Poverty Alleviation by National Development and Reform Commission

　　【Overview】 In 2010, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) drafted the Opinions on the Economic and Social Development of Inner Mongolia jointly with relevant national authorities and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In early August, it developed the work plan and held a meeting to start the work. 44 State Council departments and central enterprises participated in the work. In late August, the joint investigation group of national ministries carried out field research in Inner Mongolia. Divided into 10 thematic groups, the investigation group went to 12 union cities in Inner Mongolia, interviewed the rural households, industrial and mining enterprises, schools, hospitals, border crossings and border posts to seek opinions from local cadres and masses and got a large quantity of first-hand material. After investigation, the thematic groups began to write research report. In late September, they completed the research report and submitted it to NDRC. After October, based on the research report, NDRC and relevant department of Inner Mongolia began to concentrate on drafting the opinion document and completed the draft writing at the end of 2010. The Opinion will study and put forward the guiding ideology, strategic positioning, basic principles, priorities and support policy for sound and rapid economic and social development of Inner Mongolia in the future, which is of great importance to the optimization of the economic structure, improvement of people’s production and living conditions and promoting regional sustainable economic development.

　　【Construction of poverty alleviation system】 In 2010, NDRC implemented the spirit of the Fifth Central Work Conference on Tibet, focusing on improving the working mechanism, developing special planning and strengthening counterpart support. First, form a special working group for economic and social development. In accordance with the requirements of the Central Government, NDRC set up a special working group for economic and social development, developed the work systems, clarified the main task, formed relevant departments and established the working mechanism. Member units were required to implement the spirit of the Fifth Central Work Conference on Tibet and guide and coordinate the counterpart policy, project and economic support for the economic and social development of Tibet and the Tibetan regions in four provinces; Secondly, promote the development of planning. NDRC participated in the development of the “12th Five-Year Plan “for leapfrog development of Tibet and the Tibetan regions in four provinces and gave instructions to relevant provinces on developing planning to support Tibet; Thirdly, provide counterpart support for economic development. According to relevant requirements of the Central Government, NDRC held the work conference on providing counterpart support for economic development of Tibet and the work conference on providing counterpart support for economic development of Tibetan regions in Qinghai Province and clarified the general idea, main tasks and work requirements for the counterpart support for Tibet and Tibetan regions in Qinghai Province. It also cooperated with relevant parties to organize cadre trainings for the counterpart poverty reduction. Fourthly, develop the General Plan for the Development of Qinghai Sanjiangyuan Comprehensive Experimental Ecological Protection Zone. According to the requirements of the State Council, NDRC organized the composition and revision of the General Plan for the Development of Qinghai Sanjiangyuan Comprehensive Experimental Ecological Protection Zone. The policy document on supporting the development of Tibetan regions in Qinghai issued by the State Council clarified that the establishment of Qinghai Sanjiangyuan Comprehensive Experimental Ecological Protection Zone is an important measure to promote the sustainable development of Sanjiangyuan of Qinghai and can help explore new ways for sustainable development of such regions and provide experience for other regions.

