Local Poverty Alleviation

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hebei Province

 

【Overview】 2012 is a key year for Hebei Province to thoroughly implement the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”, and to make comprehensive deployments for and promote the poverty alleviation and development work in the new decade, especially during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. In this year, the party committees and governments at all levels attached great importance to poverty alleviation and development work and put more efforts on this heavy task. Over the past year, in accordance with the provincial government’s deployment of "going all out for poverty alleviation and development", the province made overall coordination, carefully organized relevant work, increased investment to make steady progress in and strongly promote the anti-poverty work, and implemented the relevant planning as well. As a result, the poverty alleviation and development work presented an unprecedented situation. In 2012, a total of 21 billion yuan was put in anti-poverty work, of which 1.117 billion yuan (847 million yuan from the central government and 270 million yuan from the provincial government) was financial anti-poverty funds, 94.5 million yuan was anti-poverty discount loans, and 19.83 billion yuan was integrated funds from various sectors, credit loans, self-raised funds of the masses and social donations. The Entire Village Advancement Program was launched in 3,277 key impoverished villages to support 100,000 demonstration households for poverty reduction to develop income-generating projects focusing on facility farming, which played a demonstration and leading role.

Hebei Province achieved significant results in poverty alleviation and development, but the task of poverty reduction is still arduous. Especially with the substantial enhancement of the poverty line and the deepening of the connotation of poverty alleviation, Hebei is still confronted with some prominent difficulties and problems in the anti-poverty work, including: First, a large number of poor people and a more difficult task of poverty reduction. According to the new poverty line of 2300 yuan, as of the end of 2011, Hebei Province had a total of 7.95 million rural poor residents, of which 5.61 million were objects of poverty reduction, accounting for 10.1% of the total. Especially the 62 contiguous impoverished counties and key counties in the province and 3,277 key villages for entire village advancement covered by the poverty alleviation and development planning during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period are mainly concentrated in Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Yanshan – Taihang Mountain area and Heilonggang basin with harsh natural conditions, poor infrastructure, a low level of social development and a heavy burden of poverty reduction and development. In particular, in most of the areas around Beijing - an important ecological barrier and water sources of the capital, the development is restricted, many production projects are prohibited, economic development is slow, the characteristics of "low-income but high-price" is obvious and the problem of relative poverty is very prominent. Second, a big gap in funding for poverty alleviation. After the province's anti-poverty work conference, with higher enthusiasm, many local regions seized the opportunity to accelerate development and designed and launched a number of industrial development and infrastructure construction projects, so they needed a large amount of capital and had a general feeling of a serious shortage of funds for construction. Shortage of funds is the biggest "bottleneck" for the current anti-poverty work. Third, some counties suffered floods rarely seen in history. Some ongoing industrial poverty alleviation projects and infrastructures were severely damaged with an unprecedented affected area and heavy losses, adding the difficulty for poverty alleviation work.

 【Work Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development】  From February 29 to March 1, 2012, Hebei provincial government held in Laishui County of Baoding City a work conference on the provincial poverty alleviation and development and the anti-poverty demonstration zones around Beijing, issued the "Implementation Opinions of CPC Hebei Provincial Committee and Hebei Provincial People's Government on the Implementation of the ‘Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’" , which made comprehensive deployments on the poverty alleviation and development work in the new decade and identified the contiguous impoverished counties and key counties. The whole province identified a total of 62 contiguous impoverished counties and key counties for poverty alleviation and development, including 22 national contiguous impoverished counties, 23 key counties for national anti-poverty work and 17 provincial key counties for poverty reduction, involving three counties enjoying continuous support during the "12^th Five-Year Plan" period, namely Shexian, Kuancheng and Suning. The contiguous impoverished counties and key counties are the main areas for poverty alleviation and development in Hebei Province in the new decade. The province also identified the key villages for poverty alleviation and development and, according to the principle of "real poverty, contiguous impoverished areas, relative concentration and strong fighting capacity of village cadres", identified 3,277 villages in deep poverty concentrated with poverty-stricken people as the key villages for poverty alleviation and development by entire village advancement during the "12^th Five-Year Plan" period. Meanwhile, the province identified the objects of poverty reduction as well. Based on the new poverty line of 2300 yuan, as of the end of 2011, Hebei Province still had a rural poverty-stricken population of 7.95 million, of which 5.61 million were objects of poverty reduction.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, the central government issued financial anti-poverty funds of 847.07 million yuan to Hebei Province, including 60 million yuan of lottery funds to support the pilot projects of entire village advancement in four old revolutionary base areas, namely Luanping, Laiyuan, Wuqiang and Guangzong. The province allocated 270 million yuan of matching funds, double the figure of 2011. The relevant cities and key counties for poverty alleviation and development earnestly implemented the requirement of "using 1% of local public budget for poverty alleviation and development" put forward by the provincial government and effectively increased anti-poverty funds for local areas.

 【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】 In the new stage, the state included 22 counties of Hebei Province into the Yanshan - Taihang Mountain Area, and the provincial government identified 20 counties in the arid saline areas of Heilonggang Basin as the provincial contiguous impoverished areas with particular difficulties. Through increasing investment, the province made steady progress in poverty reduction of the contiguous poor areas. First, when the central government gave priority to national contiguous poor areas in the allocation of newly increased anti-poverty funds, the provincial government implemented the incentive fiscal system for 40 provincial key counties to share the VAT, business tax and corporate income tax characterized by "approved base, overcharge returning in full and lasting for four years". Second, in accordance with the national deployment, combined with the local actual situation, Hebei Province organized the relevant cities and counties to formulate the regional development and poverty alleviation planning for Yanshan - Taihang Mountain Area and the arid saline areas of Heilonggang Basin. The regional development and poverty alleviation planning for Yanshan - Taihang Mountain Area has been approved by the State Council, and the implementation plan is now being developed according to the state’s requirements. The regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the arid saline areas of Heilonggang Basin has been approved by the provincial government's executive meeting and issued to the relevant departments for implementation.  

【Anti-poverty Demonstration Zone Around the Capital】 To effectively promote the anti-poverty work in the new stage, the provincial government decided to select nine key counties near Beijing to form the anti-poverty demonstration zone around the capital, including Laishui, Yi County, Laiyuan, Chicheng, Wei County, Guyuan, Fengning, Luanping and Xinglong. The government mobilized various forces to implement key-problem tackling for poverty reduction and play an exemplary role, aiming at creating a beautiful landscape to present the achievements of poverty alleviation and development in three years. To this end, Hebei Provincial Office of Poverty Alleviation established the Around Capital Anti-poverty Demonstration Zone Construction Service Office to strengthen the coordination and guidance and promote the anti-poverty work. Smooth progress was made in the work and significant results were achieved. First, the province and relevant cities, counties and villages organized the preparation of poverty alleviation planning for the anti-poverty demonstration zones. Second, increased the investment of financial anti-poverty funds. While giving priority to the counties with anti-poverty demonstration zones in allocating its matching funds, the provincial government arranged 450 million yuan of balance transfer payments to support the demonstration zones to establish credit guarantee platforms in various counties and districts, and issued more than 400 million yuan of loans to leading enterprises and rural households. The 30 million yuan of anti-poverty funds donated by Shenhua Foundation for Public Welfare to Hebei Province was all allocated to the four key counties where the anti-poverty demonstration zones are located, namely Laishui, Chicheng, Fengning and Luanping, with 7.5 million yuan for each county to improve the traffic conditions of impoverished villages. The project construction has basically been completed. Third, the relevant provincial departments fully performed their functions and issued a series of policy measures to support the construction of anti-poverty demonstration zones around the capital. Nine counties in Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Baoding highlighted poverty alleviation work and the main leaders personally made deployment and developed planning to promote the work. With clear objectives and tasks, they increased financial investment and strengthened measures for key problem tackling to ensure steady progress in the construction of demonstration zones. In 2012, according to statistics, a total of 10.44 billion yuan of funds was invested for the construction of the anti-poverty demonstration zones around the capital. 29,000 facility greenhouses were set up, 28,000 mu of Chinese herbal medicines  and 1.212 million mu of forests and fruit trees were planted, 933 large-scale farms were established; 1288 wells and 1525 kilometers of roads were built; 94 leading enterprises for industrialization poverty alleviation were cultivated, and a large number of projects to revitalize counties and enrich people were successively launched, laying a solid foundation for accelerating development and increasing people's income.

【Entire Village Advancement】 Comprehensively started supporting 3,277 key villages for poverty alleviation and development. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the province is going to put in special poverty-relief funds of no less than one million yuan averagely for each impoverished village. Plus the integrated funds, social funds, credit capital and the self-raised funds of the masses, a total of 3 million yuan was put in. By 2015, all the 3,277 key villages are expected to reach the standard of "twelve possessions" for poverty reduction. Meanwhile, the government guided the villages to establish files for poverty alleviation and prepare the poverty alleviation and development planning, and is now guiding the implementation of the planning.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, Hebei Province continued to increase investment, focusing on supporting 100,000 impoverished families to set up poverty reduction projects for steady income growth. A total of 638.95 million yuan was invested in industrial poverty alleviation, of which 248.55 million yuan was used to develop facility vegetable industry and some featured projects for income growth such as Zhangzagu, Chinese herbal medicine and vegetables on bare land. The province put in 351.42 million yuan for the development of facility farming; invested 38.98 million yuan for the planting of walnut trees and other forests and fruit trees of 640,000 mu. The capital used for income-generating project construction accounted for 75% of the financial anti-poverty funds. The project of "big vegetable basket enriching people" in Heilonggang area, the quality walnut-based dry and fresh fruit industrial zone in Taihang Mountain Area, the edible mushroom industrial clusters in Yanshan Area, the water-saving out-of-season vegetables in the flatland areas of Zhangjiakou and Chengdu as well as the broiler chicken and meat duck breeding in some counties of Heilonggang Basin have become important industries for income growth of local area. Meanwhile, relevant regions introduced and developed a number of leading projects for broiler chicken and meat duck processing, dairy processing, vegetable preservation and processing, and the industrial development model of "leading companies + cooperatives + communities + farmers" was further consolidated and improved.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 Organized 141 organs and groups, 124 enterprises and institutions, 82 colleges and 62 counties (cities, districts) with certain economic strength to carry out a new round of fixed-point poverty alleviation, directly benefiting 716 impoverished villages of 62 key counties. Relevant cities and counties also arranged local aiding units and poverty-relief cadres and achieved full coverage of poor villages in poverty reduction. 38 provincial leaders announced the liaison counties and villages for poverty alleviation and most of the provincial leaders carried out field survey and gave guidance to the work in the poverty reduction liaison points. Meanwhile, the province actively coordinated relevant units and armies directly under the central government to do a good job of poverty alleviation. A total of 32 units directly under the central government participated in the anti-poverty work in Hebei Province, covering 40 national key counties. A total of 83.79 million yuan of poverty-relief funds was invested that year. In addition, the province started the fixed-point poverty alleviation work of the armies in Hebei.

【Poverty Alleviation Training】 Held the seminar on training of party and government leaders for poverty alleviation in Hebei Province jointly with the provincial party school, and organized trainings for the party and government leaders of 62 key counties and the directors of 11 municipal poverty alleviation offices. In the whole year, the governments at all levels in the province held 683 cadre trainings for 19,000 person-times, including 12,000 person-times for village cadres and cooperatives principals; and organized 63 trainings of anti-poverty cadres for 1,800 person-times; rural practical technical trainings for 120,000 person-times and trainings of poor young labors for 23,000 persons-times.

【Poverty Alleviation by Science and Technology】 In 2012, the province organized 1,680 technological persons to carry out poverty reduction by science and technology in impoverished areas, promoted 158 new agricultural technologies, promoted the application of 88 new species, transferred 179 technological achievements, held 381 technological trainings and organized farmer trainings for more than 50,000 person-times, generating economic benefits of more than 100 million yuan.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 Hebei provincial government issued the "Ex-situ Anti-poverty Relocation Planning of Hebei Province (2012-2015)" and planned to continue to implement ex-situ anti-poverty relocation in the extremely impoverished villages and people living in Taihang Mountain Area and Yanshan Mountain Area with harsh living conditions, insufficient means of subsistence and poor production conditions during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. Through the construction of concentrated settlement communities, it aims at fundamentally improving the production and living conditions of the poor.

【Rain Plan】 In 2012, the province provided subsidies for the vocational education of more than 6000 children from needy families in five pilot counties, namely Wuqiang, Shunping, Lingshou, Guangzong and Weichang Man and Mongolia Autonomous County, 1500 yuan per person per academic year. Approved by LGOP, Wei County was added as a pilot county for the reform of Rain Plan implementation mode.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】 In 2012, the state rewarded Hebei Province pilot mutual funds of 2 million yuan for poverty reduction. Through competition, Zhangbei, Gucheng, Wuyi and Julu County were identified as the pilot counties for the central mutual funds. The province allocated pilot funds of 8.1 million yuan and identified nine counties as the pilot areas for provincial mutual funds through competition, namely Wei County, Fucheng, Chongli, Lincheng, Huai’an, Laishui, Zaoqiang, Yi County and Luanping. The number of pilot villages for mutual funds in the province reached 1,161, and the pilot villages played an important role in helping the masses develop production. In 2012, through standardized improvement, 895 mutual societies in the province were registered in the civil affairs departments with a registration rate up to 77.1%, and a total of 347.72 million yuan of loans was issued.

【Pilot Microcredit Projects for Poverty Alleviation】Supported by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, 11 counties were identified as the pilot counties for poverty reduction by microcredit, namely Daming, Julu, Wuqiang, Yanshan, Nanpi, Quyang, Chicheng, Fengning, Kuancheng, Xinglong and Longhua. Before that, 16 counties of Hebei Province had successively set up the microcredit service stations for farmers. So far, the number of pilot counties for poverty alleviation by microcredit in Hebei reached 27, and Hebei has become the province in China with the largest number of pilot counties for poverty alleviation by microcredit.

