Poverty Alleviation and Development in Fujian Province

　　【Overview】 In 2010, in accordance with the arrangements of the state and the Provincial Party Committee and Government, Fujian province continued to promote development-oriented poverty alleviation, focused on the implementation of pro-poor policies for villages and households, the improvement of the production and living conditions as well as self-development capacity of the poor and the income growth of poor people, did a good job of poverty relief and achieved good results.

　　In 2010, the province continued to implement the rural minimum living security system and determined the minimum living standard of 1200 Yuan. A total of 809,000 people were covered by the rural subsistence security system, accounting for 3.1% of the total rural population in the province. In the whole year, a total of 807 million Yuan of subsistence allowances were issued in rural areas, averagely 83 Yuan per person per month. The full implementation of the rural minimum living security system played a key role in revealing the overall situation of poverty in the province, laying a solid foundation for the implementation of poverty alleviation and development.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2010, the provincial financial department allocated nearly 390 million Yuan for poverty reduction and the financial anti-poverty funds provided by the city government also rose by 15.5% over the previous year. Government at all levels and various departments also increased investment in poor areas, integrated various types of funds to effectively improve the production and living conditions of the poor, and actively guided the investment of credit loans and social funds. In 2010, the credit unions in the province issued a total of 158 million Yuan of micro-credit loans to support the income growth of rural households; various financial institutions strengthened support for poverty alleviation leading enterprises and issued loans of 198 million Yuan for six national poverty alleviation leading enterprises. The government supported China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to implement farmers’ self-reliance projects and increased the loan capital of 20 million Yuan. Meanwhile, it launched pilot projects of loan guarantee service for poor households in Pingnan County and increased loans of 100 million Yuan.

　　【Poverty alleviation by providing micro-credit loans】First, continue to provide micro-credit loans for poverty reduction. It organized family planning department and women’s federations to issue micro-credit relying on rural cooperatives and guided postal savings banks and the Agricultural Bank of China to actively issue loans for households. The provincial financial department arranged interest subsidies of 10 million Yuan to encourage credit cooperatives to issue loans of 140 million Yuan for rural households living in poverty or covered by family planning system; Secondly, promote the construction of pilot projects for village-level mutual funds. The province launched pilot projects in 92 villages of 10 counties, covering 7,361 households, and issued 11.14 million Yuan to support 2,764 poor households to develop production; Thirdly, promote the construction of pilot projects for micro-credit loan guarantee services. It launched pilot projects of micro-credit loan promotion association for poverty reduction in Pingnan County to explore the establishment of micro-credit loan guarantee system for rural households; So far, more than 12 million Yuan of loans were issued to middle and low-income rural households and 900 rural households in 35 poor villages of 6 towns received loans; Fourthly, launch self-reliance projects of rural households in Fu’an and Xiapu County jointly with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. Based on the NGO management mode, it carried out poverty reduction by providing petty loans. In 2010, 13,011 loans of 65 million Yuan were issued to the two counties to support 10,052 rural households. The repayment rate reached 100%.

　　【Entire village advancement】 2010 is the last year for the implementation of the second round of entire village advancement and the first year for the promotion of a new round of entire village advancement. In 2010, Fujian Province comprehensively completed the task of the second round of entire village advancement, supported 674 key provincial and city villages, issued 349 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds to support the projects related to water, electricity, road, medical, health and technology in 228 provincial key villages and started the third round of entire village advancement. The province identified 220 provincial key villages for poverty alleviation and development, arranged 125 provincial and central government affiliated units to support the poverty reduction, sent 220 leaders of the organs directly under provincial government to act as cadres in villages and issued 44.53 million Yuan for the support work.

　　【Relocation-based poverty alleviation】 The Provincial Party Committee and Government has, for 17 consecutive years, included projects for the benefits of the poor (mainly relocation-based poverty alleviation) into practical projects for the masses, further increased support and enhanced the standard of subsidy to 2,500 Yuan per person. For the masses in old revolutionary base areas and ethnic minority areas, the government provided additional subsidies for the livelihood, and the Forestry Bureaus, Construction Commission, Land Bureau, the National Religious Committee and National Development and Reform Commission provided preferential relocation policies, the provincial financial department and related sectors arranged more than 3 million Yuan of special funds for the infrastructure construction in the migration zones. In 2010, more than 2.5 billion Yuan of public welfare project funds was invested, 76,000 people were relocated and 413 residence spots were constructed.

　　【Training and transfer of employment】 The province practiced the system of “one training for one households and one employment for one family”. The provincial financial department arranged 19.4 million Yuan of funds to organize special trainings for those covered by the minimum living security system and the poor people with the ability to work, aiming to increase employment opportunities and better serve them. In 2010, a total of 23,000 rural poor labors from 20 underdeveloped counties in Fujian received training, of which 21,000 labors were transferred after receiving trainings.

　　【Convergence of two systems】 The province continued to carry out pilot projects for convergence of poverty alleviation and development and the rural minimum living security system, developed and implemented pro-poor measures for the registered poor households, and put forward the pro-poor policy of “one plan for one household” based on the causes of poverty, including strengthening skills trainings for poor households, increasing subsidies for relocation in projects benefiting the public, encouraging the poor to apply for microcredit and provide interest subsidy, increasing efforts for industrial poverty alleviation, etc.

