farmer training and employment】 In order to achieve stable labor transfer and develop modern agriculture, the province strengthened skills trainings and employment services and assistance for low-income rural households to encourage low-income farmers to go out to work and encourage businessmen and migrant workers to return hometown for business operation. In 2010, the 29 counties organized trainings for 300,000 rural labors, including 86,000 low-income rural residents, and transferred 95,000 labors, of which 52,000 were from low-income rural households. It also held trainings for 200 brokers of processing business. Meanwhile, the province continued to implement the program of “fostering a thousand talents to promote the development of a thousand villages” and recruited 100 rural university students from underdeveloped regions; comprehensively strengthened the construction of 51 practical personnel training bases for rural areas, continued to provide employment assistance for rural households receiving the minimum living allowances and helped more than 6,000 labors from rural households receiving the minimum living allowances find jobs.

　　【Off-site relocation】 In accordance with the principle of "government guidance, voluntary basis, overall planning, implementation step by step, flexible resettlement and ensuring stability" and the requirements of ensuring "smooth relocation, stable livelihood and wealth", with counties, central towns, central villages and industrial zones as the main destinations of relocation, the province developed scientific planning, made meticulous organization and carried out strict construction, strengthened matching project construction and built a large number of immigrant communities with "reasonable layout, clean environment, complete functions, convenient conditions and good public security". A growing number of farmers in mountain areas achieved off-site relocation, transfer of employment and income growth. Taking farmers’ off-site relocation as one of the ten practical things done for the people, the provincial government increased the immigrants from 50,000 to 60,000 and raised the subsidy from 3000 Yuan in the last round of poverty reduction (2003-2007) to 5600 per capita this time. The provincial financial subsidies are not only provided for the immigrants from mountain areas and remote regions, but also to the masses who moved from the regions with hidden danger of geologic hazard, key reservoir areas and remote islands. In 2010, the province launched the project of "Relocation for Small Islands and Construction for Big Islands" in the island counties and districts, carried out comprehensive survey on the relocation of the masses from the regions with hidden danger of geologic hazard and successfully completed the construction of Phase II poverty reduction project in Wuxi River Reservoir area. 3.51 billion Yuan of construction funds were issued for the off-site relocation in the 29 counties and 78,000 rural residents were relocated.

　　【Infrastructure construction】In accordance with the requirements for equitable sharing of the results of reform and development, the province expanded the radiation area of urban growth in rural regions, speeded up the construction of rural highroads, drinking water projects, village improvement and rural information system, promoted the equitable allocation of public resources between urban and rural areas and various regions and improved the production and living conditions of low-income rural households. In 2010, the technical level of the village roads and rural highroad in less developed areas was significantly enhanced and the length was expanded. The province completed village highroad pavement of 3251 kilometers, highroad network building of 890 kilometers, invested 1.079 billion Yuan in rural drinking water projects and improved the drinking water conditions of 1.5 million rural residents.

　　【Social security】 In accordance with the requirements for equitable sharing of basic public services, the province improved the social assistance system, enhanced the level of social assistance, expand the coverage of minimum living security, education assistance and medical assistance, increased efforts on providing concentrated support, housing assistance and disaster relief for the objects of rural "five guarantee" system, enhanced the level of medical services and explored the establishment of rural endowment insurance system to reduce the possibility for low-income rural households to fall into poverty due to schooling, illness or disasters. In 2010, Zhejiang Province started the construction of 221 nursing homes with investment of 340 million Yuan and provided concentrated support for 43,753 people covered by rural "five guarantee" system, accounting for 96.9% of the total. 610,000 people received subsistence allowances, 245 Yuan per person per month averagely; 370,000 primary and middle school students and 420,000 secondary vocational school students received education assistance; 588,000 people received medical assistance, the financial departments arranged 600 million Yuan of medical aid funds, and 112,000 rural households’ dilapidated houses were renovated.

　　【Regional cooperation】Under the principle of "mutual benefit", the province continued the project construction of cooperation between mountainous and coastal areas and further promoted the cooperation between developed and underdeveloped regions in the field of economic development, technology, education, health care, personnel and employment to accelerate the bilateral flow of capital and labors, industrial transfer, labor service and off-site development. In 2010, a total of 3971 project agreements for cooperation between mountainous and coastal areas were signed in the province and 86.5 billion Yuan was issued; 886 industrial cooperation projects were implemented with investment of 29.986 billion Yuan; 41,500 labors received trainings and 35,800 people achieved transfer of employment.

