Beijing - Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】 In 2010, smooth progress and good results were achieved in Beijing - Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region pairing-off cooperation for poverty alleviation. In 2010, Beijing donated a total of 24.48 million Yuan to the impoverished areas of Inner Mongolia, of which 23.2 million Yuan was from the city and district (county) government. Meanwhile, Beijing built 29 schools, 86 hospitals, highroads of 312 kilometers and basic farmland of 28,000 mu for Inner Mongolia; solved the drinking water problem of 320,000 people and 650,000 head of livestock; held 83 trainings for technicians and management personnel and organized trainings for about 2,900 teachers, doctors, agricultural technical persons and managers for Inner Mongolia.

　　【High-level exchanges for poverty reduction】 On August 21, 2010, Party Committee Secretary Hu Chunhua of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and other relevant leaders of Inner Mongolia came to Beijing and held talks with leaders of Beijing City on a new round of Beijing - Inner Mongolia pairing-off cooperation for poverty alleviation to promote the coordinated development of poverty reduction in Inner Mongolia. On August 29, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee Liu Qi and Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Beijing Municipal Government Guo Jinlong headed Beijing Party and Government Delegation to conduct field survey in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. During the visit, Beijing and Inner Mongolia signed the "Framework Agreement on Regional Cooperation between Beijing Municipal People's Government and the People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region" and clearly stated that they would continue the pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the annual anti-poverty funds provided by Beijing for the impoverished areas of Inner Mongolia will be raised from 30.6 million Yuan to 80 million Yuan. Both sides will further mobilize and organize the relevant departments and social forces to continue the anti-poverty work such as exchange of talents, poverty alleviation by science and technology, support for poor students and education, delivery of medical services and medicines and labor trainings for impoverished areas. On December 20, the launching meeting of Beijing - Inner Mongolia Pairing-off Poverty Reduction in the 12th Five-Year Plan period was convened in Beijing. The participants exchanged experience in pairing-off poverty alleviation and the conference made overall arrangements for Beijing - Inner Mongolia pairing-off poverty reduction for the 12th Five-Year Plan period. Vice Mayor and Deputy Secretary of Beijing Party Committee Ji lin, Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Beijing Committee and Director of Organization Department Lv Xiwen, Deputy Secretary of Inner Mongolia Party Committee Ren Yaping, and Member of the Standing Committee of Inner Mongolia Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of Inner Mongolia Pan Yiyang attended the event.

　　【Working mechanism for pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction】 In order to further strengthen the pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction and the economic cooperation between Beijing and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in December 2010, the two sides jointly set up the Coordination Group for Regional Cooperation. Executive Vice Mayor of Beijing Ji Lin and Executive Vice Chairman of Inner Mongolia Pan Yiyang acted as the heads to make coordination in major affairs of Beijing-Inner Mongolia pairing-off poverty reduction. The Coordination Group has set up offices respectively in Beijing and Inner Mongolia. Beijing Office is located in Beijing Cooperation Support Office and the Inner Mongolia Office is in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission. They are responsible for the organization, implementation, supervision and inspection of specific anti-poverty work in the cooperation. The linkage mechanism was established in key regions for counterpart support in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Beijing – Chifeng pairing-off poverty reduction office and Beijing –Wulanchabu pairing-off poverty reduction office were set up to take charge of coordination and implementation of the cooperation for poverty reduction in local area. 16 districts and counties of Beijing built partnership with 8 counties (cities, districts) of Chifeng City and 8 counties (cities, districts) of Wulanchabu City in poverty alleviation. Beijing City sent two cadres to each of the counties (cities, districts) as liaison officers to organize the twinning poverty reduction in local area.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2010, Beijing planned to allocate anti-poverty funds of 30.6 million Yuan to the impoverished areas of Inner Mongolia, of which 9 million Yuan shall be issued by Beijing City Government and mainly used to improve the production and living conditions of the poverty-stricken banners and counties in Inner Mongolia and construct poverty relief projects to directly benefit the poor and the cooperative projects that support Beijing’s enterprises to engage in ecological construction, energy development and farming industry with loan interest subsidy, and the remaining 21.6 million Yuan shall be invested by district (county) government, 1.2 million Yuan per district (county), mainly to support the construction of poverty relief projects in the twinned banners and counties. In 2010, Beijing City and the district (county) government actually allocated anti-poverty funds of 23.2 million Yuan and the remaining funds have been transferred to the budget of next year.