【Poverty Alleviation by Disaster Relief】From July 21 to 22, 2012, Laiyuan, Yi County, Xinglong and other anti-poverty demonstration zones around the capital suffered devastating floods and significant economic losses. According to the arrangements and deployments of the provincial government, the provincial poverty alleviation office actively participated in the disaster relief work, and successively coordinated relevant financial departments to issue relief funds of 10 million yuan to four counties that suffered the most severe disaster, including Laishui, etc., to support the post-disaster poverty-relief project reconstruction, promoting the smooth implementation of the post-disaster reconstruction work.

【Activities of the "Grassroots Organization Building Year"】 Participated in the activities of the "Grassroots Organization Building Year", mobilized organ cadres to donate 31,600 yuan to purchase 153 sets of desks and chairs for the primary schools of the aided villages, and arranged 60 million yuan of poverty-relief funds to harden the streets and improve people’s living conditions of 922 grassroots villages covered by the poverty alleviation planning for the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. Meanwhile, village working team headed by provincial department leaders carried out village poverty reduction activities in Sandaogou Village of Luanping County. 32 million yuan of construction funds was integrated to promote 28 projects, including industrial cultivation, infrastructure construction and relocation projects, etc., laying a solid foundation for achieving the goal of "income growth of the masses, improvement of livelihoods, improvement of ecological environment and civilized folk custom".

                          (Poverty Alleviation and Development Office of Hebei)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shanxi Province

 

【Overview】 In 2012, Shanxi Province earnestly implemented the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and the decisions and deployments made by the provincial government for transition and leapfrog development. To increase the income of the poor, the province increased efforts on poverty reduction, made innovations to the guiding ideology, improved the policies and strengthened relevant measures to comprehensively promote the smooth implementation of poverty alleviation and development work. In the whole year, it lifted 400,000 people out of poverty, the per capita net income of 58 poor counties reached 4841.36 yuan, up 19.8%; per capita net income of the 35 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development reached 3685.9 yuan, up 17.8%; and the two growth rates were respectively 6.3 and 4.3 percentage points above the provincial average.    

【Management of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, the province put in a total of 1.546 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty funds, of which 1.035 billion yuan was from the central government and 511 million yuan from the provincial government, respectively up 27.5% and 36.3%. In the management of anti-poverty funds, adhering to the overriding principle of targeting at the poverty reduction objects for the allocation of funds, the province took the income growth of the poor as a rigid index for the assessment of the poverty relief work, strictly implemented the anti-poverty funds management methods, seriously implemented the project publicity, funding reimbursement, project acceptance and performance bond system, organized regular inspection and follow-up evaluation to guarantee the safety of anti-poverty funds and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation projects. Shanxi Province reached Class B in the performance assessment of national anti-poverty funds and received 12 million yuan of financial funds as reward.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning】 In accordance with the overall requirements of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” and the strategic deployment for transition and leapfrog development of the province, based on the in-depth survey and soliciting opinions of various departments at all levels, the province completed the preparation of the "Overall Planning for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shanxi Province (2011-2020) ".

In accordance with the overall arrangements of the government on a new round of poverty alleviation, under the guidance of twinned liaison units - the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Health, according to the guiding ideology of "promoting poverty alleviation and development by regional development and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation and development", the province organized the relevant provincial departments and relevant cities and counties to respectively complete the preparation of regional development and poverty alleviation planning for Yanshan – Taihang Mountain Area and Lvliang Mountain Area. To fundamentally change the backwardness of the two contiguous poor areas and break the bottlenecks restricting regional development, the planning proposed the construction of more than 8000 projects in seven categories, namely key infrastructure construction, industrial development, improvement of production and living conditions, public services, rural human resources development, ecological construction and environmental protection.

【Pilot Projects of Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas】 The province allocated 200 million yuan of special poverty relief funds, selected five counties in Taihang Mountain Area and Lvliang Mountain Area as the pilot counties, namely Lin County, Daning, Kelan, Wutai and Tianzhen, set up three demonstration zones composed of surrounding counties relying on the pilot counties, and launched the pilot projects of poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas. Selecting three to five contiguous impoverished towns in the pilot demonstration zones, the province developed the three-year pilot poverty alleviation project planning with industrial development as the core to play a demonstration role in exploring ways for large-scale poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas. As of the end of 2012, all the pilot programs were approved and more than half were launched.

【Cadres' Living in Poor Villages and Income-generating Activities】In 2012, Shanxi Province successively held the meetings on provincial organ and city/ county/ township cadres' living in poor villages and income-generating activities to further promoted the cadres to focus on the core task of “one product for one village”, give play to the role of industrial departments, and support the development and income-generating industries of 6010 contracted villages. Based on the growth rate of 23.9% of the per capita net income of farmers in the contracted villages in 2011, this year, the growth rate continued the upward trend, reaching 20%.

【Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas】 Targeting at contiguous impoverished villages, after completing the 15 contiguous poor area development projects launched in 2010 and made steady progress in the construction of the development projects of 17 contiguous impoverished areas launched in 2011, we put in provincial financial anti-poverty funds of 240 million yuan, newly launched 11 contiguous impoverished area development and poverty alleviation projects, supported 11 impoverished counties, 44 towns and 365 poor villages to develop competitive industries, mainly involving facility agriculture, featured farming and walnut tree planting, etc. As of the end of 2012, 79.6% of the 11 projects launched that year were completed. Plus the completed pilot development projects of national contiguous poor areas, the province had completed a total of 52 contiguous poor area development projects, covering the vast majority of the impoverished counties.   

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 The provincial government issued the "Opinions on Accelerating Ex-situ Anti-poverty Relocation" and proposed to put more efforts on promoting ex-situ anti-poverty relocation according to the principle of "four combinations": Combining ex-situ relocation with industrial development, urbanization construction, old village development and usage and the improvement of social security". In 2012, the coverage of the ex-situ location projects in the province was expanded from 50,000 people to 100,000 people, the provincial subsidy increased from 250 million yuan to 500 million yuan. Meanwhile, in order to effectively solve the problem of land for relocation and reduce the burden on the masses, the province carried out the pilot work of promoting ex-situ anti-poverty relocation relying on the policy on the linking of increase and decrease in land area. As of the end of this year, 75.6% of the poverty-relief relocation of 100,000 people was completed and the rolling occupancy rate of the previous year reached 75.4%.

【Entire Village Advancement】 Through “one planning and two-year implementation”, the province continued the construction of 620 entire village advancement projects launched in 2011, supported 214 impoverished villages to implement the entire village advancement projects with “one product for one village” as the core, focusing on the development of competitive industries with local characteristics, the improvement of production and living conditions and the enhancement of self-development ability. As of the end of 2012, the projects had been launched in 165 villages and 82% of the projects were completed. Meanwhile, the entire village advancement projects in 40 villages of four counties with central lottery funds, namely Zuoquan, Pianguan, Wutai and Dai County, had all been launched.

【Poverty Alleviation by Science and Technology】 Relying on 117 "Rain Plan" training bases, targeting at the junior and senior middle school graduates from rural needy families who did not continue their studies, the province organized trainings of job skills, skill upgrading, labor force preparation and classified entrepreneurship for 50,000 person-times. To develop competitive industries with local characteristics, through agricultural practical skills training, technology project demonstration and new technology promotion, targeting at rural young labor forces, we organized technological trainings for 70,000 person-times. Through issuing in advance the plan for the use of funds, announcing subsidy objects online and strengthening inspection and social supervision, the province newly subsidized 900 poor college students, 1645 secondary vocational school students and 2,000 high school students. A total of 19,046 poverty-stricken students benefited from the program.

【Discount Loans for Poverty Alleviation Leading Enterprises】 Issued interest subsidy of 8.28 million yuan for the loans of 495 million yuan of 22 national poverty alleviation leading enterprises, resulting in the income growth by production of 26,000 impoverished rural households. Meanwhile, the province held the on-the-spot meeting on the poverty alleviation leading enterprises in the southern and northern regions respectively in Guangling County and Huguan County, formulated the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting Featured Agricultural Industries to Support Project Construction”, and determined 173 strategic projects in poor areas for featured agricultural industries to support project construction by providing interest subsidy.

【Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation by Institutions】The provincial, city and county governments jointly dispatched 22689 cadres to form the 24^th batch of provincial rural working team to carry out fixed-point poverty alleviation in 11657 impoverished villages of 92 counties. Focusing on promoting the income growth of farmers, the working teams at all levels further shifted the focus of fixed-point poverty alleviation to industrial development. In the whole year, they raised a total of 3.186 billion yuan of relief funds, of which 869 million yuan was from the provincial working team, and launched 6468 projects, including 414 new ones.

【Foreign-funded Poverty Alleviation】The province continued to promote the development of livestock breeding, the construction of featured cash crop bases and greenhouses and the implementation of rainfed agriculture projects, and support agricultural processing enterprises to accelerate the construction of the agricultural development projects in Shanxi river valley funded by ADB loans with the purpose to increase income of farmers in the project areas. In 2013, excluding the mid-term project adjustment, the province completed withdrawal reimbursement of $ 19,727,500 and project investment of 212 million yuan.

【Field Research on Poverty Alleviation】 To achieve the goal of doubling farmers’ income during the “12^th Five-Year Plan” period, while conducting large-scale investigations on poverty alleviation and development and related reporting activities, in cooperation with the Provincial People’s Congress and the Provincial Political Consultative Conference, we completed the field research on poverty alleviation and development, reported to the 31st session of the 11th Provincial People's Congress and the 28th Standing Committee of the Tenth CPPCC Provincial Committee Meeting respectively, and put forward a series of policy recommendations on promoting poverty alleviation and development and helping farmers increase income. Through visiting villages and households, questionnaire surveys, holding tasks, interviews and field surveys, we carried out the investigation and research activities among 48 impoverished villages and 480 poor households of 16 key counties in Taihang Mountain Area and Lvliang Mountain Area.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】According to the deployments of the provincial government for a new round of anti-poverty work, we opened up a special column and, taking “Shanxi Daily” as a carrier, organized a series of special reporting on “Journalists’ Survey in Impoverished Mountain Areas”. In the field survey of “Workshop for Rural Development and Poverty Reduction Officials from Developing Countries” held by International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) in Shanxi, we made extensive propaganda on our poverty alleviation and development experience and practice, creating an atmosphere for the whole society to support the poverty alleviation and development in Shanxi, and was continuously titled as an advanced unit for poverty alleviation publicity by LGOP.

【Poverty Alleviation Cadre Team Construction】In addition to organizing relevant poverty-relief cadres to participate in various trainings held by the relevant departments for 58 person-times, we organized 39 cadres and staffs of Tsinghua University to hold cadre capability improvement trainings and arranged 38 cadres to participate in the online learning of Shanxi cadres, with per capita training time exceeding 176 hours and a participation rate of 100%. We invited relevant professors of the Provincial Party to give lectures on the activity of "education on maintaining the purity of party members", and organized poverty relief cadres to receive education on revolutionary traditions in Zaozhuang and Weishanhu of Shandong Province. Meanwhile, we developed and issued eight systems on the ideological and work styles of government officials from poverty relief system of the province, participated in the radio’s live program of "ideological and work styles of government officials", and carried out the activities on democratic evaluation and dialogues on ideological and work styles of government officials of poverty alleviation departments in the province to further enhance the quality of poverty relief cadres and strengthen the awareness of public service.

                             (Shanxi Provincial Office of Poverty Alleviation)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Inner Mongolia

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, we strove for central financial anti-poverty funds of 800 million yuan, with an increase of 86.26 million yuan; The Inner Mongolia government put in financial poverty-relief funds of 1 billion yuan, with an increase of 800 million yuan and the highest growth rate in China. The financial anti-poverty funds invested by various leagues, cities, banners and counties as well as relevant departments’ agriculture and pasture-related funds were mainly put in key impoverished villages. A total of 7.6 billion yuan was put in the anti-poverty work of Inner Mongolia.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】 We invested 100 million yuan of financial funds respectively for Xing’an League, Tongliao City, Chifeng City and Ulanqab City which are concentrated with poverty-stricken people. Plus matching funds and integrated funds, a total of 1.9 billion yuan was put in for the implementation of 26 contiguous development projects, covering 25 banners, 94 Sumu towns, 396 Gacha villages and 330,000 people, which lifted 148,000 people out of poverty.

【Entire Village Advancement】The entire village advancement projects were mainly launched in 417 Gacha villages. A total of 2.57 billion yuan was put in, of which 600 million yuan was financial anti-poverty funds and 1.4 billion yuan was integrated funds. The projects were implemented in 417 Gacha villages, covering 220,000 poverty-stricken people and lifted 152,000 people out of poverty. In addition, we put in 2 million yuan to implement the industrial development projects for old revolutionary bases covered by the program of “one product for one village” in 38 impoverished Gacha villages, invested financial anti-poverty funds of 27 million yuan to implement entire township advancement projects in 8 old revolutionary base areas and put in 6 million yuan to launch the projects in 8 villages of three minority autonomous banners, namely Mulidawa, Ewenke and Elunchun. Meanwhile, we strove for 15 million yuan for the pilot projects of entire village advancement in Ningcheng County, mainly to support planting, breeding and infrastructure construction, covering 15,000 households and 49,000 people. As a result, the per capita income growth reached 1669 yuan and there was a reduction of 26,000 in the number of poverty-stricken people.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 1.015 billion yuan was put in, of which 300 million yuan was Inner Mongolia financial anti-poverty funds; Completed the relocation of the 7^th batch of 17,700 people (2011-2012); launched the 8^th poverty-relief relocation project; and invested a total of 960 million yuan for the house building of 557,000 square meters, covering 8,160 households and 26,900 people.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 Inner Mongolia allocated 100 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to launch industrialization-based poverty alleviation projects in 160 impoverished Gacha villages, encouraging 10,000 farmers and herdsmen to develop production, lifting 14,000 people out of poverty, and achieving per capita income growth of more than 1000 yuan. 217 national and regional poverty alleviation leading enterprises were re-identified. In 2012, the poverty relief projects covered a total of 2061 poor Gacha villages, supported 172,000 impoverished households and 690,000 poor people, and steadily solved the food and clothing problems of 358,000 poverty-stricken people. As a result, per capita net income growth of the poor reached 812 yuan that year, up 17%.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】 The government allocated 72 million yuan of poverty relief funds to establish village-level “anti-poverty mutual funds cooperatives” in 362 key Gacha villages, with 200,000 yuan per village, and issued a total of 110 million yuan of mutual funds to support 27500 households’ production. Poor rural households became the members with their share capital and each household could obtain loans of 3000-5000 yuan at a low interest rate, solving the capital shortage problem for the production of impoverished households.

