Shandong – Chongqing Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】 In July 2010, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development adjusted the pairing-off poverty relief targets of Shandong Province from 10 counties of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to 14 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development in Chongqing City. Shandong Province conscientiously implemented the strategic deployment of the central government under the new situation. While supporting Xinjiang in anti-poverty work according to the state’s requirements, it put a lot of efforts on poverty alleviation in Chongqing. The two places arranged frequent high-level visits, held two work conferences on the pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction and issued the “Opinions of Shandong Provincial People’s Government on Promoting Counterpart Support for Poverty Reduction in Chongqing”, which clarified the general requirements, twinning relations, main tasks, funding, working mechanisms and specific measures for the pairing-off poverty alleviation, and determined the “one-for-one” twinning relationship between 14 cities of Shandong, including Jinan, Zibo, Zaozhuang, Dongying, Yantai, Weifang, Jining, Tai'an, Weihai, Rizhao, Linyi, Dezhou, Liaocheng and Binzhou and 14 key counties (districts) of Chongqing, namely Wulong, Shizhu, Fengdu, Youyang, Wushan, Kai County, Wanzhou, Wuxi, Yunyang, Qianjiang, Chengkou, Xiushan, Pengshui and Fengjie. The two sides signed the framework agreement on the pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction, actively explored the improvement of working mechanism for the pairing-off cooperation and achieved good results in the twinning poverty reduction.

　　【Review of Shandong's counterpart support for poverty reduction in Xinjiang】Since the State Council designated Shandong Province to provide counterpart support for Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 1996, Shandong provincial government and party committee have attached great importance to the anti-poverty work and demanded various governments and departments at all levels to take supporting Xinjiang’s poverty alleviation as a political task and go all out to do a good job of counterpart assistance for Xinjiang. In May 1999, Shandong provincial government further determined to select ten economically strong counties (cities, districts) from Zibo, Yantai, Weifang, Jining and Weihai to respectively provide one-for-one counterpart assistance for 10 impoverished counties of Kashi and Hetian in Xinjiang. Over the past 14 years, based on the natural conditions, traditional culture, ethnic and religious situation and economic and social development status of Kashi and Hetian, Shandong Province put forward the general principles and guidelines for the pairing-off cooperation for poverty alleviation –"adhering to one principle, focusing on four combinations and ensuring five benefiting". The principle is "government promotion, departmental interaction, public involvement, business-based market-oriented sincere support, high effectiveness, mutual complementarity and common development". Four combinations: First, combine government behavior with business practices. Adhere to government promotion, enterprise-based market operation, mutual benefit and win-win principle, it constantly increased efforts on the cooperation in poverty reduction to promote the sustained and sound development of poverty alleviation. Secondly, combine highlighting key points with taking into account the overall situation. Focusing on guaranteeing and improving people’s livelihoods in the twinned counties, it actively supported the impoverished counties to develop technology, education, culture and health care industry. Thirdly, combine the "blood transfusion" poverty reduction with "blood-making" poverty alleviation. Taking advantage of local resources, it promoted practical technologies to develop efficient agriculture and help farmers shake off poverty and become rich. Fourthly, combine exchange of technology and personnel with project cooperation. Starting with poverty alleviation by science and technology and intellectual poverty reduction, through sending temporary cadres and organizing technical trainings, personnel exchanges, technology promotion and project cooperation, it actively provided technological and personnel guarantee for local development to enhance the self-development capacity of local area. Five benefiting: Conductive to the overall economic and social development of local areas, helps increase fiscal revenue, helps enhance hematopoietic function, helps improve the production and living conditions of the poor and helps strengthen national unity.

　　According to statistics, over the past 14 years, through extensive government assistance, corporate contributions and social aid, Shandong Province has implemented 87 major poverty relief projects and donated 471 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds in kind or cash, focusing on the construction of “six major poverty relief cooperation projects”. First, implement "pro-people projects" to benefit thousands of families. It invested more than 30 million Yuan to implement dangerous house renovation projects for the rural poor in 7 counties of Kashi and Hetian and moved more than 10,000 poor families to new houses. Secondly, implement the "blood-making projects" to boost economic development. It invested 70 million Yuan to construct three industrial parks and one logistic park in Shule, Yuepu Lake and Yijisha County, attracted over 150 enterprises to invest in the park, and invested over 5 billion Yuan to provide jobs for 7800 people, which became a new growth point for local economic development. Thirdly, implement the "quality improvement project" to promote employment transfer of labor forces. It set up labor employment training bases of 12,800-square meters in Shule and Yupu Lake, which could make over 10,000 rural surplus labors achieve local labor transfer every year. Fourthly, implement the "leading projects" to boost agricultural industrialization. It provided support for the construction of a number of efficient demonstration agricultural parks and standardization demonstration bases integrating technology promotion, improved seed breeding and demonstration trainings. Especially the extension and application of greenhouse vegetable cultivation technology changed the dietary habit and industrial structure of minorities in Xinjiang, changed local farmers’ ideas and helped them find ways to shake off poverty and become rich, becoming the pillar industry to boost local economic development and the landmark project for national poverty alleviation cooperation. Fifthly, implement the "intellectual poverty relief" projects focusing on exchanges of cadres and personnel training. Zhejiang successively sent six batches of 298 party and government cadres and technicians to work in Xinjiang; trained more than 980 county-level leaders and over 1,500 primary and secondary school teachers for local areas; successively invested 48 million Yuan to support basic education and bilingual education (Chinese and Uygur language); newly built and repaired over 150 schools and more than 30 bilingual kindergartens. Sixthly, implement the "business cooperation projects" to promote the advantage complementation and mutual benefit and win-win cooperation of the two sides. By using the market mechanism, giving play to the advantages of the two places and guiding and promoting enterprises’ cooperation, Zhejiang Province successively implemented 224 cooperation projects with a total investment of more than 10 billion Yuan. In short, the 14 years’ cooperation in poverty reduction actively promoted the development and construction of minorities of Xinjiang and boosted the common economic and social development of the two places, fully affirmed by the central government.