　　【Social assistance】 Take advantage of its large number of private businesses and developed private economy, through extensive propaganda, active advocacy and the demonstration of party and political departments, the province enhanced the sense of social responsibility of enterprises and citizens, established the new pattern for provincial, city and county units, developed counties and towns and various enterprises to provide counterpart support for the villages concentrated with low-income rural households, and for county and town cadres to provide counterpart support for low-income rural farmers, and vigorously advocated social charity, forming the poverty reduction pattern of government guidance and public participation. In 2010, 213 million Yuan of counterpart poverty reduction funds were issued to the villages concentrated with low-income rural households, of which 135 million Yuan was invested by the provincial government.

　　【Microfinance on poverty alleviation】 It continued to practice the warranty-free discount poverty relief microfinance system. The provincial arranged 1 million Yuan of defray and advance payment funds for microfinance and demanded the county financial department to issue 2 million Yuan and county rural cooperatives to issue loans with a ratio no lower than 1:3 and the benchmark interest rate of the People's Bank of China at the same level for the same period. The provincial department of finance also provided 60% of interest discount. In 2010, the 29 counties provided petty loans of 410 million Yuan to support the economic development of 17,000 rural households.

　　【Pilot projects of village-level capital mutual organizations】 Based on the pilot projects arranged by LGOP in the province, Zhejiang expanded the pilot area. Based on the special funds of 200,000 Yuan for each pilot village issued by the provincial financial department (300,000 Yuan for the pilot projects designated by LGOP), through joint-stock cooperative system, the government encouraged farmers to participate in through equity participation in the pilot villages, which not only increased mutual funds, but also increased farmers’ capital operating income. As of the end of 2010, there were a total of 238 pilot villages in the province and 27,000 rural households participated in the mutual organizations, of which 18,000 were middle or low-income rural households; a total of 196 million Yuan of loans were issued to rural households and there was an increase of 910 Yuan in the per capita income of the members of mutual organizations.

　　【Investment and financing mechanism】 As a large amount of funds was needed for the construction of immigrant communities in the off-site relocation, the government actively explored the establishment of government-led new rural construction investment and financing companies to provide a platform for bank loans to flow to "three rural" construction and poverty alleviation. Longyou County government invested 10 million Yuan to launch Benkang Investment Co., Ltd., issued funds of 120 million Yuan to the Agricultural Development Bank for the construction of immigrant communities of 132,000 square meters for 983 households and more than 3200 people.

　　【Functional poverty alleviation】 In accordance with the clear division of responsibilities ​​in the “Action Plan for Income Growth of Low-income People" and the requirements for supporting 5200 villages concentrated with low-income rural households, relevant provincial functional departments developed the five-year planning, annual program and matching policy for functional poverty reduction and implemented not only the "GSP (Generalized System of Preferences)" projects, but also a large number of "special preferential system" projects. The leading group for poverty alleviation and development in the province was set up to make arrangements for the annual task. The Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and Provincial Government Supervision Office carried out special supervision and the results were factors for consideration of the provincial government in making assessments of annual target responsibility system of various provincial departments, which fully mobilized the enthusiasm of various departments. In 2010, 35 provincial functional departments implemented 118 functional poverty alleviation projects.

　　【Poverty alleviation by science and technology】 In 2003, Zhejiang Province established the science and technology correspondent system. From 2003 to 2004, 101 scientific and technical personnel of provincial research institutes, colleges and universities were sent to the former 101 poverty-stricken towns as science and technology correspondents every year. Since 2005, the science and technology correspondent system was promoted in Zhejiang Province and 211 provincial scientific and technical personnel were sent to support the 211 key underdeveloped towns supported by the province. City government also selected science and technology correspondents from local research institutes and schools and the province achieved the goal of providing science and technology correspondents for each of the 1279 towns. Since 2008, in order to make up for the limitations of single science and technology correspondent, the province established the corporate and team science and technology correspondent system. 19 corporate science and technology correspondents composed of legal persons of provincial research institutes or colleges were sent to support the development of 19 underdeveloped counties, and 120 team science and technology correspondents composed of 756 science and technology technicians of provincial research institutes and colleges were dispatched to 72 counties to support the development of 57 industries with regional characteristics. 

