Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Transport

　　【Rural road construction】 According to the overall deployment for the construction of new socialist countryside and the requirements of the national "Eleventh Five-Year Plan", the state continued to increase investment in rural road construction. Focusing on the implementation of rural road "accessible" and "smooth" projects, township bus terminal and rural road crossing reconstruction project, the state gave priority to the construction projects in minority areas, border areas and impoverished regions in the allocation of central government funds to address the road problem of the masses in poverty-stricken areas as soon as possible and create favorable conditions for poverty alleviation and development.

　　In 2010, a total of 188.3 billion Yuan was issued for rural road building, of which 28.7 billion Yuan was vehicle purchase tax investment issued by the Ministry of Transport and 3 billion Yuan was central budget funds allocated by the National Development and Reform Commission. By the end of 2010, almost all the towns across the country and all the administrative villages with certain conditions in eastern and central areas had access to asphalt (cement) roads and highroads were build in all the administrative villages in western areas with certain conditions.

　　During the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, the central government allocated 197.8 billion Yuan for rural highroad construction, 3.2 times that in the “10th Five-Year Plan” period, including 162.3 billion Yuan of vehicle purchase tax investment and 35.5 billion Yuan of central budget funds and treasury bond investment. Rural highroads of 1.868 million kilometers were repaired and rural roads of 52,7000 kilometers were newly built. The total length of rural highroads reached 3.45 million kilometers.

　　While vigorously accelerating the rural highroad construction, in the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, in accordance with the development idea of promoting the integration of urban and rural transport, taking rural passenger transport as an important measure to improve rural people's livelihood, transport departments implemented many supportive policies to cultivate rural passenger transport market. As a result, 98% of the towns and 90% of the administrative villages in the country got regular passenger buses and rural residents enjoyed safe, convenient, economical and high-quality passenger transport service.

　　The construction of rural highroads greatly improved the traffic conditions of highroads in rural areas, promoted the income growth of farmers, changed the consumption structure in rural areas, accelerated the adjustment of industrial structure, improved the life quality of farmers and provided a strong guarantee for the economic development of poor areas.

　　【Transport infrastructure planning】 The rural road development in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period will adhere to the principle of "result expansion, facility improvement, capacity enhancement and integrated development of urban and rural areas".

　　Focus on three points: First, promote the national highroad accessibility focusing on the construction of asphalt (cement) roads in the administrative villages of West China to meet the basic needs of farmers for highroads; Secondly, improve rural road infrastructure, including bridge building and reconstruction as well as security projects to improve the resilience and safety of rural roads; Thirdly, improve rural road network, including county and township road reconstruction and connectivity projects to improve the level of rural road network and the overall service capabilities. By the end of the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the length of China’s rural highroads will reach 3.9 million kilometers and almost all the towns and 92% of the administrative villages will have regular buses.

　　The rural highroad construction in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period will mainly improve the rural transport infrastructure in central and western regions, old revolutionary base areas, minority regions and border areas, enhance the transport infrastructure for new rural construction and promote the equalization of basic public services in transportation, focusing on the construction of asphalt (cement) roads for administrative villages in the western regions. Priority will continue to be given to the western regions, old revolutionary base areas, minority regions and border areas in allocation of vehicle purchase tax funds and the central government funds invested in the western regions are expected to account for more than 2/3 of the total.

　　Various types of investment subsidies for western regions will also be increased. The subsidy for the construction of freeways and national and provincial highways in western areas is expected to be 1.8 -2 times that for eastern regions and 1.3-1.5 times that for central areas, and more subsidies will be issued for the Tibetan areas in Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan Province, as well as Guizhou, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet.

　　To implement the preferential policies for minority areas, border regions and poverty-stricken areas, in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the Ministry of Transport will demand the provinces to give priority to these areas in allocation of central government funds and the highroad construction and development in these areas will be faster than national average. The Ministry of Transport will conduct supervision and inspection on the allocation of central government funds and construction of minority areas, border regions and impoverished areas through formulating relevant management measures and practicing the project database management system.