　　【Pro-poor strategy and policy system adjustment and research】As a member unit of the drafting group, NDRC participated in the drafting work of the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas (2011-2020)", including study of outline, document drafting, revisal and improvement, and proposed revisions on relevant objectives, tasks, target range, pro-poor policies and supporting measures. In this process, NDRC participated in identifying contiguous poor areas, setting poverty line and further promoting fixed-point poverty reduction, set up a working group to identify contiguous poor areas, developed the basic principles, indicator system, methods and work requirements for identifying contiguous poor areas and put forward objective, accurate, fair, impartial and feasible suggestions for decision-making of the leaders. Meanwhile, NDRC carried out special study on promoting the development of ethnic minorities and minority areas, reported to relevant departments of National People’s Congress and National Political Consultative Conference about relevant work and opinions and put forward suggestions on the study and development of the guiding line and policy system for promoting the development of ethnic minorities and minority areas in the 12th Five-Year Plan period. In addition, NDRC conducted special research on the leapfrog development of border areas of Yunnan, accelerating the development of old revolutionary base areas of Sichuan and Shaanxi and poverty reduction of Shanyao people in Yunnan, etc, and gave priority to these areas in allocation of anti-poverty funds.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2010, NDRC further increased investment in rural poor areas and continued to give priority to the regions with a large poor population, special difficulty for poverty reduction, weak infrastructure and severely hit by disasters to improve the living and development conditions of impoverished areas, laying a solid foundation for lifting poor masses out of poverty as soon as possible. In the field of poverty reduction by work relief, in 2010, NDRC allocated a total of 5.5 billion Yuan of central government’s work-relief funds, of which 4 billion Yuan was the fiscal budget fund and 1.5 billion Yuan was in the budget of central government. Plus local matching funds, the total investment amounted to 6.91 billion Yuan. It planned to build basic farmland of 660,000 mu in rural poor areas, improve farmland irrigation area of 3.27 million mu, build rural highroads of 17,000 kilometers, solve the drinking water problem of 1.02 million people and 780,000 head of livestock, reduce soil erosion area of 2,400 square kilometers and build grassland of 432,000 mu. According to the investment plan, the state planned to allocate 733 million Yuan of work-relief funds, which will be directly issued to the rural poor involved in project construction to help them earn more money. As for off-site poverty relief relocation, in 2010, NDRC allocated a total of 2.495 billion Yuan, of which 2 billion Yuan was from the central government. It planned to relocate 421,200 rural poor residents, including 337,600 in national key counties for poverty alleviation and development. The poverty reduction targeted at the rural poor without basic living conditions or seriously threatened by geological disasters and the poor farmers and herdsmen who must move for the construction of ecological projects. At the same time, while investing in agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, transportation, energy, social undertakings, ecological protection, comprehensive utilization of resources, industrial development and technological innovation jointly with relevant departments, NDRC also gave more priority to rural poor areas to support the overall, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development.

　　【Work-relief and off-site poverty relief relocation】To mitigate the impact of economic crisis on poor rural areas, since the fourth quarter of 2008, the state arranged, for three consecutive years, work-relief demonstration projects and off-site poverty relief relocation projects in central government budget for investment to expand domestic demand. To sum ​​up the experience, NDRC organized local governments to summarize the allocation of central government investment in work relief and off-site poverty relief relocation as well as the project implementation since the fourth quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, to summarize the effectiveness of work-relief forestry demonstration projects over the years and further improve the work-relief ideology, NDRC organized relevant provincial development and reform commissions to sum up the work-relief forestry demonstration projects in the “11th Five-Year Plan” period.

　　In 2010, according to the overall arrangements of NDRC on preparation of the planning for construction of special projects in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, we started the preparation of the “12th Five-Year Plan for Work-relief Project Construction” and the “12th Five-Year Plan for Off-site Poverty Relief Relocation” jointly with relevant departments and local governments, made a plan for the formulation of the planning, developed the outline and arranged local governments to write provincial research reports. On this basis, we completed a draft plan. The formal planning will clarify the construction goal and main content of the work-relief projects and off-site poverty relief relocation in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period and make clear the mode of financing and relevant supporting policies.

　　【Supervision and inspection of anti-poverty fund projects】According to the overall arrangements of NDRC, in order to keep abreast of the progress of construction projects and investment results, we established the mechanism for monthly report on the implementation of central government’s investment plan, conducted regular analysis and research on the implementation of new investment plans of the central government and urged the parties concerned to promptly address problems if any. In 2010, we carried out project inspection, investigation and research activity in Hebei, Hubei, Hunan and Yunnan Province. Meanwhile, according to relevant regulations on the management of anti-poverty funds, we gave instructions to local governments on prophase preparation, plan implementation, use of funds and project construction, examination and acceptance.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】 According to the arrangements of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, in 2010, NDRC continued to actively provide counterpart support for the poverty reduction in Lingshou County and Fengning County of Hebei Province, Wangqing County of Jilin Province and Tiandong County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonmous Region, and continued to send cadres to the grassroots units of the four counties for practice. Relevant divisions carried out field research in the four counties and organized the activity of excelling in performance for joint construction. NDRC actively helped the four counties explore development ideas, coordinated the arrangements for fund projects, helped them solve practical problems and supported them to accelerate the economic and social development.