　　【Cooperation in poverty alleviation】 While promoting industrial and financial poverty alleviation, the province further strengthened cooperative poverty reduction and absorbed low-income farmers to participate in cooperative organizations through joint-stock cooperative system. As a result, the low-income farmers not only got paid, but also got dividend income. First, encourage and guide farmers’ cooperatives to absorb low-income households to join in. The government actively encouraged farmers’ cooperatives to absorb low-income rural households to help them develop base production and obtain dividend income. In such a way, the cooperation supported poverty reduction. The agricultural departments at all levels also strengthen support for the cooperatives with the function of poverty reduction, actively innovated the pattern for supporting professional cooperatives and allowed local governments to provide financial support for professional cooperatives based on the number of low-income farmer members or issue funds for the cooperatives as equity of low-income farmer members. Secondly, set up capital mutual organizations through joint-stock cooperative system in the villages concentrated with low-income rural households. While implementing pilot projects for establishing capital mutual organizations in the villages concentrated with low-income rural households, through joint-stock cooperative system, the government allowed multi-strands to be held by one household (but no more than 10% of the total capital stock; need approval) and provide year-end dividends. Meanwhile, part of the capital stock provided by the provincial financial department could be quantized as the stock of low-income farmers so that more low-income farmers would become co-entrepreneurs to get the stock or interest dividends.

　　【Village-level collective economy】 Since 2008, Zhejiang Province has taken many measures to support low-income rural households to develop village-level collective economy. First, develop collective property economy. The province efficiently used the idle collectively owned real estate for leasing of stock house property; used collective construction land, village-level retained land, government support funds and counterpart assistance funds to implement collective property projects in towns, industrial zones, central villages, off-site relocation communities and other places with good conditions. Secondly, develop modern agricultural projects. Using the land under unified collective management and the land transferred through land contracting right, combined with the land consolidation, facility agriculture and base construction projects supported by the government, the province developed collectively-owned modern agricultural projects. Thirdly, strengthen the collective asset management. It encouraged the villages without development space to use anti-poverty funds and collective monetary assets to increase the value of collective assets through off-site purchase of property and equity participation in the enterprises with high-quality assets in stable development; encouraged collectives to participate in industrial development through leasing and equity participation of collective “four waste” economic forests, water and other resources. Fourthly, explore methods for quantization of financial resources. The province encouraged local governments to quantify all or some of the funds for supporting agricultural leading enterprises and farmers’ cooperatives as the stock of collective economic organizations in the villages concentrated with low-income rural households so that the villages concentrated with low-income rural households will have certain equity or fixed dividends in agricultural leading enterprises and professional cooperatives.

　　【Anti-poverty mechanism of “one plan and one helping unit for each village”】 Since 2008, the provincial party committee and government started a new round of counterpart poverty reduction, the provincial, city and county government established the system for counterpart poverty reduction of 5200 villages concentrated with low-income rural households and practiced the anti-poverty measure of “one plan and one helping unit for each village”. 29 anti-poverty teams composed of 295 units, including provincial authorities, institutions (research institutions, universities, colleges, large hospitals), state-owned enterprises, developed counties and towns and large-scale private enterprises, etc were organized to provide counterpart assistance for 2000 villages concentrated with low-income rural households in 29 counties for five years. The other 3200 villages concentrated with low-income rural households received counterpart assistance from city and county organizations. By developing anti-poverty initiatives, they implemented poverty relief projects with anti-poverty funds, which effectively promoted the income growth of low-income rural households and the economic and social development in less developed regions. In 2010, the provincial helping team implemented more than 1800 poverty relief projects with anti-poverty funds of 135 million Yuan, and introduced investment of 142 million Yuan to increase the income of 92.500 low-income rural households.

　　【Anti-poverty mechanism of “one plan and one cadre for each household”】 Since 2008, the anti-poverty mechanism of “one plan and one cadre for each household” was comprehensively implemented in the income growth projects for low-income rural households. The city, county, town and village cadres provided counterpart assistance for 1.11 million low-income rural households, with nobody missing. Based on the actual situation of the low-income rural households, the cadres made clear the development ideas, determined development projects and implemented the pro-poor measures. Through the counterpart support for economic development, industrial development, technological service and employment, the province achieved the goal of income-growth program for all low-income rural households.

