Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

　　【Overview】 In 2008, the State Council reformed the ministry system and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) was formed to undertake the anti-poverty work of Daning County and Yonghe County of Shanxi and Nanbu County and Jialing District of Sichuan Province. After the foundation of MIIT, the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation was set up with Minister Li Yizhong as the Head and Vice Minister Miao Wei as the Deputy Head. The Leading Group members include Mo Wei, Zhou Zixue, Shi Xiaoguang, Wang Yaoguang, etc. An office was set up under the leading group, anchored in the Planning Division. Deputy Director of Planning Division Liu Shuping acts as the Office Manager and the member units include the Planning Division, Finance Division, the Department of Personnel and Education, party committees of the organs directly under the ministry, SEMs Division, Division of Raw Material Industry, Division of Equipment Industry, Division of Consumer Goods Industry, Electronic Information Division, Communication Development Division and Information Technology Promotion Division, etc. Taking advantage of its strength in industry, MIIT actively mobilized the enthusiasm of various divisions and subordinated units to jointly contribute to poverty alleviation, creating a good situation of poverty alleviation in the ministry featured “achieving good poverty reduction effects through concerted efforts with distinctive characteristics of industry and information technology”.

　　【Industry policy】 After its foundation, MIIT put forward the overall requirements for its 2009-2010 anti-poverty work at the first work conference on poverty reduction: Taking the "Three Represents" as guiding line, carry out in-depth study and practice of the scientific concept of development, conscientiously implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Party Committee, the National Conference on Poverty Alleviation and the First Plenary Session of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, based on the actual situation of poor areas involved in fixed-point poverty reduction, focus on improving people’s livelihood and, through project construction, giving play to industrial advantage and highlighting the features of industry and information technology, combine poverty alleviation and development with new socialist rural construction to make a contribution to the sound and rapid development of impoverished areas. We must focus on the following four areas:

　　First, do a good job of poverty alleviation and development focusing on improving people’s livelihood. Continue to improve the infrastructure such as drinking water projects for people and livestock and strengthen the supervision and management of the existing projects while increasing efforts on construction to ensure safe drinking water of farmers and effectively improve the rural production and living conditions; Continue to support the development of featured farming and encourage the expansion of farming scale, and gradually carry out centralized, large-scale farming in the areas with certain conditions to achieve industrialization; Continue to support rural education and training, mobilize social forces to attach importance to education and training and effectively improve the schooling conditions of impoverished areas; Pay attention to social hot and difficult issues, strengthen field research to address the urgent and difficult problems in local economic and social development and combine it with the anti-poverty work to improve the work.

　　Secondly, reduce poverty through project construction to fully reflect the characteristics of industry and information technology. Find the starting point for poverty alleviation by project construction and promote the technological transformation and product structure adjustment of existing enterprises to accelerate the development of competitive enterprises; Support the development of the SMEs with potential and foster new industrial projects based on local resources and situation, giving priority to featured farming and agricultural processing; Strive to improve the level of informationization of rural areas and farmers, select the appropriate projects, strive for support from the relevant departments and divisions and continue to do good things and practical things for the informationization of impoverished areas; Support the implementation of agriculture-benefiting projects, make propaganda of the strategy and decisions for the development of industry and information technology and help to implement the policies for home appliance and automobiles to be sold in the countryside and subsidy providing for purchase of agricultural machinery.

　　Thirdly, strengthen project management and supervision of the use of anti-poverty funds and project funds. Relevant business divisions must strengthen support for poor areas in project implementation; Poverty relief cadres must conduct in-depth research and select anti-poverty projects; The use of anti-poverty funds and project funds must be well managed in strict accordance with the project and fund management methods to ensure special funds are used in special projects and ensure the standardized use of funds; Do a good job of follow-up management of project construction, strengthen the follow-up survey and follow-up management on the completed projects, make clear the responsible person and ensure the long-term effect of the projects.

　　Fourthly, enhance learning and research and strive to create a new situation of fixed-point poverty alleviation. Enhance learning, explore new ideas for fixed-point poverty alleviation combined with the construction of new socialist countryside and make bold innovation for tangible results; Strengthen field research, implement the requirements for poverty reduction to combine anti-poverty work with local actual situation and help find out solutions for relevant problems; Actively seek support and cooperation of local party, government and relevant departments and strengthen communications with local industrial departments and relevant enterprises to support the fixed-point poverty alleviation.