【Rain Plan】14 million yuan was allocated for the vocational skills training in poor areas, which benefited 14,000 people and helped 12,000 people find jobs. 8 million yuan was used for the practical farming skills training of poverty-stricken people, covering 16,000 poor farmers and herdsmen. 12.75 million yuan of funds was issued for the pilot projects of “Rain Plan”, covering five banners and counties in four cities, namely Chifeng, Tongliao, Ulanqab and Baotou. 16,000 people received learning subsidy of 1500 yuan per person from the government.

【Financial Poverty Alleviation】 In cooperation with People’s Bank of China Hohhot Central Branch, CBRC Inner Mongolia Office, the Insurance Regulatory Bureau of Inner Mongolia and the Securities Regulatory Bureau of Inner Mongolia, we issued the “Opinions on Financial Support for Poverty Alleviation in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region”, allocated 10 million yuan of anti-poverty loan interest discount funds to provide discount loans for 20 poverty alleviation leading enterprises, encouraging business loans of 330 million yuan and benefiting nearly 100,000 poverty-stricken farmers and herdsmen. We arranged 10 million yuan of special funds for 7000 poor rural households to get discount loans, alleviating the loan-repaying pressure on enterprises and poverty-stricken farmers and herdsmen.

【Pilot Microcredit Projects for Poverty Alleviation】In cooperation with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, we newly launched microcredit projects for the poor in nine banners and counties. In 2012, pilot projects were launched in Kulun Banner and Xinghe County with planned loans of 142.8 million yuan. 45.5 million yuan was issued that year for 5,170 rural households, 8,800 yuan per household, and the timely repayment rate reached 100%. As a result, per household income growth reached 4,000 yuan.

【Legislation for Poverty Alleviation】 The "Ordinance on Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural and Pastoral Areas of Inner Mongolia" was approved by the 32^nd Session of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh People's Congress of Inner Mongolia on November 29, 2012 and officially launched in January 2013, marking the poverty alleviation and development work of Inner Mongolia embarked on the legal track. Divided into six chapters and 50 articles, the "Ordinance" clarified the poverty alleviation standards, objects, scope, measures, projects and fund management as well as legal responsibilities. The implementation period is consistent with that of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”.

【Framework of the Cooperation Agreement】 On September 8, Inner Mongolia government signed with LGOP the “Cooperation Agreement on Accelerating the Process of Poverty Alleviation in Inner Mongolia”. Under the agreement, LGOP will strengthen guidance, coordination and support for the poverty alleviation and development work in Inner Mongolia, increase central government funding for poverty alleviation, support Inner Mongolia to implement pilot projects of poverty alleviation and development in minority areas, pasturing areas and border regions, launch anti-poverty projects, entire village advancement and relocation projects in contiguous poor areas, implement a number of livelihood projects such as industrial projects and employment, education, health, cultural and social security projects, cultivate a number of competitive industries with local characteristics, speed up the construction of key infrastructure in impoverished areas, intensify ecological construction and environmental protection, continue to support the implementation of pilot anti-poverty work in old revolutionary base areas by giving priority to these projects in the allocation of anti-poverty credit loans and the approval of national poverty alleviation leading enterprises, give priority to the implementation of foreign-funded anti-poverty projects, actively coordinate national policy financial agencies to carry out financial poverty alleviation cooperation, organize and mobilize central state organs and large- and medium-sized state-owned enterprises to support the poverty reduction in Inner Mongolia, aiming to achieve full coverage of the key counties and contiguous poor areas, and actively guide social public welfare organizations and private enterprises to participate in the poverty alleviation and development work in Inner Mongolia as well. The two sides will also establish the mechanisms for cooperation and strengthen communication and regular working contacts to promote the implementation of the agreement.

【Assessment of Anti-poverty Work】 We issued the "Regulations on the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work in Inner Mongolia" and took the assessment results as a reference for the allocation of funds and an important part of the comprehensive assessment of the relevant department leaders. According to the "Regulations on the Assessment", starting with 22 contents in five aspects, we carried out a comprehensive assessment of the poverty alleviation work of all leagues and cities in 2011 and invested 20 million yuan to reward 20 advanced units in four leagues and cities. In the anti-poverty work assessment in 2011, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was informed by the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development as Class A province (autonomous region) for poverty alleviation and development work and was praised by the Ministry of Finance as Class B province (autonomous region) in the performance assessment of its financial anti-poverty funds, obtaining reward of 12 million yuan.

【Field Research and Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】 We organized the anti-poverty investigation among "thousands of villages and households" and the research report won the Excellence Award for poverty alleviation research reports. We carried out field research on poverty-relief discount loans and the contiguous development in extremely poor areas, and had 5 research reports printed in the "Work of Inner Mongolia", "Poverty Alleviation in Inner Mongolia" and other publications, 196 press releases printed in various national newspapers and websites, and five articles printed in "China’s Poverty Alleviation" and "Poverty Alleviation and Development" as well. Meanwhile, we had 280 articles printed in provincial news media, including three printed as headlines in "Inner Mongolia Daily" and five as headlines of the "Northern News". In addition, we carried out three propaganda activities on poverty reduction, had three articles printed in the special column of poverty alleviation of Inner Mongolia Daily  (in Mongolian and Chinese); completed the preparation of the "Harmonious Development" for poverty reduction – Chapter IV of the political article "New Leap" jointly with the Inner Mongolia TV; and organized the large-scale interview activities - "Love for the Grassland – Action of Poverty Alleviation" jointly with Inner Mongolia People's Radio. Poverty Alleviation Office of Inner Mongolia and one individual were respectively titled as the National Advanced Unit and Advanced Individual for Poverty Alleviation Publicity in 2012.

【Poverty Alleviation Statistics and Monitoring Training】We completed the poverty survey in the base period and the poverty alleviation statistics research in 2011. This year, we held a total of 15 trainings for 1957 person-times, sent 96 people to participate in the trainings organized by LGOP and relevant poverty alleviation associations, and organized trainings for 2053 person-times. The leagues and cities held 96 trainings of 3560 people for 5613 person-times.

【Supervision of Project Funds】Inner Mongolia further strengthened the preliminary project research, carried out the assessment work and feasibility studies, scientifically and rationally identified poverty relief projects, and achieved early arrangement, early implementation and early effectiveness of relevant projects. The allocation of anti-poverty funds, based on the factor distribution method, was open and fair, highlighting the key points. We strengthened supervision and inspection, sent supervision and research groups in the middle and at the end of the year to carry out comprehensive assessment on the anti-poverty work of 12 leagues and cities in 2011, and rewarded 20 advanced units of 4 leagues and cities in the performance evaluation. We further standardized the publicity and announcement system, implemented the poverty alleviation project supervisor system, and improved the poverty alleviation and development regulatory system combining special supervision, social supervision and public scrutiny.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】The State Council approved the regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the southern foot of Daxing’anling Mountain and Yanshan – Taihang Mountain Area (in Inner Mongolia) prepared by Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. By increasing investment, we strove to promote the poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties.

【File Archiving for the Poor】Adhering to the "two-wheel drive" mode for poverty alleviation and development and the minimum living security system, Inner Mongolia completed the identification and registration of 2.666 million objects of poverty reduction, and implemented the work mechanism of "one card, two implementation and three to households" (registration with cards; planning, responsibility implementation; project, funds and support to households), making anti-poverty work target at the real poor. The effective convergence of two systems was launched in the rural and pasturing areas of 41 banners and counties, covering all eligible people.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】The coverage of Beijing – Inner Mongolia pairing-off poverty alleviation changed from 8 leagues and cities to Ulanqab City and Chifeng City, and Beijing’s financial anti-poverty funds increased to 80 million yuan per year, covering 115 cooperation projects with an investment of 19 billion yuan, obviously playing a more significant demonstration role in supporting Ulanqab and Chifeng. Ordos City was required to provide counterpart support for Hing'an League and implemented 19 projects with a total investment of 31.4 billion yuan.  Inner Mongolia Association of Industry and Commerce, Commission of Economy and Informatization and State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission respectively mobilized one hundred enterprises to provide counterpart support for three contiguous impoverished areas, namely Tongliao, Xilin Gol League and Daqingshan, and entered into a collaboration for more than 100 projects with a total investment of 16.6 billion yuan. 137 departments and bureaus directly under the Inner Mongolia government were appointed to provide counterpart support for the minority people in Hing’an League and Hulunbuir City and implemented more than 1,000 projects with an investment of 100 million yuan. We strove for the participation of 27 state organs and institutions in a new round of fixed-point poverty alleviation, achieving the full coverage of 31 key banners and counties. Inner Mongolia Party Committee and Government organized the activity of "Ten Thousand Party Members and Cadres Going to the Grassroots Units to Shift Working Styles and Do Practical Things". More than 10,000 party and government organs at all levels as well as relevant enterprises and institutions participated in the poverty reduction, and more than 15,000 cadres were sent to work in the impoverished areas. The Employment Promotion Program for Students from Needy Families solved the job problem of a large number of students from poor families.

【Independent Risk Control】Inner Mongolia formulated the "Key Points for Honest Government and Anti-corruption Bid in 2012" and the "Deployment for Poverty Alleviation Office of Inner Mongolia to Promote the Construction of A Punishment and Prevention System and Honest Government Responsibility System in 2012", held the videophone conference on the discipline inspection and supervision of poverty alleviation, made deployments for the honest government and anti-corruption bid in Inner Mongolia in 2012 and strengthened the supervision, inspection and management.

                  (Gao Fengyi, Poverty Alleviation Office of Inner Mongolia)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Liaoning Province

【Overview】In 2012, Liaoning Province continued to take anti-poverty work as a major livelihood project of the province, aiming to mainly support 1.28 million low-income rural residents and make their annual income reach 2200 yuan. In accordance with the provincial government’s deployments, the province vigorously promoted the income growth of the poor through carrying out household poverty reduction, relocation, poor labor skills training, poverty alleviation leading enterprises, fixed-point poverty alleviation and microfinance for poverty alleviation. As of the end of this year, the per capita net income of the 1.28 low-income rural residents amounted to 2258 yuan, and we completed the poverty reduction goals set by the provincial government.

   【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, a total of 573.80 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was invested in Liaoning Province, of which 40.69 million yuan was from the central government, 252.3 million yuan was from the provincial government, with an increase of 20 million yuan, and 280.81 million yuan was from city and county governments, up 45.7%. 327.76 million yuan of the financial anti-poverty funds was used for household project construction, accounting for 57% of the total; 40.22 million yuan was invested for poor labor transfer training, 76.12 million yuan for poverty reduction by relocation and 11.3 million yuan for loan interest discount of poverty alleviation leading enterprises.

【Poverty Alleviation for Specific Households】In 2012, Liaoning Province further promoted the poverty alleviation by entire village advancement and, taking villages as the platform, vigorously carried out household poverty reduction to ensure that the poverty alleviation will really benefit villages and the anti-poverty projects will be implemented for specific poor households, benefiting 238,000 poverty-stricken households and 619,000 people. The provincial government arranged special household poverty relief funds to support impoverished households and issued project subsidy of 2000 yuan for each household. For key counties, the provincial government issued 1000 yuan for each household, while the city and county government each put in 500 yuan; for non-key counties, the provincial government put in 500 yuan, the city government invested in 1000 yuan and the county government put in 500 yuan. In fact, the investment to household poverty reduction included project funds of 1.10314 billion yuan, integrated department funds of 614.26 million yuan and other funds of 232.43 million yuan, covering 2063 administrative villages. 1195 anti-poverty projects were launched, covering planting, breeding, forestry industry, specialty industry and infrastructure construction, of which 444 were planting projects, 425 were breeding projects, 147 were forestry projects and 179 were other projects.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】In 2012, Liaoning Province completed relocation-based poverty alleviation for 3733 households and 11022 people. The province put in a total of 76.12 million yuan of anti-poverty funds for the relocation, of which 49.5 million yuan was financial funds, invested 25,000 yuan for house building of each immigrant household, including 15,000 yuan from the provincial government and 10,000 yuan from the city and county government. The targets of relocation were mainly arranged to the eastern part of Liaoning and the poor mountain areas in the west of the province. The province practices the real-name system for the management of immigrants and has records of the name of head of household, number of family members, annual net income of the family, original location (town, village, team) and photos of old houses; new location (town, village, team) and photos of new houses, relocation reasons, resettlement ways and support projects, etc. Combined with the entire village advancement, land consolidation and industrialization-based poverty reduction, the government supported the immigrants to develop production projects to meet the requirements of "affordable relocation, steady progress, sustained development and poverty reduction" for the relocation-based anti-poverty work.

【Rain Plan】In 2012, relying on 48 provincial (national) and more than 130 city and county-level labor transfer training bases, Liaoning Province carried out job skills, work preparation, entrepreneurship and practical agricultural technology trainings jointly with relevant agricultural sciences institutes and agricultural technology promotion stations, completed the trainings of 61,000 poor labors, including skills trainings for 21,129 people, and arranged jobs for 19,210 people with the employment transfer rate up to 91%. Agricultural technical trainings were organized for 32,580 people and each rural household then had one or two members with production skills. The provincial government arranged special funds of 25 million yuan for the poor labor transfer training and provided subsidies for the poor labors receiving the training. The market-oriented poverty-relief trainings set up curriculums according to the market demands and the wishes of the trainees and, for the training ledger and participant list for the training, the province implemented the real-name system and employment records management system.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, Liaoning Province developed the "Measures on the Identification and Management of Poverty Alleviation Leading Enterprises in Liaoning Province" and the "Rules on the Management of Loan Interest Subsidy Funds for Poverty Alleviation Leading Enterprises in Liaoning Province", carried out strict management of the provincial poverty alleviation enterprises, established the exit mechanism and strengthened the supervision on the use of loan interest subsidy funds for poverty alleviation to enhance the efficiency of the anti-poverty funds. According to the "Measures on the Identification and Management of Poverty Alleviation Leading Enterprises in Liaoning Province", the province organized an assessment of existing provincial poverty alleviation leading enterprises. 160 enterprises passed the assessment, 23 were disqualified, and 46 were newly identified as provincial poverty alleviation leading enterprises.

【Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation】Liaoning provincial government issued the "Appraisal Plan for Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation by Institutions Directly Under the Provincial Government in 2012" to clarify the contents and standards of the assessment of the fixed-point poverty alleviation by institutions directly under the provincial government, and issued the "Measures on the Management of Funds for Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation in Liaoning Province" to further regularize the management of the fixed-point poverty alleviation funds. The poverty alleviation units directly under the provincial government transferred the anti-poverty targets to poor villages and households. In the whole year, they dispatched a total of 397 cadres to support the anti-poverty work in 236 towns of 17 counties, invested 782 million yuan to implement 312 poverty relief projects, introduce 12 talents and subsidize 4,176 poor students. The city and county government arranged 4,185 poverty relief units and put in anti-poverty funds of 481 million yuan. In accordance with the "Program for Performance Evaluation of Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation in Liaoning Province", the provincial leading group of poverty alleviation and development and the provincial organs’ working committees conducted assessment and appraisal of the provincial helping units for fixed-point poverty alleviation in 2012. 118 units were titled as advanced units and 180 people were titled as advanced individuals in the fixed-point poverty alleviation.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】In 2012, Liaoning Province launched pilot projects of mutual funds in 760 poor villages, of which: 92 were national pilot villages and 668 were provincial pilot villages. The pilot villages had a total of 370,830 rural households, including 185,070 poverty-stricken ones. 74,587 households joined the mutual funds, of which 56,825 were poor households, accounting for 30.7% of the total poverty-stricken households and 76.2% of the participating households. As of the end of 2012, the mutual funds amounted to 259.204 million yuan, of which 229.056 million yuan was provincial and central government’s anti-poverty funds, accounting for88.4%, and 20.6064 million yuan was invested by rural households as participation fee of the mutual funds, accounting for 7.9%. A total of 63,576 loans were issued that year, including 52336 for the poor. A total of 386.757 million yuan of loans was issued, of which 336.694 million yuan was for impoverished households. The pilot villages set up anti-poverty mutual aid societies, completed most of the registration work in civil affairs departments, respectively set up board of directors and board of supervisors, organized involved rural households to established binding style mutual aid groups, and the executive body, organization and management system and operational safeguard measures have been basically improved.

【Poverty Alleviation by Microcredit】 In 2012, 20 counties (cities) of the province carried out poverty alleviation by microfinance, covering 449 impoverished towns. As of the end of 2012, the loan balance was 380 million yuan with 64,000 efficient customers, of which 606 million yuan was issued in 2012. 68,000 loans were issued in total, averagely 8352 yuan per loan. The success rate of the income-generating production activities of the rural households that received loans reached 98%. Each 1000 yuan of loans could generate income of more than 50 yuan for the rural households. The loan quality was good and the repayment rate reached 100%.

【Poverty Alleviation by Science and Technology】In cooperation with Shenyang Normal University and Liaoning Feiteng Education Management Company, Liaoning Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office established the first experimental base for poverty alleviation by education in the province with an investment of 2 million yuan. To give play to the role of science and technology in poverty reduction, the province identified three research and education agencies as the first batch of demonstration bases for poverty alleviation by science and technology, including Fushun Academy of Agricultural Sciences, etc.

                              (Liaoning Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Jilin Province

      【Overview】In 2012, Jilin Province continued to vigorously promoted the anti-poverty work, taking it as one of the major projects to improve people’s livelihood, and issued the poverty reduction plan of lifting 300,000 rural people out of poverty. Party committees and governments at all levels attached great importance to the work and constantly increased efforts on poverty alleviation. In accordance with the overall requirement of doing the best to promote poverty alleviation and development put forward by the provincial government, we made overall deployments, developed planning, carefully organized relevant work, increased investment to accelerate the construction, and focused on the implementation, achieving new results in the anti-poverty work. As of the end of 2012, the province lifted 322,000 rural poor residents out of poverty, exceeding the objectives and tasks set at the beginning of this year.

【Work Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development】In February 2012, Jilin Province held the provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development. The meeting profoundly implemented the spirit of the Central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”, summarized the poverty alleviation achievements and experience over the past decade, analyzed the current and future situation and tasks for poverty alleviation and development and mobilized forces from all sectors to work together for success in a new round of poverty alleviation and development.

First, raised the poverty line. Based on the new national poverty line of 2300 yuan of per capita net income of farmers (2010 constant prices), combined with the actual situation of Jilin Province, through scientific calculations, we set the new poverty line of 2800 yuan (2010 constant prices) for our province. Second, determined the main battlefield for key problem tackling in poverty alleviation and development. The state identified 14 contiguous poor areas as the main battlefields for the poverty reduction in the new stage. Tongyu County, Zhenlai County and Da’an City in Baicheng District of Western Jilin were covered by the contiguous poor area of southern foot of Daxing’anling Area. Tow provincial contiguous poor areas were also identified, i.e. the arid saline desertification areas in the west and the eastern alpine mountains. The arid saline desertification areas cover seven counties (cities, districts), namely Tongyu County, Zhenlai County, Da'an City, Taonan City, Changling County, Taobei District and Shuangliao City, while the eastern alpine mountains cover 8 counties (cities), namely Wangqing County, Antu County, Longjing City, Helong City, Tumen City, Jingyu County, Changbai County and, Liuhe County. These two contiguous poor areas are the key regions for the poverty alleviation and development in the new stage. Third, identified the impoverished villages for main support in the poverty reduction. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the province will focus on supporting 1500 poverty-stricken villages. By implementing entire village advancement projects in batches, the province supported the development of featured industries, improved the production and living conditions, effectively increased the collective economic income and changed the overall appearance of poor villages.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, Jilin Province continued to increase the investment of financial anti-poverty funds and put in a total of 680 million yuan of relief funds, of which 570 million yuan was from the central government and 107 million yuan from the provincial government, respectively up 15% and nearly 200%. Meanwhile, we established the mechanism for long-term growth.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning】 Jilin Province formulated the “Implementation Opinions of Jilin Province on Implementing the ‘“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’” (Ji Fa No.〔2012〕4) and issued the “Important policy initiatives division program for the ‘Implementation Opinions of Jilin Province on Implementing the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’” (Ji Ban Fa No.〔2012〕16), the “Planning of Jilin Province on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development During the 12^th Five-Year Plan Period (2011-2015)” (Ji Fa Gai Planning No.〔2011〕1695) and the  “Planning of Jilin Province on Entire Village Advancement in the 12^th Five-Year Plan Period” as well. It organized and guided the counties, cities and districts of the province to formulate the village-level development planning for 1500 key poor villages during the “12^th Five-Year Plan” period.

【Entire Village Advancement】In accordance with the requirement of lifting 300,000 rural poor residents out of poverty in 2012, Jilin Province launched the entire village advancement projects in 281 impoverished villages and invested all kinds of funds of 996 million yuan, of which 329 million yuan was financial anti-poverty funds and 667 million yuan was integrated funds of other industries and departments as well as the self-raised funds of the masses. The financial anti-poverty funds supported the construction of 482 poverty relief projects.

【Development of Contiguous Poor Areas】 In 2012, in accordance with the overall deployment of the provincial government, we actively promoted the implementation of poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas and vigorously accelerated the key problem tackling for poverty reduction and coordinated development between regions in the contiguous poor areas. The province completed the construction of the contiguous poor area projects launched in 2012, and invested financial anti-poverty funds of 63.5 million yuan to launch 25 new projects in 14 counties (cities).

【Rain Plan】 The province vigorously promoted the poor labor transfer trainings, completed the pilot reform of the “Rain Plan” in the academic year of 2011-2012, subsidized 984 students from needy families and issued subsidies of 1.476 million yuan. In the whole year, we integrated 9.85 million yuan for the poor labor transfer trainings, organized trainings for 21,000 poor young people, helped 19,000 people find jobs and achieved a stable employment rate of 90.5%, increasing labor income of 280 million yuan.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, Jilin Province issued the “2011-2015 Implementation Plan of Jilin Province for Fixed-pointed Poverty Alleviation and Contracted Poverty Reduction of Provincial Leaders” (Ji Ban Fa No. 〔2012〕2), and continued to make the units directly under the central and provincial government and the provincial leaders, relevant enterprises, armies, NGOs and deputy provincial leaders to be responsible for the poverty reduction in impoverished counties and villages through signing contracts. 205 aiding units all completed the counterpart support task and the relevant provincial leaders all carried out field survey in the aided counties. The helping units directly put in 17.24 million yuan to introduce 45.73 million yuan of various types of funds to support the introduction of 43 projects. Smooth progress was made in a new round of fixed-point poverty alleviation work in the province, strongly promoting the economic and social development in impoverished areas.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】Giving full play to the resource advantages of the poverty-stricken areas, the province boosted the development of backbone industries with local characteristics, established production bases for featured planting industry and quality animal products, attached importance to planning and implementing a number of featured industrial projects for poverty reduction, cultivated a large number of industrialization poverty alleviation leading enterprises, actively developed various kinds of specialized cooperative organizations and improved the mechanism to link the interests of enterprises and the poor, further promoting the income growth of more impoverished rural households.

【Pilot Projects of Poverty Alleviation】First, pilot projects of contiguous development. Zhenlai County, Jingyu County and Longjing City achieved good results in the pilot project of contiguous development and each obtained 2 million yuan of reward for pilot work from the state. Second, pilot projects of state lottery public welfare funds. We actively strove for central lottery funds to vigorously promote the construction of entire village advancement projects in Longjing City and Wangqing County. Third, pilot projects of mutual funds. The province continued the pilot work of mutual funds in 155 poor villages with an investment of 23 million yuan. Two villages of Zhenlai County and two villages of Jingyu County were titled as Advanced Villages for Pilot Mutual Funds by LGOP and each obtained reward of 500,000 yuan. Turnover of the mutual funds exceeded twice a year. Fourth, pilot work of effective convergence of "two systems". The government gradually established files and records for the poor living below the new poverty line of 2,800 yuan and practiced dynamic management.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】To implement the spirit of the Central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and the "“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020) ", Jilin Province carried out extensive and profound propaganda activities on poverty reduction in the new stage. In 2012, we had 104 articles printed or reported by central main medias, including 26 by Xinhua News Agency, 10 by People's Daily, 10, 10 by CCTV, 5 by Guangming Daily, 6 by Economic Daily, 7 by China Daily, 5 by Farmer's Daily, 3 by China Radio International, 23 by People's Daily and 9 by LGOP website.

(Xu Dongliang, Jilin Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Heilongjiang Province

 

【Overview】In 2012, a total of 646 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued for Heilongjiang Province, of which 572 million yuan was issued by the central government, 74 million yuan was provincial matching funds, 13.52 billion yuan was integrated industrial funds, 83.01 billion yuan was credit loans, and 152 million yuan was social poverty alleviation funds. Smooth progress was made in the implementation of entire village advancement projects, industrial poverty alleviation, labor training for poor households, the construction of old revolutionary base areas and the development of contiguous poor areas as great efforts were put in the integration of anti-poverty resources and the funds were allocated in full timely.

【Entire Village Advancement】In 2012, In 2011, in accordance the standard for the construction of new rural communities, taking infrastructure construction and industrial development as the basic projects to lift poor areas out of poverty, Heilongjiang Province increased efforts on the integration of poverty alleviation resources, and invested special poverty relief funds of 303 million yuan in total and industrial poverty relief funds of 697 million yuan and completed the poverty reduction task in the first batch of 500 impoverished villages during the “12^th Five-Year Plan” period, with investment per village up to 2 million yuan.

In 2012 the entire village advancement projects in Heilongjiang Province directly benefited 54,000 poor households and lifted 120,000 rural residents out of poverty. The per capital income of the impoverished villages amounted to 3,391 yuan.

【Rain Plan】In 2012, Heilongjiang Province established the real-name training work mechanism and developed the poverty relief training management software. Relevant poverty alleviation departments carried out trainings based on the database of the poor and practiced computer program management. Online declaration, online verification and real-name subsidy policy was implemented for the labors from needy families to receive training, and the training funds were directly issued to the participants. The subsidies for children from needy families to receive vocational education and participate in village-based trainings are announced online under the budget management system. Labors of poor households cannot participate in the training unless they pass the authentication online. To avoid artificial operation, we allow people to check the progress of training and subsidies’ destination anytime, achieving poor labors’ voluntary participation in the training based on actual needs. In 2012, the province put in a total of financial anti-poverty funds of 9.99 million yuan for the training of 69,000 rural poverty-stricken people. 1,500 practical technical trainings were organized for 38,000 person-times in 500 poor villages covered by the entire village advancement program; the government subsidized 4,188 junior and senior middle school graduates of rural poor families to receive full-time vocational education, and relevant agriculture-related departments held job skills trainings for 27,000 people.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, to enhance the degree of organization of agricultural production in impoverished villages, focusing on the development of poor  household-based farmers’ economic cooperation organizations, Heilongjiang Province carried out land transfer orderly, strengthened infrastructure construction, developed leading and featured income-generating industries, and solved the problems of weak agricultural infrastructure, lack of industrial development potential and insufficient technology diffusion in impoverished villages, providing a guarantee for the poor to achieve stable income growth. In the whole year, the province invested special funds of 49 million yuan for industrial poverty alleviation, mainly to support the development of industries enriching people in 609 poor villages. Financial anti-poverty funds of 280 million yuan was allocated for 109 impoverished villages in the contiguous poor areas and border poor areas, and 1.12 billion yuan of industrial and social poverty alleviation funds were integrated for livestock breeding, greenhouse-based production, scale operation by land transfer, featured cash crops planting and green organic grain production bases. Driven by the industrial poverty alleviation, the province established 238 professional cooperatives composed of poor households to engage in planting and breeding, directly benefiting 24,000 poverty-stricken households. Through entire village training, it set up 97 labor transfer service teams for the poor. Meanwhile, the government issued 12 million yuan of interest subsidies to encourage 42 leading enterprises to provide loans for 158,300 poor households and guided the allocation of 4.923 billion yuan for the construction of industrial bases in poor villages. Through industrial poverty alleviation, the industrial development in poor areas was gradually consolidated, the income-growth channels were gradually broadened and the level of organization of agricultural production and industrialization development has been steadily enhanced.

