Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Culture

　　【Construction of county-level public libraries and culture centers】 To effectively solve the problem of backward equipment of county libraries and cultural centers to make them capable for providing basic services, from 2009 to 2012, the central government planned to invest about 1.097 billion Yuan for the renovation of 2,517 county libraries and cultural centers whose area is not up to standard, aiming to provide them with certain conditions for effective public cultural services for the masses. In the implementation of the program, based on the actual situation of national poverty-stricken counties, the Ministry of Culture gave appropriate priority to national poor counties in the declaration of renovation projects and allocation of repairing funds for county libraries and cultural centers. In 2011, the central government issued 50.25 million Yuan to support the renovation of 36 public libraries and 69 culture centers of 592 poor counties in China.

　　【Construction of township comprehensive culture stations】 To reinforce basic culture base construction, in 2007, the Ministry of Culture, jointly with National Development and Reform Commission, developed the “Planning for Construction of Township Comprehensive Culture Station in China in the ‘11th Five-Year Plan’ Period”. According to the planning, in the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, the central government would invest 3.948 billion Yuan to subsidize the construction of 26,700 township comprehensive culture stations across China, and achieved the goal of “comprehensive culture station in each town”. 8,342 township comprehensive culture stations in 592 national impoverished counties were built, accounting for 32% of the total. In plan implementation, considering the harsh conditions, inconvenient traffic and backward economic development of poverty-stricken counties, we enhanced the proportion of central subsidies. The central government subsidized 200,000 Yuan to the township culture station project of each national impoverished county, accounting for 83% of the total investment for single project, and a total of 1.6668 billion Yuan was issued for the construction of 8,342 township culture stations, accounting for 42.3% of the total. As of December 21, 2011, 7599 of the 8342 township culture stations in the national poor counties were set up, accounting for 91.1% of the total. The township culture stations that have been put into operation carried out colorful cultural activities for the masses and played an important role in meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the farmers and protecting the cultural rights of the masses.

　　【Operation security of grassroots public cultural facilities】 To effectively strengthen the service capacity of grass-roots cultural facilities and promote the construction of public cultural service system in China, in 2011, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Opinions on the Free Opening of the Art Museums, Public Libraries and Cultural Centers (Stations) in China". According to the regulations, the central government set the subsidy standards of 200,000 Yuan per year for each county-level public library and cultural station and 50,000 Yuan per year for each township cultural station, and the central and western regions respectively provide 50% and 80% of the operation fees as subsidies. The implementation of this measure vigorously promoted the establishment of the public cultural service system in China, effectively improved the public cultural service conditions of grassroots areas, especially the underdeveloped regions, and achieved good social effects.

　　【Cultural information resources sharing project】 During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the central government actively supported the construction of the county support center of cultural information resources sharing project in the 592 key counties for national poverty reduction. According to the standard of 680,000 Yuan per county, the central and western regions respectively issued 50% and 80% of the subsidies. A total of 277.78 million Yuan of subsidies was issued to the 592 key counties, covering all the county support centers of cultural information resources sharing project in the 592 key counties.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】  In 2011, the Ministry of Culture actively coordinated the relevant departments to invest 20 million Yuan for the construction of the county cultural and sports center integrating gymnasium, activity center for the senior, activity center for the youth and cultural center in Loufan County, set up the first public library in Loufan County, new built two township cultural stations and 18 village-level cultural centers, supported the construction of the cultural yards in ten model villages and 30 pilot villages. We invested 2 million Yuan to set up the cultural center of Jing’an County, donated more than 400,000 Yuan to purchase matching equipment, set up three cultural stations and more than 20 rural cultural rooms; raised 500,000 Yuan to set up three TV relay stations and achieved the goal of providing radio and TV programs for all the villages.

Minister and Party Secretary Cai Wu attached great importance to poverty alleviation work and personally donated more than 300 books for Loufan County. Vice Director of the Forbidden City Ji Tianbin donated more than 30 calligraphies and paintings carefully drawn by famous painters, and coordinated the Forbidden City Publishing House to donate art books worth 110,000 Yuan to Loufan County. The Ministry of Culture actively contacted and communicated with China Cultural Poverty Alleviation Commission to donate 2000 educational books for the primary and secondary schools of Jingle County.