　　【Shandong - Chongqing pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction】 After the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development adjusted the poverty reduction targets of Shandong Province in July 2010, Shandong Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government attached great importance to the work. Secretary of Shandong Provincial Party Committee Jiang Yikang, Vice Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Governor Jiang Daming gave important instructions many times and clearly demanded various departments at all levels to take supporting the poverty alleviation in Chongqing as our own task and spare no pains to do a good job. Member of the Standing Committee and Executive Vice Governor Wang Renyuan listened to work reports many times and demanded relevant departments to send some people to support the anti-poverty work in Chongqing, report to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development about the work and seek opinions of the government on Shandong – Chongqing pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction. On October 8, 2010, he personally headed Shandong Provincial party and government delegation to conduct field research in Chongqing, attended the seminar on Shandong - Chongqing pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction, held talks with Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and Government leaders on anti-poverty work and reached important consensus. The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development also attached great importance to Shandong – Chongqing pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction. Director-General Fan Xiaojian particularly went to Chongqing to attend the seminar and made good comments and put forward requirements on the anti-poverty work. On November 2, 2010, Shandong Provincial Government held the work conference on counterpart support for Chongqing’s poverty reduction. The government leaders, department principals and relevant provincial department heads of the 14 cities assigned poverty relief tasks attended the event. The meeting conveyed the instructions of the central government on east-west pairing-off cooperation for poverty alleviation, comprehensively summarized Zhejiang’s achievements and experience in supporting Xinjiang’s poverty alleviation over the past 14 years and made arrangements for the counterpart support for Chongqing in the future. After the meeting, the Shandong provincial government issued the "Opinions on Promoting Counterpart Support for Chongqing", which further clarified the general requirements, twinning relations, main tasks, funding, working mechanisms and specific measures for counterpart support for Chongqing to guide the pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction. On December 13, 2010, Shandong Province and Chongqing Municipality held in Jinan the "Seminar on Shandong – Chongqing Cooperation in Poverty Reduction and the Signing Ceremony". Member of Shandong Standing Committee and Executive Vice Governor of Shandong Province Wang Renyuan, and Member of Chongqing Standing Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of Chongqing city Ma Zhengqi attended the meeting and delivered important speeches. On the signing ceremony, 14 cities of Shandong respectively signed the framework agreements on poverty relief cooperation with 14 twinned counties (districts) of Chongqing, marking the starting of Shandong – Chongqing pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction. Now, the cooperation has entered into the promotion phase.

　　【Policies and measures】 1. Define the general requirements for poverty-relief cooperation. According to the instructions of central government on east-west pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction, Shandong Province determined the general requirements for the current and future poverty-relief cooperation: Taking Deng Xiaoping Theory and "Three Represents" as guidance, thoroughly implement the scientific concept of development and, combined with the economic and social development objectives of the twinned counties and the major tasks of poverty alleviation and development, in accordance with the principle of "sincere assistance, results-oriented, advantage complementation, mutual benefit, long-term cooperation and common development", adhering to the combination of government promotion and market guidance, combination of aid and industrial cooperation and combination of typical demonstration and comprehensively promotion, based on government assistance, focusing on business cooperation, with personnel support as the link, mobilize social forces to participate in anti-poverty work, focus on entire village advancement, industrial development and labor transfer and employment trainings, strive to support poor people and impoverished villages to enhance self-development capacity and explore new ways with Shandong’s characteristics for poverty-relief cooperation suitable for local situation.