　　【Research on poverty line】 The Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and provincial statistic bureau investigation team jointly carried out the research on the poverty line of Fujian Province in the new era and initially calculated the proportion and number of rural low-income people in the province, analyzed the causes of poverty and proposed the poverty line of 2000 Yuan for rural areas in the new era based on the poverty lines of other provinces especially the eastern developed provinces in China, which was affirmed by the Provincial Party Committee and Government leaders.

　　【University students participate in fixed-point poverty alleviation】 In 2010, 100 university students were arranged to participate in the poverty alleviation as part of the “Three Supports and One Assistance” in Fujian Province. They mainly went to support 81 poor towns in 20 undeveloped counties. The Provincial Party Committee Organization Department sent 945 university students to poor villages for practice.   

　　【Fujian – Ningxia pairing-off poverty alleviation】With the high attention from both governments of Fujian and Ningxia, the 14th Joint Meeting of the 2 provinces was convened. Based on the poverty reduction program approved by the conference, the governments seriously implemented the measures for two provinces to learn from and support each other in poverty reduction, promoted poverty reduction by science and technology advancement, developed Juncao industry and constructed Juncao demonstration projects in three counties, namely Yongning, Yanchi and Haiyuan of Ningxia; sent the 7th batch of 18 cadres to work in 8 national key counties in the southern mountain areas of Ningxia and kept abreast of their current work.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 Through cooperating with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, the provincial “two committees” for poverty alleviation, democratic parties and social organizations, Fujian Province carried out various forms of social poverty reduction activities. It continued to implement the "Making Pregnancy Safer 120" Project, supported Zhenghe, Pingnan, Changting, Liancheng, Shanghang, Yongding and Wuping County to implement the "Making Pregnancy Safer 120" Project; promoted medical poverty reduction activities, and cooperated with democratic parties and social organizations to mobilize social forces to participate in the infrastructure construction in the areas concentrated with projects benefiting the public. The poverty alleviation departments in Nanping and Zhangzhou City organized medical service staffs to provide free medical services and medicines for the masses in impoverished regions. The government carried out pro-poor activities to help poor students and provide assistance for people to find jobs. The poverty alleviation departments in Fuzhou, Longyan and Yangping issued special funds to support the practical skills trainings of poor students from secondary vocational schools. Meanwhile, the province carried out a series of condolences activities to extend its regards to the cadres, poor households and disaster-hit people in villages.

　　【Pro-poor measures】  1. Make a breakthrough in the welfare project for the poor. First, promote the concentrated resettlement, large-scale resettlement and relocation of entire villages. The province combined public welfare projects with the construction of small towns, industrial zones and central villages, the poverty alleviation and development by entire village advancement, relocation due to disasters and post-disaster reconstruction, etc, which improved the large-scale concentrated resettlement work and accelerated the pace of entire village advancement. Among the 60,000 people involved in relocation program, 43,056 were covered by the concentrated resettlement, accounting for 71.7% of the total; 413 residence spots were constructed, including 119 large-scale residence areas for at least 100 households; and 331 natural villages were relocated, including 94 with more than 30 households. Secondly, increase investment in public welfare projects through various channels. A financial subsidy-oriented off-site relocation mechanism with public inputs as the core, fund integrated by relevant departments and great support from social forces has been gradually established. According to incomplete statistics of 50 counties, in 2010, 4.218 billion Yuan was invested in off-site relocation, of which 654 million Yuan was from the provincial financial departments, 180 million Yuan from the city and county financial departments and 3.384 billion Yuan from countryside and farmers. The public welfare project became an important channel and a highlight to expand rural demands. Thirdly, increase efforts on the integration of funds for infrastructure construction in the concentrated resettlement spots of public welfare projects. More than 33 million Yuan was raised from the Provincial Agriculture Office, Communications Department, Development and Reform Commission, National Land Agency, Department of Construction and the Old Revolutionary Base Office and more than 20 million Yuan were issued by city and county-level financial departments to support the infrastructure construction of public welfare projects to benefit the poor. Especially the 54 provincial demonstration zones for public welfare projects explored approaches to scientific planning, funding, house design, problem addressing for the masses, conservation of land, project management and community harmony, accumulated rich experience and fostered a number of model projects, which played a good leading role in the project construction. Fourthly, give priority to minorities and the households covered by the family planning. In 2010, among the objects of relocation in public welfare projects, 2635 households received the Honor Certificate for the Parents of a Single Child or had only two girls and then received sterilization surgery. 2500 Yuan of additional subsidy for one person was issued for each of such families. In addition 6.5875 million Yuan of subsidies were issued to family planning households. The project covered 1770 minority households and 8316 people, and arranged subsidies of 4.99 million Yuan. Fifthly, participate in post-disaster reconstruction. According to statistics, 36968 households were covered by the post-disaster reconstruction, including 18093 households and 74182 people for concentrated restoration, of which 4587 households involved in family planning and 1544 were minority people. The government strengthened the management on public welfare project planning, progress and quality for post-disaster reconstruction to ensure timely construction and relocation, and issued a total of 219 million Yuan for the construction of public welfare projects in post-disaster restoration.