　　【Special support policy for key underdeveloped counties】 In 2010, based on extensive research, the provincial government decided to provide three-year special support for 12 least underdeveloped counties (cities, districts) with the heaviest task of ecological protection and the most remote geological location from 2011 onwards, namely Taishun, Wencheng, Kaihua, Songyang, Qingyuan, Jingning, Pan’an, Qujiang, Changshan, Longquan, Yunhe and Suichang. 200 million Yuan of anti-poverty fund shall be issued per year for the former six counties and 80 million Yuan for the latter six counties. Focusing on the main task of increasing farmers' income, improving living standard and enhancing the endogenous development capacity, according to the requirements of "principle set by province, projects selected by counties, project management, closed operation and county-based bottom-up linkage", the province combined development acceleration with transformational development, adhered to the fundamental purpose of human development, basic way of green development, major strategy of cluster development and powerful driving force of innovation and development, and strived to seek transformational development in development acceleration and promote development in the transformational development, embarking on the way of enriching people by ecological construction and scientific development through new-type industrialization, new-type urbanization and new rural construction and ecological civilization. Main objectives: By 2013, rural per capita net income is expected to reach 8000 Yuan in the counties (cities, districts) with an average annual growth of 11%; per capita net income of more than 80% of the low-income rural households (excluding the rural households receiving the minimum living allowances) is expected to reach or exceed 4000 Yuan; basically eliminate rural households with per household net income below 2500 Yuan in 2011 and significantly improve the level of development of education, health care and culture industry.

　　【Youth Care Action for Low-income Rural Households】 The Youth Care Action for Low-income Rural Households organized by the Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League is part of social poverty alleviation. With organizational advantage, the Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League mobilized the Youth League members and young entrepreneurs of Zhejiang Province to participate in poverty reduction and provide counterpart support for the young from low-income rural households for their schooling, medical care and employment. In 2010, together with Zhejiang Education TV and Zhejiang Provincial Youth Development Foundation, the Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League launched the television program of "Hand-in-hand", held on-site activities for college students from low-income rural households to realize their dreams and encouraged warmhearted people to help the youth from low-income rural households. More than 230 young people from low-income rural households who participated in the activity all received counterpart assistance and more than 1 million Yuan of student grant-in-aid was issued. In 2010, more than 89,000 young people from low-income households received counterpart assistance and 72.02 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds was issued. The twinning assistance rate reached 79.3%.

　　【Effective convergence of two systems】  Zhejiang Province established and implemented the integrated urban and rural minimum living security system as early as in 1996. Since the beginning of the new century, the poverty line of Zhejiang Province has been higher than the rural minimum living security standard and pro-poor measures covered all objects of the rural minimum living security system, especially after the objective of anti-poverty work changed from elimination of absolute poverty to alleviation of relative poverty in 2003, the task of the rural minimum living security system is to guarantee the basic living of people living in absolute poverty, while the objective of poverty alleviation is to help those living in relative poverty to enhance their capacity for income growth and increase their income. The objects of the rural minimum living security system continue to enjoy pro-poor policy. Rural poverty reduction has been effectively linked with the rural minimum living security system. By 2010, the per capita net income of 820,000 households and 2.04 million low-income rural households in Zhejiang exceeded 2500 Yuan, and the per capita net income of 290,000 households and 670,000 low-income rural households was still less than 2500 Yuan. The objects of rural minimum living security system in Zhejiang increased from 562,000 at the end of 2007 to 610,000 at the end of 2010, and the average rural subsistence allowance increased from 160 Yuan per person per month in 2007 to 245 Yuan per person per month in 2010.

　　【Income Growth Project of Low-income Urban Households】 Income Growth Project of Low-income Rural Households is a pro-poor measure implemented in urban areas since 2008. This project and the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households" are the action plans for income growth of low-income people. The main contents include support action for entrepreneurship and employment, expansion of the coverage of social security and social charity. In 2010, 60% of the communities in Zhejiang Province reached the standards for “communities of full employment”, trainings were organized for 21500 people with disabilities, and there was an increase of 8500 in the number of disabled people; the government provided employment assistance for 1889 university graduates from needy families and helped 154,300 people with difficulties in finding jobs achieve re-employment, basically achieving the goal of “immediate problem addressing for urban zero-employment families whenever such families occurred); the number of urban residents participating in basic medical insurance reached 5.4 million. The province comprehensively achieved the goal of “low-rent housing guarantee for all urban low-income families with housing difficulties and household income below twice the minimum living allowances, covering 14,200 additional families, including 6005 families guaranteed by material distribution and lease.