【Development of Contiguous Poor Areas】11 counties of Heilongjiang Province were covered by the Daxing’anling Mountain Area with special difficulties, namely Lanxi, Gannan, Tailai, Baiquan, Lindian, Kedong, Wangkui, Qinggang, Fuyu, Longjiang and Mingshui County. In 2012, we completed the preparation of the "Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Contiguous Poor Areas in Heilongjiang Province". 173 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued and 7.748 billion yuan of funds were integrated from various industrial sectors for the construction of industrial development, infrastructure construction and transformation of low-yield farmland in contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties. Through integrating the financial funds and department funds as well as the poverty alleviation resources, the province combined poverty alleviation and development with the regional development and achieved coordinated economic and social development in impoverished areas and stable income growth of the poor. While doing a good job of poverty reduction in the national and provincial contiguous poor areas, Heilongjiang launched the pilot projects of “county-based entire village advancement and contiguous development through integrating funds” in three key counties, namely Lanxi, Baiquan and Huanan. Making use of the financial poverty-relief funds of 6 million yuan, it integrated various agriculture-related funds of 18.5 million yuan to implement the featured farming community projects, set up agricultural production cooperatives, and construct the rice growing, water-saving irrigation, featured cash crop planting and infrastructure construction projects as well.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, Heilongjiang Province established the provincial, city, county, township and party cadres’ “one for one” fixed-point poverty alleviation work systems and included the fixed-point poverty alleviation work by party and government institutions into the target assessment system. 160 provincial party and government organs, enterprises and institutions and 4,714 city and county organs sent a total of 4874 cadres to support the poverty reduction in designated counties, towns and villages and issued project funds and production loans of 152 million yuan to support the trainings of grassroots cadres and technology demonstration households for 3,800 people in 500 impoverished villages.

【Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas】 In 2012, Heilongjiang Province issued financial funds of 25 million yuan for the construction of old revolutionary base areas, of which 10 million yuan was provided for the construction of small projects in 76 old revolutionary base areas to improve the production and living conditions of the masses; and 15 million yuan was put in to support the pilot entire village advancement projects in old revolutionary base areas with central lottery funds. Meanwhile, the province completed the pilot projects of entire village advancement in the old revolutionary base areas of Yanshou County with 2011 central lottery funds.

【Convergence of Two Systems】In 2012, in accordance with the new poverty line, Heilongjiang Province identified 3.53 million poor rural residents, including 2.56 million rural poverty reduction objects with the ability to work. Through the implementation of poverty relief projects, social support and industrial development, it gradually supported the rural poverty reduction objects in batches. All the poor without the ability to work were covered by the rural minimum living security system and the province achieved full coverage of eligible objects of poverty reduction under the dynamic management.

【Enhancement of Poverty Line】In 2012, based on local actual situation, Heilongjiang Province raised the rural poverty line to 2,800 yuan and extended the coverage of anti-poverty work to include forest areas, mining areas and the city. In rural poverty alleviation and development, the contiguous poor areas at the southern foot of Daxing’anling, the national and provincial poverty-stricken counties and impoverished villages were regarded as the main battlefields. The anti-poverty work in forest zones mainly covered Sengong Forest Area, Daxing’anling and Xiaoxing’anling Area, Changbai Mountain Area and local farms; the poverty alleviation in mining areas mainly covered the provincial state-owned mining areas. Large, medium and small-sized cities were all covered by the urban poverty alleviation and development work. In 2012, through conducting in-depth investigation and research, the province determined six major supporting measures, namely the reform of state-owned forest and mining enterprises, the improvement of infrastructure, the development of featured industries, the creation of jobs, the improvement of social security system and the increase of human capital investment.

   (Liang Shumao, Xia Yuguang, Heilongjiang Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Jiangsu Province

【Overview】　In 2012, proceeding from the whole situation of “two initiative”, based on the elimination of the rural poor living below the poverty line of 2,500 yuan and the villages with no collective income, Jiangsu Province took the lead to make the deployment for a new round of poverty alleviation and development for building a well-off society. After four years of efforts, according to the requirements, we will strive to make the annual per capita net income of 1.47 million households and 4.11 million low-income people reach 4,000 yuan (or local poverty line) and make 1,533 economically weak villages achieve the objective of “eight possessions”, i.e.: “two strong” teams supported by the masses, scientific and reasonable development planning, efficiency agricultural facility, leading industries with distinct features, stable collective income, advanced and practical information network, healthy civilized village customs and clean living environment. Meanwhile, the village-level collective income should amount to 150,000 yuan. Six contiguous poor areas achieved their poverty alleviation objectives at the same time. As of the end of 2012, the annual per capita net income of 630,000 rural low-income residents reached 4000 yuan, opening up a good start for a new round of poverty alleviation and development.

【Work Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development】 On March 18, 2012, Jiangsu Province held the conference on the work in North Jiangsu and the poverty alleviation and development in the whole province to make an overall deployment for its anti-poverty work, and issued the “Outline for the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Jiangsu Province”, the “Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of A Comprehensive Well-off Society in North Jiangsu” and the “Opinions on Increasing Efforts on the Poverty Reduction for Building a Well-off Society Characterized by ‘five-party linkage’”. It was listed in the new batch of practical projects for rural areas to promote the poverty reduction for the construction of a well-off society and the work was under the supervision of relevant department. In order to further promote the implementation of this project, the provincial leading group of poverty alleviation and development signed the letter of responsibility with the party secretaries of 22 counties (cities, districts) in the northern areas of Jiangsu, further strengthened the responsibilities of county-level departments and party and government leaders, and clarified that the county (city, district) party committee and government leaders should play their leading and demonstration role to meet the requirements of relevant villages.

【File Archiving for Poverty-stricken People】In 2012, based on extensive investigations and researches as well as other factors, Jiangsu Province set its poverty line of 4000 yuan for a new round of poverty reduction. The central and southern regions respectively set the local poverty line of 5000 yuan and 6000 yuan based on local actual situations. According to the “eight possession” objective for economically weak villages set by the provincial government, combined with the collective economic income situation of the villages, the province identified 1533 poor villages as the key villages for poverty alleviation and development; based on the number of low-income residents and the proportion of economically weak villages, we identified 12 key counties and six contiguous poor areas for poverty reduction, and organized a new round of activity of registration of the poor, covering 1.47 million households, 4.11 million people and 2.71 poverty reduction objects with the ability to work, of whom 2.36 million came from 22 counties in the northern areas of Jiangsu. The province achieved the goal of providing cards for poor households, volumes for villages and database for provinces, cities, counties and towns.

【Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, Jiangsu Province further improved the mechanism of “five-party linkage” to vitalize counties, sent provincial aiding team to support 12 counties (districts) including Feng County, etc., and promoted the investment of policy resources of party and government organs, industrial resources of state-owned enterprises, technical resources of universities and research institutes and development resources of the southern cities and counties to Northern Jiangsu. It made clear that the seven counties (cities, districts) without aiding team were the liaison points for anti-poverty work, the “five-party linkage” and pro-poor policies remained unchanged, and Northern Jiangsu should organize aiding work team to support the relevant cities and counties (cities, districts). The province further improved the “Five One” mechanism to enrich villages to ensure that each economically weak village is equipped with one poverty alleviation instructor, linked with one scientific special commissioner, supported by one industrial and commercial enterprise, twinned with one rich village and driven by one leading industry. Among the 190 aiding work team members for the 2012-2013, 150 excellent young department leaders (or above) were sent to work in the key counties (districts) as the instructor for economically weak villages. 100 demonstration villages for new rural construction in the southern area were twinned with 100 economically weak villages in the northern area. The cities and counties also organized industrial and commercial enterprises to provide counterpart support for economically weak villages. At present, the province has comprehensively achieved “two full coverage”: All economically weak villages are supported by relevant aiding units, and all registered low-income rural households are supported by relevant persons.

【Poverty Alleviation and Development Measures】In 2012, the province implemented the  "two-wheel drive" policy – developing efficient agriculture and promoting labor transfer for the registered poverty reduction objects with the ability to work, adopted various measures to help adjust the agricultural structure, focused on developing high-quality grain and oil industry, vegetable gardening industry, large-scale animal husbandry, featured fishery and sightseeing agriculture, supported the development of facility greenhouses, economic forests and orchards, livestock breeding and other efficient agricultural projects and, through the demonstration of core areas and the guidance of technical staff, helped solve problems in production technology and product sales. It established the employment assistance system for rural needy families and helped the labors from “zero transfer families” with low income achieve stable employment through implementing free vocational skills identification and re-employment support policies, purchasing public service positions, etc. When the provincial poverty relief funds are integrated for use, they must be issued to the low-income rural households in the form of shares to make them have a stable income. Meanwhile, the province insisted on the effective convergence of "two systems" - poverty alleviation and development and the rural minimum living security system, covering all people without the ability to work, and established the mechanism for annual increase of the subsistence allowances in reverse chronological order to ensure these people achieve the poverty reduction goal of 4000 yuan per year by the end of 2015. Meanwhile, it strongly supported the development of farmers' cooperative organizations and guided the cooperatives to help low-income rural households develop efficient agriculture to give full play to the leading role of modern agriculture.

       According to the new requirement of "eight possessions" for economically weak villages, the province highlighted the development of village collective economy, supported economically weak villages to develop resources development-oriented, asset operation-oriented, agriculture serving-oriented, non-local development-oriented and sightseeing collective economy. Highlighting the carriers of standardized plants and shop front rooms in the street, it encouraged aiding units to increase efforts for counterpart support, and supported villages to build standard plants in economic development zones and the industrial zones meeting the planning requirements, or build and purchase shop front rooms in commercial areas as the villages’ collective assets, practice leasing operations to increase collective revenue, and strengthen village collective’s ability to serve and help farmers increase income. Highlighting the basis of improving the development environment, the province developed scientific planning, actively strove for support, accelerated the construction of rural production and living facilities and strengthened the convenience feature of the village-level service centers to create conditions and provide support for enriching the villages and local residents. Highlighting addressing the bottleneck of village-level public debts, the province promoted a new round of debt relief work for economically weak villages.

【Contiguous Development】 In 2012, Jiangsu Province identified six contiguous poor areas for poverty alleviation and development, involving 64 towns and 910 administrative villages, including 351 economically weak villages. The development-oriented poverty alleviation had 434,000 objects, accounting for one quarter of the poverty reduction objects of North Jiangsu. The counterpart support planning for Xinangang Area was already launched in 2012 and the planning for other contiguous areas has been prepared.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】Since 2012, the provincial government allocated 2.668 billion yuan of special funds for poverty reduction and the construction of a well-off society and implemented the results-oriented incentive policy. 1,200 yuan was rewarded when one person was lifted out of poverty in the key counties and 1,000 yuan was issued when one person shook off poverty in any other county. Relief fund per low-income farmer was 1,130 yuan. Meanwhile, the government clarified that in addition to the investment of special funds, the provincial organs and institutions must put in at least 200,000 yuan per year with an annual growth of more than 20% through austerity and contributions of party members and cadres; relevant research institutes and universities should invest at least 100,000 yuan with an annual growth of 20%; provincial state-owned enterprises must issue at least 1 million yuan and the investment of central organs should refer to this standard. The twinned counties (cities, districts) in the southern areas of Jiangsu Province should include anti-poverty funds into fiscal budget, no less than five million yuan per year; and about 10% of the additional financial strength of the counties (cities, districts) in the northern part of the province should be put in poverty alleviation and development and included into the assessment indicator system.

【Anti-poverty Microcredit】 In 2012, the province continued to implement the microcredit policy for poverty alleviation and strove to expand its coverage of low-income rural households. In the whole year, a total of 3.4 billion yuan of anti-poverty petty loans was issued, benefiting 289,000 registered low-income rural households. The province steadily promoted the construction of pilot projects of village-level mutual funds and launched the pilot work in 176 economically weak villages with an investment of 65.02 million yuan, involving 174,000 rural households. The number of involved rural households and the capital scale both witnessed a significant increase.

【Pilot Projects of Poverty-relief Funds for Specific Households】 In 2012, in a new round of poverty alleviation and development, the government strengthened research and exploration in helping specific households, especially making poverty-relief funds directly promote the income growth of farmers, put forward seven measures to make the anti-poverty funds directly benefit low-income rural households and economically weak villages, and launched pilot projects of "financial anti-poverty funds directly to rural households" in Guannan and Xinyi. Basic idea: The rural households receiving financial aid awards must participate in the new rural cooperative medical system and the new rural pension insurance system, and those meeting the conditions for compulsory education must receive compulsory education. In such a way, the government aims to form a comprehensive aid policy system covering employment, social insurance, medical care and compulsory education. According to the actual situation of the relief objects, taking income-generating projects and measures as the premise, the province issued the relief funds directly to impoverished households and people, aiming at establishing a long-term mechanism for poverty alleviation and development.

 【Propaganda and Research of Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, the province's poverty alleviation publicity and research focused on a new round of poverty alleviation and development, and we had a total of 126 press releases printed in the central media, industrial media and LGOP sponsored media, including 34 in "People's Daily", 52 in "Farmer's Daily", 4 in Xinhua News Agency (xinhuanet), 3 in "China Daily" (China online), 13 in the Website of China’s Poverty Alleviation, 5 in "Economic Daily", 5 in LGOP website, 6 in "China’s Poverty Alleviation", and 3 in the magazine of "Poverty Alleviation and Development". LGOP Director-General Fan Xiaojian gave special instruction in the article "Actively Exploring Effective Ways to Reduce Relative Poverty – Increase Efforts for Poverty Alleviation in the Southern and Central Areas of Jiangsu" printed in the fourth "Briefing of Poverty Alleviation in Jiangsu": Comrade Guoliang and Wenkai: The situation in Jiangsu is gratifying. Relevant regions and cities should explore courageously, attempt to improve the poverty standards and adjust relevant mechanisms, and make specific arrangements according to the guiding ideology of the convergence of two systems.

