Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province

　　【Overview】 In 2010, the poverty alleviation and development of Guangdong targeted at 3,409 poor villages and 760,000 poor households and assigned the task of fixed-point poverty alleviation to more than 5,000 aiding units in the province. In accordance with the requirements of “plan for households and responsibility on individuals” (hereinafter referred to as “Shuangdao”), the aiding units dispatched 11,524 cadres to villages, made records of more than 370,000 poor households and achieved fixed-point, fixed-person and fixed-responsibility poverty reduction; developed poverty relief program for poor villages and annual project implementation plan, established the assessment and responsibility system covering all links of “Shuangdao” and developed cadre management regulations, which effectively promoted the implementation of “Shuangdao” work in poverty alleviation and development. As a result, the grassroots democracy-building, organizational and spiritual civilization construction in poor villages were further strengthened, there was a significant increase in the income of poor households and a substantial progress in public welfare of impoverished villages, the village appearance was obviously improved, villagers' morale was significantly enhanced, rural customs obviously changed, and the mechanism for poor villages and households to shake off poverty was gradually established, laying a solid foundation for the economic and social development in poor villages. According to statistics, in 2010, the per capita net income of the identified 371,000 poor households and 1.558 million poor people in Guangdong reached 2,410 Yuan, 822 Yuan more than that before poverty reduction, up 51.76%, the per capita net income of 156,000 poor households reached 2500 Yuan, accounting for 42.19% of the total poor. These people have basically shaken off poverty and the poverty relieve rate was 12.19 percentage points above the planned figure. The collective income of 3,409 poor villages reached 102.49 million Yuan, 58.59 million Yuan more than that before poverty relief, up 133.46%, averagely 30100 Yuan per village.

　　【Party and government leadership】 Provincial leaders attached great importance to the “Shuangdao” work in poverty alleviation and development of Guangdong. In March and May 2010, Member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee Wang Yang paid a visit to Heyuan and Shaoguan for field research on “Shuangdao” program. In November, Vice Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Governor Huang Huahua went to Shaoguan for field research on “Shuangdao” work in poverty alleviation and development. On June 19, the Provincial Party Committee and Government held in Shaoguan an on-site meeting on “Shuangdao” work in poverty alleviation and development, summarized the “Shuangdao” work in Guangdong over the past year and made arrangements the next step. Secretary Wang Yang and Governor Huang Huahua attended the meeting and delivered important speeches. In the second half of 2010, the Standing Committee of Provincial Party Committee successively held seven conferences to listen to reports of 21 prefectural-level cities on “Shuangdao” work. Secretary Wang Yang and Governor Huang Huahua gave important instructions at each of the conferences, forming meeting decisions, and guided the implementation of work. On October 22, the seminar on “Shuangdao” work of poverty alleviation and development in Guangdong Province was convened. Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee Wang Yang attended the event and delivered an important speech. On November 18 and 19, the Provincial Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development held the seminar on “Shuangdao” work in poverty alleviation and development in the east, west and north of Guangdong by the provincial directly affiliated units and the units in Guangdong directly under the central governments, which promoted the implementation of anti-poverty work. Executive Vice Governor Zhu Xiaodan and Vice Governor Li Rong were present at the conference. Each of the 13 members of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Party Committee and the Vice Governor responsible for agricultural and rural work was designated to support one city and all of them conducted field research in the city on “Shuangdao” work. The city and county party and government leaders all personally went to the villages for field research on the work. Main leaders and members of the units directly under the provincial or central government went to the designated villages many times to carry out inspection on work. Party committees and governments at all levels as well as the aiding units established special leading organs. In 2010, according to statistics, nearly 200,000 leaders at all levels of Guangdong Province visited the villages and more than 1.4 million cadres and staffs carried out investigations into rural households.

　　【Funding】 The province increased efforts on “Shuangdao” work in poverty alleviation and development. As of the end of December of last year, Guangdong had issued a total of 4.421 billion Yuan of special funds, including 1.914 billion Yuan of financial funds, 33 million Yuan of credit funds, 1.28 billion Yuan raised by various units, 203 million Yuan raised by individuals, 386 million Yuan donated by social forces and 513 million Yuan introduced from society, averagely 1.297 million Yuan for each village, and more than 1 million Yuan was issued for 1,633 villages. Among the investment that year, 1.1 billion Yuan was for poor households, nearly 3,000 Yuan per household; and 3.32 billion Yuan was for poor villages, averagely 970,000 Yuan per village. Meanwhile, Guangdong Province supported 3,409 poor villages to develop 7556 economic construction projects, including 5,336 agricultural development projects, 1,090 industrial development projects, 540 business tourism projects and 592 investment projects. During the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, the province will invest 5.415 billion Yuan to renovate the dangerous houses of 541,500 rural poor households and raise 1.8 billion Yuan to solve the relocation problem of 60,000 households and 300,000 people to effectively promote the smooth implementation of “Shuangdao” work.