　　【Poverty alleviation by sending cadres】 Wenchuan Earthquake severely damaged the traffic infrastructure in Aba Prefecture, the post-disaster traffic reconstruction task was heavy, and traffic professionals were needed badly. The party committee of Ministry of Transport attached great importance to it and specially arranged Personnel and Labor Division to select talents in the traffic industry across China, organized appraisal, selected 26 professional technical cadres from 16 provincial and municipal departments and units, and sent them to support the post-disaster traffic reconstruction and poverty alleviation in Aba Prefecture. The poverty alleviation liaison team of Ministry of Transport represented Ministry of Transport to assist the local departments to manage temporary cadres. All the 26 technical cadres graduated from university or above, with average age of 35. They all had rich working experience, their professional technologies and political quality were good, and they were all technical backbones of their units. With support from and under leadership of divisions and bureaus affiliated to the Ministry of Transport, all the cadres went to the disaster-hit counties, traffic bureaus of key counties for national poverty alleviation and development and towns and acted as vice bureau heads or town heads in charge of specific jobs.

　　On November 19, 2010, the Ministry of Transport and Aba Prefecture Party Committee and Government jointly held the commendation meeting for post-disaster reconstruction of Aba Prefecture Supported by transport industry. Vice Minister Xu Zuyuan attended the event, personally rewarded 26 comrades and awarded them the title of "Advanced Individuals in National Post-disaster Reconstruction of Aba Prefecture Supported by Transport Industry".

　　【Implementation of pro-poor projects】 In 2009, the first batch of 18 pro-poor traffic projects were launched with total investment of 280 million Yuan. The Ministry of Transport allocated 100 million Yuan of vehicle purchase tax funds per year. Four “village-level traffic“ projects and one bus station has been completed. In 2010, the construction of 6 projects was continued and 7 projects were launched. Smooth progress was made in the project implementation. After the project completion, it will address the highroad problem of 14 administrative villages and benefit nearly 10,000 farmers and herdsmen.

　　In order to complete the project construction as soon as possible to accelerate the poverty reduction, the Liaison Group for Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Transport gave instructions on site, carefully organized the construction and vigorously promoted the implementation of pro-poor projects. They led professional technical personnel to conduct comprehensive inspection and supervision with a round trip length of more than 20,000 kilometers. In addition, it was strict in quality control and urged the traffic bureaus of various counties to strengthen supervision and construction management, and put forward the following requirements for the project construction: First, do a good job of safety management to ensure public safety; Second, be strict in quality control to ensure the quality of project; Third, make coordination and scientific organization for project construction to avoid blind rush; Fourth, regulate the construction process and be strict in financial management to ensure the safety of funds. The Liaison Group for Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Transport also organized traffic engineering experts to give on-site technical guidance, evaluate the quality of project, improve the construction process and project organization programs and solve technical problems on site. These effectively ensured the project results. 26 technical cadres who were sent to support the post-disaster reconstruction were also appointed as voluntary quality supervisors to promptly correct hidden quality danger in project construction, which guaranteed the smooth implementation of the pro-poor projects.

　　From November 10 to 12, 2010, Vice Minister Weng Mengyong personally headed relevant leaders of provincial departments of transport to conduct on-site inspection on the poverty relief traffic projects in Aba Prefecture. He fully affirmed the work done by the Liaison Group for Poverty Alleviation in the past two years and pointed out that we can take the opportunity of fixed-point poverty reduction to vigorously promote the construction of poverty relief traffic projects in Aba Prefecture. Through the implementation of poverty relief traffic projects in the past two years, the transport infrastructure in the three poor counties has been improved. Now, the road conditions in many counties and towns are much better and it is more convenient for farmers and herdsmen to go out, which promoted local economic and social development to some extent.

　　【Poverty alleviation by human resource development】To enhance the soft transport construction in Aba Prefecture and fully implement human resource strategy for transport technology professionals to provide effective support for the rapid development of transportation, through coordination of the Liaison Group for Poverty Alleviation, Aba Prefecture reached an intent on cooperation with the Research Institute of Highway of the Ministry of Transport and the College for Training Managerial Personnel of Ministry of Transport in the field of transport research and development as well as personnel training. Through the effective platform of the 11th Western China International Fair, they officially signed the agreements on Aba’s open collaboration and project signing ceremony on October 23, 2010, which marked that the Ministry of Transport provided support not only for the capital and construction projects of Aba, but also for personnel training, research and development, new technology, etc. The cooperation between the two effectively enhanced the traffic management capabilities of transport leaders in Aba Prefecture, improved the technical level of the transport construction and maintenance, enhanced the capacity of traffic administrative law enforcement personnel and provided strong human resource guarantee for the traffic development in Aba Prefecture.