(Zhu Hao, Jiangsu Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Zhejiang Province

【Overview】2012 is the last year for the implementation of income growth program for low-income population in Zhejiang Province, and we comprehensively completed the five-year objectives and tasks of increasing revenue of the low-income residents. In 2012, the rural per capital net income of Zhejiang Province was 14552 yuan, the urban-rural income ratio was reduced from 2.49:1 in 2007 to 2.37:1, and the relative development gap was narrowed; the per capita net income of the 1.11 million rural households in the province reached 6260 yuan, up 18.2%, with an actual growth of 15.0% deducted the price factor, and the growth rate was respectively 6.9 and 6.2 percentage points above the provincial average; the per capita net income of the 79.4% of the low-income farmers (excluding those receiving subsistence allowances) exceeded 4000 yuan, and the rural households living below 2,500 yuan were almost eliminated. The relative difference between low-income rural households and rural residents’ per capital net income in the province was reduced from 1:2.76 in 2009, 1:2.67 in 2010 and 1:2.47 in 2011 to 1:2.32 in 2012, and the income gap was gradually narrowed.

In 2012, 657,400 people were covered by the urban and rural minimum living security system, the urban and rural subsistence allowance standard was respectively 5721 yuan and 4200 yuan per person per year, and the standards of rural subsistence allowance of all the counties (cities, districts) were enhanced to more than 2700 yuan per person per year. The province implemented the construction of “villages of full employment” and “communities of full employment”. 65% of the villages and 85% of the township communities in the province reached the standards for “villages of full employment” and “communities of full employment”. Governments at all levels allocated medical relief funds of 3 billion yuan to directly help the masses for 2.933 million person-times.

【Poverty Line】 The poverty line of Zhejiang Province was enhanced from 2500 yuan of per capita net income of farmers in 2007 to 4600 yuan in 2010, accounting for 140.7% of the per capita net income of rural residents of the province, and it is estimated that 3.5 million rural residents living below the poverty line in 2010, accounting for 10.9% of the total.

【Financial Investment】 In 2012, Zhejiang Province issued financial anti-poverty funds of 514.01 million yuan (not including functional poverty-relief funds) for low-income rural households to become rich, of which374.66 million yuan was used as subsidies for off-site relocation projects, 110 million yuan was used to support the development of low-income rural households (including 52.1 million yuan for industrial development, 15.9 million yuan for mutual funds of the villages concentrated with low-income groups, 12 million yuan of discount funds for microcredit and 30 million yuan for processing with supplied materials and work-for-relief program), 20 million yuan was for development funds for minorities and 9.35 million yuan was other funds. In addition, the provincial government also arranged 1.68 billion yuan of special funds for 12 key underdeveloped counties to implement poverty alleviation, industrial development and public service projects.

【Management of Anti-poverty Funds】 Adhering to open supervision of poverty relief funds, the province was strict in project examination and approval and the use of relief funds, aiming to achieve delicacy project management, digital project declaration, scientific allocation of funds and open use of capital. We actively improved the management methods, further improved the regulations on the use of special poverty relief funds, further regulated the relevant procedures and improved the mechanisms. In the allocation of anti-poverty project funds, we mainly implemented the factor analysis approach and divided the funds to relevant counties. Meanwhile, we practiced information management and annual upgrading of basic data to achieve digital project declaration and management, effectively strengthened the audit of poverty relief funds and established the performance evaluation mechanism and poverty relief statistic monitoring system. Zhejiang Province’s management of poverty relief funds was highly affirmed by LGOP and the province was classified into the group of Class A in the evaluation of performance of poverty relief funds.

【Special Support Projects】To increase farmers’ income, enhance the living standards of people and strengthen the endogenous function, the province strove to establish a long-term mechanism for continuous improvement of the level of income and quality of life of the farmers, and accelerated the pace of income growth and the construction of a well-off society to ensure the smooth implementation of special support projects. In 2012, 615 projects were launched in 12 key underdeveloped counties with an investment of 4.25 billion yuan, including 256 special support projects, mainly manifested in five aspects: First, more rapid economic development. In 2012, the GDP of the 12 counties reached 81.951 billion yuan, up 12.4%, 4.2 percentage points above the provincial average; Second, significant increase in the income of farmers. In 2012, the per capita net income of the farmers in the 12 counties grew by 12.4%, 1.0 percentage points above the national average, and the per capita net income of the farmers in Changshan County and Qujiang District exceeded 10,000 yuan for the first time, respectively amounting for 10,361 yuan and 10,240 yuan. Third, accelerated industry transportation and upgrading. Through developing a number of efficient featured industries to enrich people in the 12 counties, we promoted the development of collective economy of impoverished villages, enhanced the “blood-making” function and further accelerated the adjustment of economic structure. Fourth, significant enhancement of public service capability. A number of education, health, cultural and other basic public service projects were implemented in the 12 counties, significantly enhancing the level of basic public services and the facility utilization rate. Fifth, accelerated overall development of urban and rural areas. Through implementing the development strategy of giving priority to “small counties and big cities” as well as towns, the 12 counties accelerated the pace of population and industry aggregation.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 The province vigorously promoted the development of modern agriculture and supported the processing with supplied materials and farmhouse leisure tourism to actively promote local employment and labor transfer. In 2012, the province identified 49 provincial modern agricultural zones in underdeveloped areas, increased 1,574 farmers’ cooperatives and actively constructed demonstration counties and zones for provincial eco-agriculture, accounting for 45% of the first batch of demonstration zones. 1.023 million people in the underdeveloped regions engaged in processing with supplied materials and achieved processing fees of 8.1 billion yuan, with per capita processing fee of nearly 8000 yuan; rural labor trainings were organized for 297,000 person-times and labor transfer trainings were held for 130,000 people, respectively including 73,000 and 40,000 low-income farmers

【Ex-situ Relocation】Taking counties, central towns and villages as the platform for population and industry congregation, combined with village governance, rural house renovation and land management, the province vigorously promoted the ex-site relocation for the masses in remote and high mountain areas to go downhill, the masses in key reservoir areas to move out, the masses in the regions with hidden danger of geological disasters to move to safe regions and the masses on remote islands to move out, focusing on pushing forward the flow of population towards the city. Meanwhile, the province increased support for the cultivation of central towns and villages in underdeveloped regions to strengthen the carriage and leading capability of towns. In 2012, the underdeveloped regions and island counties and districts moved out 62.100 people.

【Public Services】The province further improved the funding system for students from poor families and fully implemented the third round of counterpart support work The number of the regions participating in support increased from 42 to 54. Each aiding party should select at least 20 schools with good quality and high level of education and arrange at least 20 excellent teachers every year to contact 40 teachers of the aided schools based on the ratio of 1:2. Relevant provincial universities were required to set up working groups to provide counterpart support for the universities with a weak foundation in the recipient underdeveloped regions. Administrative towns’ hospitals were exempted from medical facility and debt burden. The government issued provincial equipment subsidy of 77 million yuan for these hospitals, accounting for 64.7% of the total; and allocated 138 million yuan of debt relief funds for them, accounting for 63.3% of the total. As a result, the service conditions of township hospitals were significantly improved and the minimum living security standards were further enhanced. As of the end of 2012, governments at all levels of the province issued medical relief funds of 3 billion yuan to directly help people living in difficulty for 2.933 million person-times; the urban and rural minimum living security systems of the province covered 675,400 people, including 280,600 in less developed regions, accounting for 41.6% of the total; the average subsistence allowance of the urban and rural minimum living security system was respectively 464 yuan and 329 yuan, and these figures in the underdeveloped regions were respectively 435.59 yuan and 288.24 yuan; 97.25% of the objects of the rural five-guarantee system enjoyed concentrated support and the urban and rural social old-age insurance systems were constantly improved. As of 2012, the number of the insurance system’s participants reached 13.32 million and 100% of the old-age pension was issued.

【Development of Mountain Areas】Focusing on less developed areas, the province launched a new round of economic development in mountain areas and held the provincial work conference on economic development in mountain areas. The provincial government issued the "Several Opinions on Accelerating Economic Development in Mountain Areas" (Zhe Wei No. [2012] 90) and the "Planning for Economic Development in Mountain Areas of Zhejiang Province" (Zhe Zheng Fa No. [2012] 59). Giving full play to the resources advantages such as green ecology and featured culture, the underdeveloped mountain areas and counties actively cultivated featured industries to steadily promote the construction of ecological civilization, gradually improved the forest ecological compensation system, raised the compensation standard for key public ecological forest to 19 yuan per mu per year, and constructed modern forestry parks to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of forestry industry. By the end of 2012, the province had arranged 114 forestry industry demonstration zones with an area of ​​1.038 million mu, and built 241 forestry parks.

【Shanghai Collaboration】Taking the "Shanghai Collaboration Project" as the carrier, the province strengthened the cooperation between developed areas and underdeveloped regions in the field of economy, technology, education, health, human resources and employment, continued to implement the "Shanghai Collaboration Project • Economic Development Plan for One Hundred Villages" and the "Program 152 for Zhejiang Businesses Outside the Province to Support Low-income People", launched a total of 745 income-generating projects for the masses with an investment of 220 million yuan, covering featured farming, processing with supplied materials and farmhouse leisure tourism involved in Shanhai Collaboration, set up ten provincial vocational skills training bases for Shanhai Collaboration, organized trainings and labor transfer for 280,000 people, and supported the low-income people to achieve income growth of 2.5 billion yuan.

【Financial Poverty Alleviation】The province profoundly promoted the implementation of microcredit projects for poverty reduction, actively launched the pilot projects of village mutual aid society building and steadily issued national anti-poverty discount loans to effectively promote the income growth of low-income rural households and the farmers’ organization, agriculture industrialization and management democratization. In 2012, the 29 counties issued small loans of 350 million yuan for 11,000 household-times, and the relevant financial agencies issued anti-poverty discount loans of 300 million yuan and arranged discount capital of 2.1 million yuan. By 2012, the province had set up 493 mutual aid societies with 42,000 members and equity capital of 123 million yuan, which issued loans of 106 million yuan for 10,700 household-times in 2012.

【Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation】 The province comprehensively implemented the pairing-off poverty alleviation mechanism of “Once Program and One Unit for One Village” and “One Strategy and One Cadre for One Household”. According to the requirements of the provincial government, giving full play to their advantages, the aiding units seriously implemented the pairing-off support measures and steadily promoted the pairing-off poverty reduction work. In 2012, 295 provincial aiding units provided counterpart support for 73.48 million person-times the impoverished villages, including pairing-off support by 2,757 provincial department leaders and field survey to 35,000 households. The province implemented 2,019 aid projects, developed featured industrial bases of 218,000 mu, allocated relief funds of 253 million yuan and introduced various types of funds of 270 million yuan to benefit 108,000 low-income rural households, effectively promoting the income growth of low-income rural households and the development of less developed regions.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation and Social Poverty Alleviation】 The province effectively strengthened industrial poverty alleviation. 35 provincial functional departments organized the implementation of 118 functional poverty alleviation projects to support “generally benefiting” service and “special” support for less developed regions, and actively mobilized social forces to participate in social poverty alleviation. The “village-enterprise twinning” projects implemented by the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, the “Home village Support by Countrymen Residing Abroad” launched by the Provincial Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, the "Project for the Disabled to Share the Well-off Society" implemented by the Provincial Federation of the Disabled, the "Development of Featured Agriculture" implemented by the Poverty Alleviation Foundation, the "Benevolence Supermarket" launched by the Philanthropic Foundation and the "Student Supporting Action" implemented by China Youth Development Foundation were all successful.

【Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Work】 In accordance with the requirements of LGOP, targeting at 11 municipal, 29 county and 35 provincial functional departments, the province comprehensively launched the assessment of poverty alleviation and development work. It set up the leading group for the assessment participated by relevant provincial departments under the leadership of the provincial leading group of poverty alleviation and development, made clear the assessment scope and content as well as the specific requirements, and included anti-poverty work assessment into the provincial annual target assessment indicator system. The State Council Poverty Alleviation Assessment Group headed by relevant principals of the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Finance carried out anti-poverty work assessment in Zhejiang Province, and Zhejiang was the exclusive eastern province to win Grade A in the assessment.

【Poverty Alleviation Reform and Innovation】The province set up the experimental zone for poverty alleviation reform in Lishui City, the main battlefield for poverty reduction in Zhejiang to promote rural population aggregation and accelerate the system renovation for relocation-based poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation. Through the pilot reform, the province aimed to establish the systems and mechanisms for benign interactions between poverty alleviation and the new industrialization, new urbanization and agricultural modernization, get rid of the institutional barriers for housing arrangement, income growth by employment and urban life integration in the process of farmers’ ex-situ relocation, and promote the rapid income growth of farmers. Currently, the construction of innovative experimental zones for the anti-poverty system has been approved by the provincial government.

【Field Survey】 The province vigorously carried out field survey and research on the poverty alleviation legislation and reform as well as pro-poor policies to promote the implementation of relevant work. In the whole year, it organized three forums on policy study in various regions and carried out survey on pairing-off support and ex-situ relocation. LGOP Director-General Fan Xiaojian and Deputy Director-General Wang Guoliang visited Zhejiang Province for a field research on the poverty relief work.

【Poverty Alleviation Training】 We vigorously organized trainings on poverty alleviation and held two special trainings on poverty-relief cadres and special poverty reduction programs. Meanwhile, we held the seminar for poverty alleviation cadres to study and implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the CPC and the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development. More than 150 people from the poverty alleviation departments of Chongqing, Anhui, Gansu and Shaanxi Province attended the event.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】 The province actively intensified the publicity on poverty alleviation and extensively promoted its experience in poverty reduction in the form of sounding board, propaganda carrier and special publicity. Focusing on promoting its poverty relief experience in central mainstream media such as the "People's Daily", "Domestic Dynamic Proofs", "Guangming Daily", "Farmer's Daily", "China Comments" and "Newsletter About Work in Rural Areas". For example, we had the "Integrated Poverty Alleviation of Zhejiang" and the "Village-level Mutual Aid Societies of Zhejiang" printed in "People's Daily", the "Development of Processing with Supplied Materials to Broaden Farmers’ Employment Space in Zhejiang" printed in the "Domestic Dynamic Proofs" of the Xinhua News Agency, and the "Survey on the New Group of ‘Brokers for Processing with Supplied Materials’ " printed in "China Comment" of the Xinhua News Agency.