　　【Infrastructure improvement】 In the twinning poverty alleviation, Beijing always takes it as a key task to improve the production and living conditions of aided regions, and especially implemented a number of counterpart support projects to address the water shortage and weak infrastructure problem in Inner Mongolia and gradually improve the production and living conditions of local farmers and herdsmen. Dongcheng District of Beijing launched new immigrant village construction in Qingshuihe County of Inner Mongolia and constructed "nine facilities" for local area, including water pipeline, electricity, highroad, kitchen, toilet, barn, biogas digester, vegetable greenhouse and drip irrigation, which significantly enhanced the production and living conditions of local farmers. Mentougou District of Beijing tied up the anti-poverty funds with the relocation funds of Inner Mongolia for the new immigrant village construction of Chayouzhong Banner in Inner Mongolia and moved two administrative villages in high-fluoride areas featured water shortage, ecological deterioration, inconvenient traffic and poor infrastructure without conditions for development to Guangxinglong Town. Daxing District of Beijing helped Balinzuo Banner of Inner Mongolia construction 4,000 mu of water-saving irrigation projects in Zhengjiaduan Village of Shisan’aobao Town with a total investment of 5 million Yuan (Daxing District put in 1.2 million Yuan), covering 3 natural villages, which benefited 310 households and 1,010 people. It can achieve income growth of 500 Yuan per capita in drought year. Pinggu District of Beijing used the anti-poverty funds to implement water-saving irrigation and facility agricultural projects in Zhuozi County of Inner Mongolia, developed irrigable land of 1,600 mu, dug 8 wells, provided 8 water pumps, paved buried pipelines of 18,000 meters, installed one transformer, set up high and low-voltage circuits of 3,000 meters and built potato greenhouse bases of 40 mu, laying a foundation for agricultural development of Zhuozi County and the income growth of local residents.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 Giving full play to its advantages in intelligence, education and health care, Beijing carried out a full range of poverty reduction activities to continuously promote the development of social undertakings in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In intellectual poverty reduction, adhering to the principle of paying equal attention to poverty alleviation and development and intellectual development, it helped the poor counties carry out practical agricultural technical trainings and labor transfer trainings in various forms to promote the labor transfer of impoverished areas. Chaoyang District of Beijing actively strengthened the labor service cooperation with Tuquan County of Inner Mongolia and helped Tuquan County set up a labor export base in Beijing, which collected information of over 1,500 working posts of 22 enterprises, and went to hold on-site job fairs in the county. In the health sector, 23 Grade III general hospitals and 3 Grade III specialty hospitals in Beijing built partnership for poverty reduction with 36 hospitals of 12 union cities in Inner Mongolia. They sent 77 batches of 456 medical service persons to support the anti-poverty work in the twinned hospitals, received 228 fellows from the twinned hospitals for further study, held 525 seminars and organized trainings for 6,850 person-times. In education, Beijing helped Inner Mongolia repair and build 121 schools, subsidized 18,000 poor students, carried out “hand-in-hand” activity of sister schools, sent more than 1700 people to support local education, trained more than 10,000 teachers and helped the poor counties reach the "two bases" standards of education. Meanwhile, the government actively guided the universities in Beijing to construct projects jointly with the poor banners and counties of Inner Mongolia. Capital Normal University set up five majors in Inner Mongolia Teaching Station and enrolled 80 students. Beijing Second Foreign Language University actively enrolled 80 minority students from Inner Mongolia and Capital University of Medical Sciences set up more than 20 majors to enroll nearly 100 undergraduates and over 20 graduates from Inner Mongolia.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 Beijing strengthened the business-oriented industrial poverty alleviation featured "government driving and market operation" in key areas based on the natural resources and actual situation of industrial base in aided regions. In December 2010, Vice Mayor Gou Zhongwen organized more than 230 central enterprises and municipal businesses to carry out investment promotion and project matching activities in Inner Mongolia and signed 16 agreements worth 69.5 billion Yuan. In the trade area, Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce organized 16 large-scale commercial distribution companies including department stores, supermarkets and wholesale markets to carry out business cooperation activities in Chifeng City of Inner Mongolia and signed business cooperation agreements with Chifeng City People’s Government on production and marketing of green farm produce, supporting Chifeng City’s commercial upgrade and strengthening the cooperation between foreign trade enterprises, etc. In tourism industry, the forum on cooperation of tourism projects for poverty reduction between Beijing and Inner Mongolia was held in Beijing in mid-October. CITS Group Corporation, Shenzhou Group, CYTS Group and Chinese Art Treasures Museum negotiated with the tourism sector and enterprises of Chifeng at the meeting. In the energy sector, in February 2010, the 300-megawatt coal-fired generating units of Inner Mongolia Jingke Power Co., Ltd jointly invested by Beijing Energy Investment (Group) Co., Ltd (91.97%) and Inner Mongolia Mengxiang Power Engineering Construction Co., Ltd in Keyouzhong Banner in Xing’an League of Inner Mongolia were merged into Northeast power grid and put into trial operation. In March 2010, the  2 × 300 MW gangue power plant in Suancigou of Zhugeer in Erdos of Inner Mongolia, of which the construction and management was participated by Beijing Jingneng Thermal Power Co., Ltd (51% of total equity), was put into operation. In October 2010, Phase I of the 2 × 330 MW generating units of Inner Mongolia Wuhai Jinghai Gangue Power Plant invested by Beijing Jingmei Group Co., Ltd was put into operation. The total project investment was 2.9 billion Yuan, of which 50% was from Beijing Jingmei Group Co., Ltd.