Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Commerce

　　【Overview】 In May 2010, the General Office of CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on Further Promoting Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation" (Ting Zi [2010] No. 2, hereinafter referred to as "Notice"). The Party Organization of the Ministry of Commerce attached great importance to it and Minister Chen Deming proposed to take anti-poverty work as a political task to show care for grassroots units, make clear people’s needs and serve the masses and grassroots units. International trade negotiator and Vice Minister Gao Hucheng proposed to carry out poverty relief education activity combined with training of young cadres, building up willpower and changing working style. In Mid-May, the Leading Group Meeting of the Ministry of Commerce for poverty alleviation was convened. Vice Minister Zhong Shan stressed at the meeting that we must take the counterpart support for impoverished areas as part of national business development work in planning formulating and positioning. He demanded the aiding units’ leaders to personally take charge of the anti-poverty work and seriously implement the relevant projects through assigning tasks to specific persons and setting time limit and standards.

　　In 2010, in accordance with the unified deployment of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, taking protection and improvement of people's livelihood as a starting point and goal, to strengthen the business development capacity of the recipient regions, the Ministry of Commerce vigorously promoted the anti-poverty work and issued a total of 59 million Yuan of project funds in the whole year, of which: 1 million Yuan was for flood disaster relief, 50.9 million Yuan was for home appliance going to the countryside and 7.1 million Yuan was for rural market construction. The Ministry of Commerce organized two merchant inviting activities, carried out five field research in impoverished areas and sent two cadres to support poor areas.

　　【Field research for poverty alleviation】 In 2010, Vice Minister Jiang Yaoping and Assistance Minister Fang Aiqing respectively headed a delegation to conduct field research in the impoverished areas to learn the situation of local enterprises and villages and helped to solve urgent problems.

　　【Entire village advancement】In 2010, the Ministry of Commerce continued to take the entire village advancement in Baita Village in Rixing Town of Yilong County once observed by Hu Jintao and Hongse Village in Nongxi Town of Guang’an District concerned by Wen Jiabao as an important political task. To this end, it implemented kitchen, toilet and pen renovation and courtyard hardening projects for 31 rural households of Baitai Village and 40 rural households of Hongse Village, and repaired the houses of Wang Jialin, who was interviewed by General Secretary Hu Jintao. In order to solve the road, drinking water and income growth problem of the villagers, the Ministry of Commerce helped to build village roads of 5 kilometers, one concentrated water station and 177 biogas digesters and 7 fishponds transformed from reservoirs. To foster agricultural industry, it also helped farmers to increase income, supported rural households to breed more than 10,000 small poultries, improved fruit trees of 80 mu and planted more than 3000 loquat trees. It invited technicians from agricultural bureau to hold technical trainings of loquat tree management for local villagers and implemented unified fertilizing, pest control and pruning management to popularize planting technique and promote economic development. Through scientific management and protection, in 2010, per household income from loquat industry reached 4500 Yuan. Through the construction of poverty alleviation projects, the per capita net income of the villages is expected to increase by 1,690 Yuan, reaching 3,032 Yuan, and the production and living conditions will be improved.

　　【Flood control and disaster relief】 In July 2010, Guang’an District suffered the severest rainfall and flood disaster over the past 163 years and a few towns in Yilong County were also hit by heavy rain. The Ministry of Commerce paid close attention to the disaster of poverty-stricken areas and strived to raise poverty relief funds of 1 million Yuan to support the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction, help the masses overcome difficulties and guarantee the market supply.

　　【Foreign-funded poverty alleviation】 The Ministry of Commerce continued to take it as an important way for enhancing the poverty reduction effects to boost economic development. In order to help Guang’an District invite merchants and investment, approved by the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce upgraded Guang’an Economic and Technological Development Zone as a national economic and technological development zone. Department of Foreign Investment Administration of the Ministry of Commerce organized 25 top-500 multinational companies and more than 30 domestic famous home appliance enterprises to conduct field research on the investment environment of Guang’an District and establish investment inviting network for the electronic, electrical, home appliance, machinery and auto part industry, etc. It actively coordinated Kunshan Municipal Bureau of Commerce and Guang’an District to jointly hold the investment fair on industry transfer to introduce Guang’an and recommend projects, and discuss investment projects through Western China International Fair, Western China Trade Fair, Shanghai Matchmaking Conference on Sichuan's Famous, Special and New Products, Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation & Development Forum and Trade Fair, etc. Through these processes, remarkable results were achieved in fixed-point poverty alleviation. Guang’an District introduced the investment of Hong Kong Down Group and Suzhou Hainan Airlines Company. In June 2010, Hong Kong Down Enterprises (International) Holdings Ltd. invested $ 11.2 million (registered capital of $ 5.6 million) in Qianfeng Industrial Park to establish Guang’an Ocean Star Tempered Glass Co., Ltd. On November 16, 2010, the company was put into production. Yilong County signed contracts on the construction of four industrial projects with investment of 140 million Yuan and two of the projects have been settled in the industrial cluster.

　　【Special poverty alleviation】 In 2010, focusing on strengthening the business development capacity of impoverished areas, the Ministry of Commerce supported the construction of rural market system to increase the income of farmers. In the whole year, it arranged 50.1 million Yuan of subsidies for the activity of “home appliance going to the countryside” and 800,000 Yuan for the construction of “home appliance going to the countryside” network. As of November 2010, about 100,000 (sets of) home appliances were sold in the countryside, which stimulated domestic demand of 303 million Yuan. Guang’an District and Yilong County were titled as Advanced District/County in the activity of “home appliance going to the countryside”. 3.38 million Yuan of subsidies were issued for building rural stores in the “Market Project of Thousands of Towns and Villages”, 1.1 million Yuan was allocated to support logistics distribution centers, 748 rural stores were newly built and more than 2,000 working posts were provided. To promote the establishment of the system for safe circulation of agricultural products, the ministry allocated 900,000 Yuan for construction of standardized food market and 1.21 million Yuan for the construction of hazard free treatment of alive pigs; allocated special funds to support the establishment of complaint reporting mechanism and support Guang’an District and Yilong County to carry out pilot projects of national rural business information service. In 2010, Guang’an District newly built three standardized food markets and repaired 16 farmers’ markets; Yilong County completed the renovation of 13 township farmers’ markets, successfully opened one four-star farmers’ market and one three-star farmers’ market, created a “Tuxiangyuan” catering culture street with local characteristics and was titled by Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce as one of the First Batch of “Commercial Streets with Sichuan’s Characteristics”. The booming rural markets attracted a number of commercial projects. In 2010, five enterprises implemented commercial projects in Yilong County with total investment of 180 million Yuan, including Wangping Logistics, Baixin Supermarket, Hongfu Supermarket, Zhangshangmingzhu Furnitureland, etc. The “Tuxiangyuan” catering culture street stimulated the investment of 167 businesses, hitting a record high, bringing vitality for the commercial prosperity.

　　【Personnel exchanges】 In 2010, the Ministry of Commerce sent Deputy Director Miao Yanmin of Department for WTO Affairs and Vice Director Lin Hong of Bureau of Fair Trade to act as cadres in Guang’an District and Yilong County. Taking the aided regions as their hometown and the masses as their family members, they devoted themselves to poverty alleviation and strived to invite investment and projects, providing personnel and intellectual support for the economic and social development of impoverished areas.