2. Strengthen industrial cooperation between the two places. Shandong and Chongqing are highly complementary in economy and can cooperate in many fields. Shandong Province adhered to the principle of "government promotion, market operation, advantage complementation, mutual benefit and win-win purpose" and, based on the comparative advantages of the two provinces, made full use of the preferential policies for central and western regions and the platform for east-west pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction to promote the economic and social development of the two places. It comprehensively implemented the "1 +7" cooperation framework agreement signed between Shandong and Chongqing in April 2010 and strengthened the industrial cooperation to achieve win-win situation and common development. Based on local advantageous sources, it strengthened the cooperation and fostered market players and pillar industries for local areas to expand employment of the poor. Based on the advantageous location of Chongqing as an integrated transport hub of the southwest area and the a logistics distribution center in the western regions, it actively established e-business and logistics information platforms to promote the commodity exchanges of the two places and combined the Ba-sh culture and rich tourism resources of Chongqing with Shandong’s advantages in cultural and tourism resources to develop the tourism market.

3. Strengthen intellectual support to provide guarantee for lifting the twinned counties out of poverty. Giving full play to its personnel strength, Shandong Province comprehensively started its support for Chongqing in medical service, education and agricultural production and strengthened trainings of local technical personnel to train a number of high-quality technicians who can lead the masses to shake off poverty and become rich; increased efforts on training local village cadres of the 14 twinned counties and organized local cadres to attend trainings in Shandong to enhance their capacity for scientific development and their ability to lift the masses out of poverty. The two places exchange some cadres every year to learn from each other for common development. Putting emphasis on labor transfer trainings for poor households, taking advantage of various cities’ professional skills training resources, Shandong Province strengthened the professional skills trainings of local labors and encouraged Shandong’s enterprises to hire local labors so as to increase the labor transfer income of the poor of the twinned counties.

4. Increase the publicity for public participation in poverty alleviation. Make full use of radio, television, newspapers, Internet and other media to widely publicize the importance of east-west pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction and good experience and practices in poverty-relief cooperation so as to create a good atmosphere for public participation in poverty-relief cooperation. Shandong Province vigorously publicized specific ways and means for social forces to participate in anti-poverty cooperation and guided social forces to donate money and goods for impoverished areas and carry out anti-poverty activities such as subsidizing poor students, supporting teaching and voluntary services, and strived to form a poverty-relief cooperation structure featured government support, business cooperation and public participation.

　　【Working mechanism for east-west pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction】 To promote the strong, orderly and effective counterpart support for the poverty reduction in Chongqing City, Shandong Province continued to innovate the work ethic and improve the working mechanism, actively explored new methods and new ways for east-west pairing-off cooperation in poverty reduction and embarked on a new path of poverty-relief cooperation suited to local situation with Shandong’s characteristics.

1. Improve relevant institutions, clarify the responsibility and effectively strengthen the leadership for counterpart support for Chongqing. First, in order to strengthen the leadership for poverty reduction in Chongqing, Shandong Province especially set up the provincial office for counterpart support to take charge of the counterpart assistance for Chongqing and the comprehensive instruction, coordination and inspection to solve the practical problems in poverty-relief cooperation with Chongqing. Secondly, in order to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of counterpart support for Chongqing, Shandong selected 14 economically strong cities (except Qingdao, which was designated to support Guizhou) to build twinning relationship with 14 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development in Wulong County of Chongqing, forming the “one-for-one” poverty-relief structure with provincial government taking the overall responsibility and city/county government taking charge of specific anti-poverty work. As the main body to take the counterpart support work and responsibility, the 14 cities took poverty-relief support in Chongqing as an important part of their work schedule, clarified relevant governing bodies and implementing units and developed scientific and rational implementation plans and measures to ensure that the counterpart support for Chongqing’s poverty reduction will have periodical objectives, annual plans and specific measures. Thirdly, based on their respective functions, the relevant department directly under the provincial government developed their poverty-relief cooperation program and actively cooperated with relevant cities to promote the poverty-relief cooperation in Chongqing City. Various departments at all levels of the province assumed their responsibilities and a work system featured high attention from departments and governments at all levels and joint efforts of all social forces was initially established.

2. Establish bilateral communication and coordination mechanisms. First, explore the establishment of mechanisms for regular visits and joint meetings between Shandong and Chongqing and between the twinned cities and counties to jointly address relevant problems in poverty-relief cooperation of the two places. According to statistics, within the three months after the establishment of the pairing-off cooperation for poverty reduction, the two places arranged more than 400 exchange visits of leaders. Secondly, establish the mechanism for communications and coordination between the working agencies at all levels of the two places. Shandong Provincial Office of Counterpart Support is responsible for liaison and communication with Chongqing City Poverty Alleviation Office, and the counterpart support agencies of various cities are responsible for the communication and coordination with the twinned counties to jointly address practical problems in poverty-relief cooperation.

3. Improve the project management system and strengthen supervision and examination. In order to ensure the project quality and financial security, Shandong Province further improved the project and fund management practices, opened special accounts for anti-poverty funds, strictly followed the project construction procedures and practiced project construction bidding, legal person responsibility system and project construction supervision system. At the same time, it developed appropriate measures to strengthen the supervision and evaluation of the work to ensure the successful completion of various tasks for poverty-relief cooperation with Chongqing.