　　【Project funding】 Through coordinating relevant funds, social assistance and employee contributions, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology actively raised funds to promote the economic and social development of the aided areas. As of the end of 2010, it integrated various funds of 162 million Yuan and encouraged social investment of 511 million Yuan to support the economic development of the aided regions. More than 59 million Yuan was issued to Daning County, Yonghe County, Nanbu County and Jialing District, which encouraged 469 million Yuan of social investment, and nearly 100 anti-poverty projects were implemented to promote the development of competitive industries in impoverished areas.

　　In 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology allocated 2.16 million Yuan and encouraged social investment of 6.06 million Yuan to support the construction of 21 poverty relief projects; and strived for 8.5 million Yuan of financial subsidy to support enterprises’ technology innovation. Through various kinds of anti-poverty activities, it effectively improved the production and living conditions of local poor, accelerated the pace of poverty reduction and promoted local economic and social development.

　　Under the premise of complying with industrial policy, it gave priority to the poor counties (districts) concerned in allocation of projects in 2010. Based on the actual situation, it mainly encouraged the development of industrial projects. In the whole year, it supported a total of four technology innovation projects of aided counties (districts) and one Chinese herbal medicine production project, and provided support for the development of key commercial explosive industry and the construction of SME incubator platform projects in Nanbu County, which greatly promoted the industrial development and boomed the development of featured industries in the aided counties (districts).

　　【Poverty alleviation by science and technology】It is an important part of the anti-poverty work of the MIIT to promote the informationization construction and lead and promote local economic development. Over the past two decades, in order to strengthen the postal, telecommunications and information technology in poverty-stricken areas, MIIT integrated various funds of 68.11 million Yuan, encouraged the investment of 3.35 million Yuan, implemented 57 projects, set up fiber optic cables of more than 420 kilometers, improved and installed 14,000 programme-controlled telephones, established 17 GSM base stations, built 3 post production houses and one postal processing center, improved 8 post offices and constructed more than 10 information systems covering e-government, Huinong Net, solutions to three rural issues, etc, which improved the local information infrastructure, enhanced the postal services, accelerated the development of communication, promoted informationization construction in rural areas and accelerate the poverty alleviation in impoverished areas.

　　In 2010, it promoted the construction of the rural informationization training classroom project funded by US ADM Company with investment of 200,000 to establish a platform for information exchange among villages.

　　【Livelihood projects】 It is the most important task of the anti-poverty work of MIIT to improve the production and living conditions of local residents through construction of livelihood projects. Over the past two decades, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Electronics Industry, Ministry of Information Industry and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology allocated more than 4.84 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for Daning, Yonghe, Nanbu and Jialing, encouraged investment of nearly 3.5 million Yuan, repaired and built 14 highroads and 6 bridges, constructed 31 water conservancy projects and 24 power projects and built 26 television turntables, one television tower and one radio and television emission tower. It integrated 10.66 million Yuan and raised 11.82 million Yuan to complete the construction of 118 projects for living security; constructed 151 drinking water projects; built 9 hospitals, donated 15 sets of medical equipment and medicine worth nearly 200,000 Yuan, and provided free medical services for more than 2000 person-times; built 3 biogas model villages and nearly 700 biogas digesters; and organized donations for poverty relief, Spring Warmth activity, disaster relief and seed distribution activities to enhance the confidence and courage of the masses in impoverished areas to overcome difficulties.

　　In 2010, MIIT selected poverty relief projects based on the actual situation of local resources to promote project construction. In the whole year, it supported 21 projects in four counties, raised anti-poverty funds of 2 million Yuan to support the implementation of rural drinking water projects, infrastructure construction, ecological construction and improvement of people’s livelihood, which encouraged social investment of 6.06 million Yuan.

　　MIIT supported three central primary schools in Sanduo Town, Taide Town and Xujiaduo of Daning County, Shanxi Province to purchase multimedia teaching equipment, supported the small-tailed sheep and chicken breeding in Taigu Town and Xinshui Town, and the drinking water projects of Sanduo Town and Chuhe Village. The installation of multimedia teaching equipment improved the schools’ teaching conditions and promoted the development of local education. Meanwhile, MIIT solved the drinking water problem of 1000 people of 7 natural villages.