　　【Social participation】 In 2010, the party committees and governments at all levels all mobilized social forces to participate in poverty alleviation and development. More than 5,000 organs, enterprises and institutions were involved in fixed-point poverty reduction. In the activity of “6.30 Poverty Alleviation Day of Guangdong”, 3 billion Yuan was donated by all circles of society in Guangdong Province, of which more than 1.6 billion Yuan was donated by private entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the central, provincial and city media all comprehensively reported the “Shuangdao” work of Guangdong in various forms, creating a good atmosphere for the establishment of a great pattern of poverty alleviation promoted by government and participated by all circles of society.

　　【Improve people's livelihood】 In 2010, in the 3,409 poor villages of Guangdong, we addressed the housing problem of 26,109 low-income families, accounting for 16.8% of the total low-income households; included 48,922 poor households meeting relevant conditions into the coverage of rural minimum living security system, helped 362,000 poor households to participate in the new rural cooperative medical system, built hardened roads of 7956.1 kilometers for poor villages, completed 4,076 farmland and irrigation projects to benefit 1.073 million mu of area; addressed the drinking water problem of 669,000 households in poverty-stricken villages, making more than 95% of the poor households have access to safe drinking water, and built 9,655 public cultural and health facilities. 100% of the school-age children from poor families had the opportunity to go to school and the students from needy families who were admitted to high schools or colleges could continue their schooling. The government transferred 110,700 labors from poor families who were willing to change jobs.

　　【Work measures】  1. Establish targeting mechanism and implement "targeted therapy" to answer the question "who help the poor". Make clear the number of poor people first. Based on the number of the poor with annual per capita net income below 1,500 Yuan identified in 2007, the government organized relevant people to conduct an intensive verification on the poor in Guangdong and clearly stated that all those with annual per capita net income below 2,500 Yuan in 2009 were targets of poverty reduction. It made records of poor villages and poor households to ensure “records are made for all households, villages, towns and counties”; made dynamic data and alleviation records of the poor, achieved online management and established the real-time online monitoring system in Guangdong Province. The poverty relief plans and pro-poor measures of aiding units were based on the principle of “combination of long-term and medium-term poverty reduction, combination of big and small projects and combination of industrial poverty relief and training, labor transfer and employment”. They supported not only villages but also rural households so that all the poor under different conditions could receive assistance, featured “one plan for one village and one method for one household”. 2. Develop ideas and explore ways for poverty reduction to lift people out of poverty. First, poverty alleviation by regional economic cooperation; Second, poverty alleviation by agricultural industrialization; Third, poverty alleviation by tourism; Fourth, poverty reduction by equity-participation economic projects; Fifth, helping the poor by providing credit loans; Sixth, helping the poor by skills training; Seventh, poverty alleviation through helping students; Eighth, medical poverty reduction; Ninth, poverty reduction with means of production; Tenth, poverty alleviation by guaranteeing basic living; Eleventh, poverty alleviation by “warmth projects”; Twelfth, poverty alleviation by infrastructure construction and public services; Thirteenth, relocation-based poverty alleviation; Fourteenth, poverty alleviation by construction of grassroots organizations.

　　【Institutional construction】 First, strengthen the construction of grassroots organizations in impoverished areas. It developed the “Regulations on the Management and Use of Village Cadres for ‘Shuangdao’ Work in Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province” to clearly state that aiding units must strengthen the construction of cadre teams in poor villages and carry out one-for-one poverty relief activity of party branch; and sent relevant staffs to act as “village cadres” to strengthen the capacity of leadership. Second, establish and improve relevant law system. It developed the "Methods for Assessment of ‘Shuangdao’ Work in Poverty Alleviation and Development of Guangdong Province", "Interim Measures on Accountability System for ‘Shuangdao’ Work in Poverty Alleviation and Development of Guangdong Province", "Work Responsibility System for Both Parties Involved in ‘Shuangdao’ Work in Poverty Alleviation and Development of Guangdong Province" and some other regulations. Third, conducted extensive publicity and provided guidance. It organized the “Red Flag”, “Five 100” and other contests for advanced units or individuals to promote the implementation of work; CCTV’s "News Investigation", "China Economic Weekly", "Nanfang Daily" and other mainstream media made ​​a series of reports on the "Shuangdao" work. Fourth, establish a long-term mechanism for social mobilization and participation. Relying on the activity of "Poverty Alleviation Day of Guangdong Province" and CPC’s activities on July 1st, the party and government organs at all levels, enterprises, institutions and social organizations carry out regular donations and condolences activities in various forms every year.