2. Continue to enhance the level of entire village advancement. Through inverted methods, it identified provincial, city and county key villages for poverty alleviation and development in batches for the implementation of entire village advancement and established the “three-in-one” entire village advancement mechanism featured combination of departments, funds and village cadres. For each provincial key village, first of all, pairing-off poverty alleviation was carried out. Each provincial directly administrated unit must establish the pairing-off poverty reduction work system; Secondly, fund integration. 15 relevant provincial departments raised more than 40 million Yuan for the construction of provincial key villages. The funds for key villages are part of the aiding units’ annual budgets and, under unified management, are issued based on the decided amount of investment. The funds are all issued by the government, breaking the restriction of "unified channels and unified use". Thirdly, send cadres to give instruction. The Provincial Party Committee Organization Department sent a provincial cadre to act as the first party secretary of the village for three years, separated from the former unit. The cadre lived in the village and the relevant expenditure was paid by the department he served with, not increasing burden on grassroots government and local farmers. After the implementation of these three measures, remarkable achievements were made in the entire village advancement in Fujian Province and fundamental changes took place to the appearance of key villages. According to incomplete statistics, in 2010, 582 department and bureau-level leaders and 1,056 division-level (and below) organ cadres conducted surveys and researches in the key villages. The key villages received anti-poverty funds of 349 million Yuan in total, including bundled funds of 40 million Yuan. The aiding units and the units that sent cadres invested in 300 million Yuan to support the key villages, averagely 1.5 million Yuan or so for each village. 

3. Determine the rural poverty line of Fujian Province in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. Determination of a new poverty line is a basic work of planning for future rural poverty alleviation and development. According to the instructions of provincial government leaders, we must focus on the work. First, carry out survey. Based on the existing statistic data and the figures in rural minimum living security system of Fujian Province, we calculated the number of rural poor and measured the situation of income allocation together with the provincial investigation team to find out the distribution situation of population at different income levels in Fujian Province. Secondly, put forward the poverty line in the new era. Learning from the experience of eastern provinces and the top ten provinces with the highest income in determining poverty lines, based on the actual situation of economic and social development in Fujian, we put forward suggestions on the poverty line for the next five years. The Provincial Party Committee and Government leaders attached great importance to it. Secretary Sun Chunlan, Governor Huang Xiaojing and Executive Vice Governor Zhang Changping gave clear instructions and determined the poverty line of 2000 Yuan for the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. According to this standard, 1.032 million people with the ability to work lived below the poverty line, accounting for 5.85% of the rural population. Thirdly, gave preliminary consideration to household poverty relief policy in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. The General Office of the Provincial Party Committee and the General Office of the Provincial Government entrusted us to draft the "Opinions on Implementing the New Poverty Line and Strengthening Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development", which makes clear the objectives, task, job requirements, main measures, organization and leadership and provides policy measures on labor transfer training, differential subsidies for public welfare projects, microfinance and industrial poverty alleviation from the perspective of development-oriented poverty alleviation.

4. Establish a long-term mechanism for cooperation between Fujian and Ningxia. Steady progress was made in the pairing-off poverty alleviation. Fujian Ningxia party committees and governments attached high importance to the pairing-off poverty alleviation and, adhering to the principle of "complementary advantages, mutual benefit, long-term cooperation and common development", constantly innovated the aiding mechanism, expanded cooperation scale and actively explored effective forms for counterpart poverty reduction, forming a aiding mechanism combining government, enterprises and society. A series of work was carried out: First, pay exchange visits. At the beginning of 2010, we discussed relevant affairs on the 14th joint meeting in Fuzhou with the leaders from the General Office of Ningxia Party Committee, General Office of Ningxia Government and Ningxia Poverty Alleviation Office. In the Spring Festival, we held the sending cadre meeting and entrepreneur conference, summarized the experience of Fujian and Ningxia in counterpart poverty reduction and sought opinions of the participants on the holding of the 13th joint meeting. Secondly, hold the 14th joint meeting. Together with the General Office of Fujian Provincial Party Committee and the General Office of Fujian Provincial Government, we held the 14th joint meeting on counterpart poverty reduction of Fujian and Ningxia, prepared for the activities of the party and government representatives of the two provinces (regions) and seriously implemented the measures for cooperative poverty reduction of the two parties based on the pro-poor program developed by the minutes of meeting. Thirdly, vigorously promote poverty alleviation by science and technology. Fujian actively developed Juncao industry and focused on the implementation of Juncao demonstration projects in Yongning, Yanchi and Haiyuan County to accelerate the pace of localization of Juncao supply in Ningxia. Fourthly, do a good job of contacting sending cadres. Fujian Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office actively cooperated with the Provincial Party Committee Organization Department to send the seventh batch of 18 cadres to the southern mountain areas of Ningxia to support eight national key counties for exchange, keeping abreast of their work.