　　It also supported the walnut forest construction of Sangbi Town, Yonghe County of Shanxi, the construction of Chinese herbal medicine planting base in Jiaokou Town, tap water projects for rural households and scientific management and protection of jujube trees in Gedi Town, etc. It planted 60,000 walnut trees, covering an area of 2,000 mu, and planted 2,000 mu of Chinese herbal medicines. It solved the safe drinking water problem of 152 people and 27 head of livestock, created good conditions for local residents to develop "farmhouse" tourism services and promoted the development of local tourism industry.

　　Meanwhile, MIIT constructed rural clean energy projects and garden reservoir spillway works in Jialing District, Nanchong City of Sichuan Province and supported the Shiheyan Improvement and safe drinking water projects for people and livestock in Jishan Town and Sanhui Town, etc. Through the project construction, it reduced the human and animal manure and sewage pollution from 120 rural households, improved the living conditions and life quality of the masses and solved the drinking water problem of 4,361 people and 3,320 head of livestock and the irrigation problem of 2,700 mu of farmland.

　　In addition, MIIT implemented six drinking water projects for human and livestock in Changzhenhe of Shuangfeng Town and Tianjinggou Village of Dong Town in Nanbu County of Nanchong City, which solved the drinking water problem of 11,153 people and 5,850 head of livestock and the agricultural irrigation problem of 26.67 hectares of farmland, achieving good social benefits.

　　【Educational training】 The Party Central Committee and the State Council put forward that "it is an important measure to increase the income of poor people and the fundamental way to eliminate poverty in poor areas to improve the overall quality, especially the scientific and cultural quality of the masses. We must take technological and cultural trainings of farmers as an important part of anti-poverty work”. Since 1992, to meet the above requirements, MIIT coordinated and raised nearly 43 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the construction of more than 1,300 educational training projects in Daning County, Yonghe County, Nanbu County and Jialing District, actively promoted the development of school education, organized cadre and mass trainings and supported the construction of cultural environment.

　　In 2010, MIIT integrated a total of 4 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds, strived for the support of Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Samsung and France Telecom for the construction of six Hope primary schools with total investment of 3.06 million Yuan, which effectively improved the school running environment and solved the nearest schooling problem of about 4,000 students. Meanwhile, it coordinated Texas Instruments and Nokia-Siemens to donate more than 30 sets of multimedia teaching equipment and build network classrooms and 20 primary school libraries worth 500,000 Yuan. It coordinated relevant units to donate 47 computers to improve the office conditions of the county government, carried out various training activities and sent 32 party and government leaders of the aided counties to participate in the industrial economy survey in Jiangsu Province.

　　【Helping the poor】In 2010, MIIT carried out many activities to help the poor and delivered the care of the State Council to thousands of households. It organized the “Dream University” scholarship grant activities and issued 80,000 Yuan to subsidize 50 poor students enrolled in university; interviewed the rural poor, organized the “Warmth-giving” activity, raised 40,000 Yuan of special funds and expressed sympathy to and helped more than 80 lonely, elderly people and old party members; Raised 200,000 Yuan of medical expenses to help a child in urgent need of surgery fee jointly with the county (district) party committee and raised 60,000 Yuan to establish a primary school education reward fund; and contacted all walks of life for pairing-off poverty reduction of 10 students. The poverty relief and condolence activities delivered the care of party and government to the masses and made them in a closer relationship.

　　【Personnel exchanges】 Over the past decades, MIIT sent a total of 69 poverty relief cadres to directly participate in local economic construction of Nanbu, Jialing, Yonghe, Daning, Langzhong and Cangxi, including 13 cadres to Daning County, 14 to Yonghe County, 14 to Nanbu County, 14 to Jialing County, 7 to Langzhong City and 7 to Cangxi County. In addition, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications sent one person to Daning and one to Yonghe to support local education industry. The poverty alleviation cadres worked very hard despite harsh conditions and devoted to the “big family” of counterpart poverty alleviation, ignoring their own families. With noble sentiment, being modest and prudent, the cadres worked very hard and scrupulously to fulfill duties, were strict with themselves, actively mobilized social forces to enhance the confidence of local masses for shaking off poverty and devoted their youth and sweat to poverty-stricken areas. From 2009 to 2010, MIIT sent four poverty relief cadres to serve on the frontline of poverty reduction in Shanxi and Sichuan Province.