　　【Informatized management of poverty alleviation】 The province developed the anti-poverty information management system, established low-income rural household database, the database of villages concentrated with low-income rural households and the database of the youth from low-income rural households, established “Zhejiang Poverty Alleviation Information Network” and the webpage for the villages concentrated with low-income rural households and practiced informatized management on the implementation of eight actions in the field of special poverty relief, functional poverty reduction and counterpart poverty alleviation. Information of database is updated annually. In 2010, the Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Statistic Bureau jointly established the anti-poverty statistics monitoring system. Targeting at the above mentioned 29 counties and the 11 counties with more than 5,000 low-income rural households (excluding those covered by the rural minimum living security system) (covered over 80% of the low-income rural households in Zhejiang Province), 200 sample households of each county were selected for the survey on family income and personal consumption of low-income rural households of the province. The province made analysis and assessment of the "Moderate Prosperity Project of Low-income Rural Households" in 40 counties (cities, districts) of 11 cities.

　　Meanwhile, the province practiced the system of “online declaration, online publicity, online verification, online statistics and online annual inspection” for the implementation of poverty relief projects to improve work efficiency and strengthen management, forming a relatively complete effective network management system. Currently, online household and project management is practiced for annual off-site relocation projects involving more than 60,000 people and the development projects of a few thousand low-income rural households, and anti-poverty project analysis and monitoring can be conducted online.

　　【Poverty reduction conferences】 Zhejiang Province tends to promote anti-poverty work by holding meetings. In 2010, the following conferences on anti-poverty work were convened in the province:

　　On February 24, the Provincial Office of Agricultural Affairs and Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office held in Hangzhou the meeting for directors of Zhejiang Provincial Office of Agricultural Affairs and the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office. The conference reviewed and summarized the work done by the Provincial Office of Agricultural Affairs and Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office in 2009, put forward specific requirements for implementing the spirit of the rural work meeting of Zhejiang Province and rewarded the advanced units under the Provincial Office of Agricultural Affairs and Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office in 2009.

　　On May 17, the Provincial Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development held an enlarged meeting in Hangzhou. The event fully affirmed the achievements made by the province in the field of poverty reduction, made in-depth analysis of the difficulties and problems in the current poverty reduction work and assigned the task of poverty reduction for the next phase.

　　On May 28, the Matching and Work Conference on supplied material processing was convened in Yiwu City jointly by the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, Provincial Women’s Federation and Yiwu City Government. It made arrangements for promoting the development of processing with supplied materials and rewarded 2009 Excellent Processing Brokers and Villages.

　　On September 16, the Provincial Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development held a meeting and approved in principle the Planning for Income Growth and Moderate Prosperity Project of the Masses of six counties, namely Taishun, Wencheng, Kaihua, Songyang, Jingning and Qingyuan.

　　On December 2, the work conference on the income growth and moderate prosperity of the masses in key underdeveloped counties was held by the provincial party committee and government. It affirmed the results achieved in economic and social development of less developed regions, especially the key underdeveloped regions since the implementation of the “11th Five-Year Plan” and made overall arrangements for supporting the masses of key underdeveloped counties to increase income and get rich. After the meeting, the Provincial Information Office held the press conference and the leaders of the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and six key less developed counties released relevant news on the meeting.

　　On December 10, a conference on promoting functional poverty alleviation and counterpart poverty reduction was convened in Qujiang District of Quzhou City jointly by the Provincial Party Committee and Government. According to the meeting, we must further strengthen work responsibility, innovate the working mechanism and adhere to the combination of special poverty relief, functional poverty alleviation and social poverty reduction to jointly accelerate the development of less developed regions and increase the income of low-income people.

　　【Study of pro-poor policies】 From April 9 to 11, Fan Xiaojian, Deputy Director of the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development and Director-General of LGOP paid a visit to Wenzhou and Lishui of Zhejiang Province for survey on the poverty reduction in the process of urbanization. The delegation headed by Fan Xiaojian visited Taishun County of Wenzhou City and Yunhe County of Lishui City for survey on the relocation of poor She (phonetic, a minority in China) people from mountainous areas and the processing business. They interviewed low-income rural households, lived in the homes of migrant workers, poverty alleviation leading enterprises and on labor transfer training bases to learn in detail information on data filing of poor households, convergence of two systems, capital mutual organizations in the villages concentrated with low-income rural households and labor transfer trainings, etc, and held talks with the masses and local cadres. Fan Xiaojian highly praised the achievements and experience of Zhejiang Province in exploring ways for poverty alleviation and development in the process of urbanization.