On the afternoon of May 8, when the provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development was convened, Zhejiang Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the provincial propaganda office jointly held the press conference on poverty alleviation and development, of which the main contents included the province’s achievements in the field of poverty alleviation and development, the new poverty standards, existing problems, and overall strategy, basic idea and main measures for future poverty alleviation and development, etc.

【Anti-poverty Meeting】 On May 8, the provincial videophone conference on poverty alleviation and development was convened in Hangzhou. The meeting conveyed the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development, summarized the province’s achievements and experience in the field of poverty alleviation and development since the beginning of the new century, especially since 2008, analyzed the current situation and tasks for poverty alleviation and development, and made overall deployments for the anti-poverty work in 2012 and the near future.

On July 5, the provincial videophone conference on economy of mountain areas and Shanhai Collaboration was convened in Hangzhou. The meeting seriously analyzed the current situation economic development in mountain areas, exchanged practices and experiences of various regions, and made overall deployments on how to accelerating the economic development in mountain areas and deepened Shanhai Collaboration.

On July 24, the provincial work conference on open supervision of poverty relief funds was held in Qin’an County. The meeting fully affirmed Zhejiang’s practices and achievements in the open supervision of poverty relief funds, analyzed existing problems and made deployments on the open supervision of poverty relief funds in the next stage.    

                               (Zhejiang Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Anhui Province

 

【Overview】 2012 is a key year for the implementation of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”. In this year, under the strong leadership of provincial party committee and government and the correct instruction of LGOP, adhering to the guidance of the scientific outlook on development, Anhui Province seriously implemented the spirit of the 18^th National Congress of the CPC, comprehensively studied the strategic deployments of the central government and the State Council on poverty alleviation and development as well as the spirit of the important speech given by top legislator Wu Bangguo during his visit in Dabie Mountain Old Revolutionary Base and, taking the national contiguous poor area Dabie Mountain Area and the provincial contiguous poor area North Anhui as the main battlefields, starting from “one thousand villages’ promoting project”, vigorously implemented the large-scale poverty alleviation strategy combining special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation, achieving remarkable results. In 2012, the province put in financial anti-poverty funds (including work-for-relief funds) of 1.26051 billion yuan, completed the entire village advancement of 995 key villages, organized labor transfer trainings of 33,000 people for impoverished regions, subsidized 13,500 children from needy families for education, and organized agricultural practical technology training for 143,400 person-times. As a result, the poverty-stricken population was reduced by 1.11 million, down 14.1%. In 2012, the growth rate of rural per capita net income of 20 contiguous poor counties and national key counties in the province was three percentage points above the provincial average.

【Pro-poor Policies】 To implement the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” and steadily promote a new round of poverty alleviation and development, in 2012, the province issued a series of pro-poor documents and the policy system and mechanisms were further improved. The pro-poor documents mainly include: “Opinions of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and Anhui Provincial People’s Government on the Implementation of the ‘“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’” (Wan Fa No. [2012] 3), the “Policy Suggestions of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and Anhui Provincial People’s Government on Further Promoting the Poverty Alleviation and Development” (Wan Fa No. [2012] 13), the “Notice of Anhui Provincial People’s Government on the Announcement of Key Counties (Cities, Districts) for Poverty Alleviation and Development during the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period” (Wan Zheng Bi No. [2012] 125), the “Circular of the General Office of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and General Office of Anhui Provincial People’s Government on the Issuance and Implementation of the Labor Division Plan for the Opinions of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and Anhui Provincial People’s Government on the Implementation of the ‘“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’” (Wan Ban Fa No. [2012] 29), the “Outline of the Planning for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period in Anhui Province” (Wan Zheng Ban No. [2012] 16), the “Circular of the General Office of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and General Office of Anhui Provincial People’s Government on the Adjustment of Provincial Leader and Provincial Organ Liaison Points for Poverty Alleviation” (Ting No. [2012] 20) and the “Circular of the General Office of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and General Office of Anhui Provincial People’s Government on the Issuance of Methods for Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development (for Implementation) in Anhui Province” (Ting No. [2012] 42), etc.

【Anti-poverty meeting】 In 2012, the provincial party committee and government held many meetings at all levels, and the standing committee meeting of the provincial party committee and the executive meeting of the provincial government carried out special study of anti-poverty work for several times. On June 27, 2012, a high-level provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development was convened in Hefei, which made deployments on the poverty alleviation and development work in the province at the new stage.

【Adjustment of Key Counties】 In 2012, the province completed the adjustment of key counties. In accordance with the principle of “gradual reduction with each withdrawn key county replaced by a new one” for the adjustment, the province maintained 30 key counties unchanged, of which 19 were national key counties (Lixin, Funan, Yingshang, Linquan, Shou County, Huoqiu, Jinzhai, Qianshan, Taihu, Susong, Yuexi, Dangshan, Xiao County, Lingbi, Si County, Yingdong District of Fuyang City, Yu’an District of Liu’an City, Shucheng and Shitai) and 11 were provincial key counties (Jiaocheng District of Bozhou City, Guoyang County, Mengcheng County, Yongqiao District of Suzhou City, Huaiyuan County, Yingquan District of Fuyang City, Yingzhou District of Fuyang City, Taihe County, Jieshou City, Dingyuan County and Jing’an District of Liu’an City), and withdrew five national key counties (Changfeng County, Huoshan County, Wuwei County, Jing County and Zongyang County) and seven provincial key counties (Fengtai County, Panji District of Huainan City, Jixi County, Langxi County, Shexian County, Xiuning County and Qimen County).

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas】Taking Dabie Mountain Area – a national contiguous poor area (including Lixing County, Funan County, Yingshang County, Linquan County, Shou County, Huoqiu County, Jinzhai County, Wangjiang County, Qianshan County, Taihu County, Susong County and Yuexi County) and the provincial contiguous poor area Wanbei Region as the key areas for local poverty alleviation and development, Anhui Province called for all circles of society to contribute to a new round of poverty alleviation. According to the state requirements, we prepared the “Regional Development and Poverty Reduction Planning for Dabie Mountain Area of Anhui Province”.

【Entire Village Advancement】 The government issued the “Notice on the Announcement of Key Villages for ‘Entire Village Advancement of One Thousand Villages’ in 2012”. Under the principle of “village-based, overall planning, integration of resources and implementation by division of labor”, in 2012, the province launched 5437 entire village advancement projects with relief funds of 1.65049 billion yuan. As a result, 995 key villages for entire village advancement almost achieved the goal of “six access” and “12 possessions”.

【Rain Plan】 In 2012 the province put in 66.6 million yuan for the Rain Plan, completed the labor transfer training for 33,000 person-times in impoverished areas and farmers’ practical technical trainings for 143,400 people, and subsidized 13,500 children from needy families for their education. In addition, the training projects jointly launched by Anhui and the Country Garden Holdings Co., Ltd were all completed. The Country Garden Holdings Co., Ltd donated 25 million yuan for the training of 9,100 rural retired soldiers in Anhui with a transfer rate up to 95%. Meanwhile, pilot reform of the Rain Plan implementation mode was effectively carried out. A total of 27.402 million yuan was issued to four pilot counties, namely Linquan County, Zongyang County, Shou County and Shucheng County, and subsidies were issued to 18,268 poor students.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 First, the province vigorously promoted the reform of the poverty relief discount loan system, fully liberalized restrictions on financial institutions, increased investment in discount loans and mainly supported the development of poverty alleviation leading enterprises and poor households. In 2012, the province allocated 26.43 million yuan of interest subsidies to support 276 enterprises and issued small loan discount funds of 9.5 million Yuan to support the agricultural production of the poor. Second, the province issued special relief funds to promote the development of farmers’ cooperatives and accelerate the adjustment of rural industrial structure.  

【Mutual Funds】 As of the end of 2012, the province had set up 1,935 mutual aid societies in impoverished villages with 113,929 members (including 57653 impoverished households). The mutual funds amounted to 226.01 million yuan and a total of 454.79 million yuan of mutual funds was provided to support 70,095 rural households (including 35,907 poverty-stricken ones).

【Pilot projects】 We guided and pushed forward Yuexi County to complete the design and bidding work for lottery public welfare projects, comprehensively accelerated the implementation of relevant projects, and basically completed the annual funding plan and project implementation task. In 2012, the province invested financial anti-poverty funds of more than 15 million yuan, launched the lottery public welfare fund projects in Shitai County and implemented contiguous development. Meanwhile, it continued to put in special funds of 8 million yuan for the construction of the pilot contiguous development projects in four counties, namely Funan County, Lixin County, Qianshan County and Jing County.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】Adhering to the system for provincial leaders to contact key counties for poverty alleviation and development, with position change of the provincial leaders, the province timely adjusted and arranged liaison points of the provincial leaders concerned, adjusted the liaison points of more than 240 provincial organs; actively explored ways for enterprises to get involved in poverty alleviation and development, organized state-owned and state-controlled enterprises to provide counterpart support for poverty reduction in impoverished villages, implemented the poverty alleviation responsibility system characterized by always twinning until reaching the standards; and actively participated in the projects of "three supports and one assistance", appointments of college student village cadres, the "Double Learning and Double Competition" activity of rural women, Care Package, Maternal & Infant Health Project and College Student Supporting for Old Revolutionary Base Areas, etc.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】The province established the industry poverty alleviation accountability system, included industry poverty alleviation into the target management and assessment system of governments at all levels, and decomposed the implementation opinions of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” to various industrial sectors, which then gave priority to impoverished areas in the allocation of funds and projects bases on their business functions. In 2012, the relevant provincial departments invested 3.8675751 billion yuan to Dabie Mountain Area and the key counties for national poverty alleviation and development, up 21.4%.

【Promoting Provincial Anti-poverty Work Starting from Poverty Reduction in Jinzhai County】 From June 18 to 21, 2012, the Politburo Standing Committee member of CPC Central Committee and NPC Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo carried out field survey on poverty alleviation in Jinzhai County of Anhui Province. The National People’s Congress put forward the strategy of “three concentrations” to support Jinzhai. Later, the provincial government made the major deployment of “promoting provincial poverty alleviation and development starting from poverty reduction in Jinzhai County” and did a good job of key-problem tackling for a new round of poverty alleviation and development. Meanwhile, the provincial leading group for promoting poverty alleviation and development starting from poverty reduction in Jinzhai County was set up.

【Investment and Supervision of Anti-poverty Funds】The provincial financial investment was gradually increased. The proportion of provincial anti-poverty funds in the funds allocated by the central governments for the province was required to be no less than 40% and the annual growth rate should be no lower than 10%. The city and county financial anti-poverty funds also maintain and uptrend. The province optimized the anti-poverty funds investment modes and mainly supported the districts and counties in Dabie Mountain Areas, targeting at the impoverished villages covered by the “Entire Village Advancement of One Thousand Villages”. It strengthened the management of special poverty relief funds, comprehensively implemented the poverty-relief fund project announcement system, promoted the performance evaluation work to improve the capital efficiency, strengthened supervision and inspection and was strict in investigating and punishing fund misappropriation, interception and corruption.

【Poverty Monitoring】In 2012, in cooperation with the provincial investigation team, the provincial poverty alleviation office carried out in-depth investigation into the rural poor families across the province. Based on the new poverty line of 2300 yuan, in 2011, the province had a total of 2.538 million rural poor families and 7.9024 million impoverished people (including those covered by the five-guarantee system) with an incidence of poverty of 14.7%, of which 798700 households and 2.85 million people were the rural poor in the districts and counties of the national contiguous poor area - Dabie Mountain Area, where the poverty rate was 22.5%.

                   (Anhui Province Poverty Alleviation and Development Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Fujian Province

　　

【Overview】In 2012, Fujian Province thoroughly implemented the spirit and implementation opinion of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”, increased efforts on poverty alleviation and development, expanded the relocation area, implemented the household poverty reduction measures, highlighted key points for pairing-off poverty alleviation, continued to construct the entire village advancement projects, completed the File Archiving for Poverty-stricken People on schedule and achieved practical results in the pilot work. Meanwhile, it increased the investment of anti-poverty funds: The provincial anti-poverty funds amounted to 594 million yuan, up 43.7%, and the city and county governments’ matching funds reached 276 million yuan, up 7.4%. The province also promoted the economic and social development in impoverished regions. The 23 provincial key counties for poverty alleviation and development achieved a GDP of 179.7 billion yuan, up 12.23%, 0.4 percentage points above the provincial average; the local fiscal revenue amounted to 7.531 billion yuan, up 26.74%, 8.45 percentage points above the provincial average; and the farmers’ per capita net income was 8586 yuan, up 13.8%, 0.33 percentage points above the provincial average.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 In 2012, the province continued to take poverty-relief relocation-based public welfare projects as the practical projects for the provincial government to launch. In the whole year, it completed the relocation of 404,000 households and 160,800 people, and actually put in 7.013 billion yuan, of which 1.588 billion yuan was financial funds from governments at all levels and 4.667 billion yuan was raised by the masses. The province, relevant cities and counties established the leading group and the office for public welfare projects and practiced the accountability system of “county assuming the overall responsibility, towns responsible for project implementation, and poverty reduction in specific villages and households”. The province expanded the coverage of relocation program from natural villages to poor disabled persons, places prone to geological disasters and the stone houses as well, with an increase of 12,700 households and 45,700 people in the coverage. The government supported 100 provincial public welfare projects covering at least 100 households to improve infrastructure for centralized resettlement, and the provincial government issued work-for-relief subsidy of one million yuan and put in a total of 100 million yuan in the whole year. Meanwhile, the province promoted the follow-up development after the relocation, increased the immigrants’ income through providing skills training, employment services and petty discount loans, and protected the rights and interests of immigrants under the principle of territorial management

【Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, Fujian Province identified 23 provincial key counties for poverty alleviation and development, practiced the four-party linkage supporting system of "1 +4 +1 +1", and arranged one or two provincial leaders to contact each key county, four provincial or central units in Fujian, one central or provincial enterprise and one coastal county (city, district) to provide counterpart support. In the whole year, the provincial leaders and relevant provincial department leaders headed investigation groups to carry out field survey in the key counties for 2136 person-times, held 649 forums and seminars, identified 515 aid projects, and put in direct poverty-relief funds of 1.084 billion yuan and credit funds of more than 3 billion yuan. The province developed relevant policies and the provincial government issued the “Opinions on the Implementation of Pairing Poverty Alleviation in the Key Counties for Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development”, the “Circular concerning Supporting the Seven Measures for Key Counties of Poverty Alleviation and Development and Soil Erosion Control to Accelerate Development” and the “Eight Opinions on Deepening Shanhai Collaboration”, etc. Fujian Province increased support for deepening Shanhai collaboration. A total of 798 enterprises moved into the 19 provincial demonstration zones for Shanhai collaboration and put in a total investment of 8.107 billion yuan that year, achieving total industrial output value of 34.457 billion yuan, taxation revenue of 2.753 billion yuan and job arrangement for 83,844 people.