　　From March 23 to 24, Zhao Hongzhu, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of People's Congress of Zhejiang Province successively visited Taishun County and She Nationality Autonomous County in Jingning for field research and held a seminar on accelerating the development of underdeveloped areas in Hangzhou on March 25. In the field research, Zhao Hongzhu visited Xiashan migrant village of She Nationality Town in Taishun County, Songyang Community’s Health Center, Lizhong Bamboo and Wood Co., Ltd, Hexi Town Huiming White Tea Base in Jingning County, the scenic spot of “Window of She Nationality Town” and Gangshi She Nationality Village in Dajun, Jingning Middle School and China She Nationality Museum. Zhao put forward that we must set a scientific development goal for the underdeveloped regions in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period and take economic transition as the main line, improvement of people’s livelihood as the purpose, development of featured industries as the starting point, innovative support policy as the guarantee and reform deepening as the driving force to strengthen the self-development capacity of less developed regions and achieve the leapfrog development of less developed areas. At the conference, Zhao Hongzhu fully affirmed the good performance of less developed regions in economic and social development in the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, talked about the great significance of accelerating the development of less developed regions under the new situation and put forward clear requirements for anti-poverty work in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

　　From July 20 to 22, Lv Zushan, the Deputy Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and Governor of Zhejiang Province visited the vocational technical training bases, resettlement spots for disaster-hit people and agricultural product processing enterprises in Longquan, Qingyuan and Cuichang for field research and carried out survey on the construction of central towns. In the field research, Lv Zushan chaired a seminar in Qingyuan on poverty alleviation of key underdeveloped counties and pointed out that according to the strategic deployments of the 12th Party Congress on building a moderately prosperous society benefiting all the people in Zhejiang Province, through combining “general beneficial” and “special preferential” measures, we must strive to accelerate the development of less developed areas, especially the key underdeveloped counties and help low-income people shake off poverty and get rich.

　　【African research groups carried out survey on the poverty alleviation in Zhejiang】 From June 11 to 16, the participants of the Seminar on Policies for Poverty Reduction and Social Development in MDG Process from French -speaking African countries conducted field research in Zhejiang for survey on local poverty relief work.

　　The event was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, prepared by LGOP and organized by International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC). Themed “the progress, policies and experience of China and African counties in achieving MDGs”, with the purpose of “promoting the policy sharing and experience exchange between China and African countries in the field of poverty reduction and development, the seminar analyzed the problems and challenges for poverty reduction and development in African countries and explored approaches to the improvement of poverty reduction strategy systems of African developing countries.” 29 ministerial, department and division-level officials from 15 countries, namely Benin, Burundi, Togo, Congo (Brazzaville), Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Central Africa respectively carried out field research in Hangzhou, Quzhou and Yiwu of Zhejiang Province.

　　During the visit in Zhejiang, the delegation conducted investigations into the agricultural demonstration zones, villages, enterprises, bases, yards, community hospitals and markets and visited Zhejiang (China) Xiaoshan Flower and Plants Town In Xiaoshan of Hangzhou, Chanhua Agricultural Hi-tech Zone, Huajia Village Edible Mushroom Industrial Park in Hunan Town of Qujiang District, the supplied material processing point in Baiwukou Village, Huajia Village Xiashan Poverty Reduction point, national poverty alleviation leading enterprise Zhejiang Songxing Food Co., Ltd, processing and production base Jiangshan City Kangyi Toys Factory, Huayuangang Village of Qinghu Town – a key community for relocation-based poverty alleviation in Jiangshan City, Nianbadu Town Gerocomium, Chendong Community – a community for relocation-based poverty alleviation in Longyou County, Yiwu China Commodity City - the world’s largest commodity wholesale market and large private enterprise Neoglory Holdings Group Co., Ltd, etc.

　　The policies and practices of Zhejiang for poverty alleviation and development and Zhejiang’s experience in industrial development, training for employment and off-site relocation all impressed the delegation.