【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2012, Fujian Province identified 1661 provincial, city and county-level key villages for poverty alleviation and development and implemented the entire village advancement projects through “department linkage, cadres’ village staying and capital binding”. Over the past year, a total of 1.887 billion yuan was invested in the key villages for the construction of 13,292 projects, of which 220 provincial key villages raised poverty relief funds of 820 million yuan for the implementation of 2,866 projects. As a result, the economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, the construction of ecological civilization and party building of the key villages were comprehensively accelerated, the growth rate of per capita net income of farmers was obviously above the provincial average and remarkable achievements were made in the poverty alleviation and development by entire village advancement. Through land consolidation, 220 provincial key villages increased arable land area of 31,800 mu, cash crop area of 35,800 mu and forest area of 54,200 mu, developed 94 farmers’ cooperatives, held rural technical trainings for 17,800 person-times, completed the training of 1,236 leaders in becoming rich, promoted 292 rural entrepreneurship projects; newly hardened roads of 332 kilometers, provided safe drinking water of 43,000 people, made lighting electricity system cover a population of 43,800, established 2011waste transfer stations and farmers’ parks of ​​63,400 square meters, newly built or improved farmers' cultural places of 97,100 square meters; formulated and improved 812 relevant systems, organized training of national situation for 29,800 person-times, held trainings of village backbones for 2,607 person-times, convened 1,617 villagers’ meetings and announced village affairs for 2,631 times.

【Poverty Alleviation by Credit】 In 2012, Fujian Province allocated 50 million yuan of special funds as petty loan interest subsidies for impoverished rural households in the key counties for provincial poverty alleviation and development, helped 45,111 rural households of 4,851 villages to obtained loans of 1.113 billion yuan and created income of more than 800 million yuan for farmers. The government issued special funds of 12.57 million yuan to support the pilot projects of microfinance, encouraging local government’s investment of 10 million yuan; and arranged 7.5 million yuan of loan interest subsidies to support 37 agricultural processing enterprises, which later set up bases of more than 30,000 mu in 1,643 impoverished villages, covering 44,712 poverty-stricken rural households, addressing the employment problem of nearly 10,000 people, generating income of 289 million yuan for the masses. In cooperation with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, we launched the self-reliance microcredit projects for rural households and issued 4,443 loans of 52.738 million yuan and 1,806 loans of 45.826 million yuan respectively to Fu’an County and Xiapu County, supporting 1,806 rural households to develop micro-projects of planting, breeding, processing and services, etc., and the repayment rate was nearly 100%. Meanwhile, we launched microcredit program to support the family planning and poor women, issued petty loans of 160 million yuan for the households covered by the family planning and poverty-stricken women; promoted the construction of village-level mutual funds and other capital service organizations and launched the pilot work in 95 villages of 11 counties in the province. More than 9600 rural households participated in the mutual aid societies and the amount of mutual funds reached 22.6 million yuan, which supported the production of nearly 4,000 households.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 The province mobilized enterprises and mass organizations to get involved in poverty alleviation and development and subsidized 15,803 poor students in the whole year with an investment of 57.71 million yuan, sent condolences to 43,143 disadvantaged people living in poverty, issued consolation money of 13,490,000 yuan; developed the province's care package project implementation plan and donated a total of 4,192 student parcels, 384 warm parcels, 33 school parcels and 10 music parcels worth 539,000 yuan. We signed the "Cooperation Agreement on the Sixth Mobile Three Rural Issues Library Project" with China Mobile Group Fujian Co., Ltd and invested 2 million yuan to buy 240,000 books for 200 villages. Meanwhile, we continued to implement Action 120: Maternal & Infant Health Project, covering the management of 2068 pregnant women, hospital delivery of 1128 babies, payment of hospital delivery subsidies of 975,000 yuan and aid materials receiving of 3.552 million yuan for 12718 person-times. In addition, we issued microcredit of 10 million yuan for the households covered by family planning and 2 million yuan for rural women to develop production.

【Poverty Alleviation in Old Revolutionary Base Areas】 In 2012, the provincial government issued the "Some Opinions on Supporting and Promoting Old Revolutionary Base Areas to Accelerate Development", and the Provincial People’s Congress approved the "Ordinances to Promote the Development of Old Revolutionary Base Areas in Fujian Province", which was put into force on December 1, 2012. 200 million yuan of work-for-relief project was put in to support 22 former Central Soviet districts and counties and four former national poverty-stricken counties in the old revolutionary base areas of the province.

【Poverty Alleviation in Minority Areas】 In 2012, the provincial government issued the "Circular concerning Five Measures to Further Promote the Development of Minority Towns" to increase counterpart support for 20 minority towns. In 2012, the provincial government issued one million yuan for each minority town, the provincial organs and coastal developed counties (cities, districts) assigned the task of pairing-off poverty reduction raised no less than 1 million yuan (covered by budget) per year and the local city and county (city, district) government respectively allocated matching funds of 500,000 yuan to support the development of featured industries and social undertakings and the improvement of rural infrastructure in the minority towns to build their "blood-making ability" and enhance their self-development capability.

【Lottery Public Welfare Funds】 In 2012, pilot projects supported by central lottery funds of 100 million yuan was launched in 13 relatively contiguous old revolutionary base areas, namely Changting, Ninghua, Pucheng, Songxi, Zhenghe, Zhouning, Zherong, Pingnan, Shouning, Jianning, Mingxi, Taining and Qingliu. Meanwhile, 11 million yuan of construction funds for one thousand mu of high-quality demonstration farmland was integrated and 10 million yuan of modern agricultural (bamboo) production funds was integrated to jointly support the innovative pilot projects in the old revolutionary base areas.

【File Archiving for Poverty-stricken People】 In 2012, we completed the survey and registration of rural poverty reduction objects in Fujian Province, involving 1.305 million people and 361,800 households. In the impoverished rural households, 658,300 people had the ability to work and 178,900 people were migrant workers in non-local areas. From the perspective of causes of poverty, 16,434 households fell into poverty due to disasters, 115,730 households due to illness, 42,585 due to disabilities, 41,509 due to education burden, 118,633 due to fund shortage, 52,016 due to lack of technology, 54,498 due to lack of labor force and 30,760 for other reasons, respectively accounting for 4.54%, 31.99%, 11.77%, 11.47%, 32.79%, 14.38%, 15.06% and 8.5% of the total. The completion of the registration of poor people laid a foundation for targeted poverty reduction.

【Rain Plan】 The province continued to implement the Rain Plan. In 2012, we held 1056 practical technical trainings for rural residents and organized poor labor trainings for 177,000 person-times, improving the self-development capability of the poor.

【Poverty Alleviation Statistics Monitoring】Fujian Province completed the poverty alleviation statistics monitoring task assigned by the state and won the Excellence Award in the cross check of national poverty alleviation statistics monitoring organized by LGOP. In early February, in cooperation with the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, we collected 113 poverty reduction-related data, providing the firsthand data for a full understanding of the situation in 23 key poor counties. At the end of December, we conducted statistics and survey on the basic situation, development situation, poverty reduction effects, project investment and the use of capital of 25 counties, 25 villages and 500 households. The second training on poverty alleviation statistics survey was held in Taining with more than 70 participants. In addition, we held the training of national poverty alleviation monitoring (Xiamen) and the conference on summarizing poverty alleviation by science and technology & relevant trainings (Pucheng).

【Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Work】 We completed self-assessment of the poverty alleviation and development work, filled out the “Assessment Datasheet of Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Work” of the State Council, submitted to LGOP the “Report on Self-assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work in 2011”, carried out performance evaluation of financial anti-poverty funds, organized data collection and statistics on the use of provincial financial anti-poverty funds and, in cooperation with the Provincial Department of Finance, drafted the “Report of Fujian Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and Fujian Provincial Department of Finance on the Performance Evaluation of the Financial Anti-poverty Funds in 2011” and submitted it to LGOP and the Ministry of Finance, PRC. Meanwhile, we made statistics on the expenditure on provincial public welfare projects and the effectiveness, filled out the “Form of Performance Evaluation (Self-Assessment) of Provincial Financial Projects” and completed the preparation of the “Report of the Rural Work Office of Fujian Provincial People's Government on Performance Evaluation of the Public Welfare Project Expenditure in 2011”.

【Poverty Alleviation Publicity】 In 2012, we had 126 articles on poverty alleviation and development printed in the central mainstream media and network media, including 36 articles printed in central media and 90 in network media and industrial media, and had more than 200 reports on poverty alleviation and development publicity printed in provincial media. The Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office prepared eight “Briefings of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Fujian Province” and issued two “Briefings of Public Welfare Projects in Fujian Province”.

【Fujian-Ningxia Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation】In accordance with the requirements of the state on the East-West Cooperation for poverty reduction, the province carried out the Fujian – Ningxia pairing-off poverty alleviation, constantly deepened the cooperation content, improved the cooperation mechanism, expanded the cooperation areas and improved the cooperation effectiveness. We held 16 joint meetings for mutual learning and support between the Fujian and Ningxia. In the whole year, the provincial government issued 30 million yuan to support Ningxia, and the twinned cities and counties (districts) and all circles of society provided aid funds of 39.5 million yuan to support the ecological relocation, "Yellow River Charity Valley", advantageous industries, Juncao, education, health and cultural projects, promoted 26 trade and economic cooperation projects worth 8.488 billion yuan, for which the actual investment was 184 million yuan that year. Through these measures, the province effectively improved the production and living conditions of the masses in central and southern mountain areas of Ningxia and boosted local economic and social development.

            (Dong Jianwu, Fujian Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Jiangxi Province

 

【Overview】 In 2012, Jiangxi Province continued to take poverty alleviation and development as a key task of the province's "three rural issues" work, livelihood projects and new rural construction, clarified the poverty alleviation and development system for party and government leaders to take the overall responsibility and, based on the overall situation of the provincial development, combined with the development strategy for the construction of ecological economic zones in Poyang Lake and the revitalization of South Jiangxi and other former Central Soviet Areas, completed the preparation of the poverty alleviation planning for the provincial contiguous poor areas and the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Luoxiao Mountain Contiguous Poor Area (Jiangxi) (2011-2020)”. To help poor rural households raise income level, improve conditions for development, enhance self- development capacity, focusing on the work of contiguous poor areas, key counties for poverty reduction, resettlement points of immigrants, the rural poor with the ability to work and the “livelihood projects” for anti-poverty work, we issued and implemented the “Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program of Jiangxi Province (2011-2020)” and relevant important policy measures’ labor division plan, established the grand pattern of “trinity’ poverty alleviation integrating special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation, improved the mechanism for effective convergence of “two systems”, the rural low-income population monitoring mechanism, the social poverty alleviation resources integration mechanism, and the management and performance evaluation mechanisms for anti-poverty funds, etc. Targeting at 4.38 million impoverished people and 3400 poor villages in the province, identified 38 counties as the main battlefield, including South Jiangxi and other former Central Soviet Areas and contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties, promoted the anti-poverty work as key livelihood projects through “four in one” combined poverty alleviation, included the poverty alleviation and development in impoverished villages into key projects for the construction of a harmonious and beautiful countryside, and implemented a series of special measures for poverty reduction by various sectors and all circles of society to promote the key problem tackling for poverty alleviation and development. In the 38 former Soviet Central districts and counties and the contiguous poor districts and counties with special difficulties, the per capita income of farmers rose from 4,473 yuan in 2011 to 5160 yuan, up 15.36%. The per capita income of farmers in the 17 contiguous poor districts and counties increased from 4,112 yuan in 2011 to 4,765 yuan, up 15.85%, and that of the 3,400 impoverished villages rose from 4201 yuan to 4,865 yuan, up 15.8%. The above growth rates were both two percentage points above the provincial average 13.5%. The number of poverty-stricken people in the province dropped from 4.38 million to 3.85 million, with a reduction of 530,000, down 12.1%.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2011, the central and provincial governments invested a total of 1.428 billion yuan of anti-poverty funds (not including minority development fund, work-relief funds), with an increase of 625 million yuan over the previous year, up 77.83%, of which 850 million yuan was from the central government, with an increase of 201 million yuan, up 30.88%; and 578 million yuan was provincial matching funds, with an increase of 431 million yuan, up 281.7%. 38 provincial departments, central and provincial enterprises directly put in one billion yuan for the liaison counties for fixed-point poverty alleviation, and indirectly invested more than 4 billion yuan through financing. More than 300 million yuan was put in by 3,700 contracting units to the twinned impoverished villages.

【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2012, the provincial government issued 340 million yuan of financial poverty relief funds for entire village advancement and, combined with the new rural construction, promoted the entire village advancement of 3,400 impoverished villages. Meanwhile, we constructed 100 demonstration zones for the entire village advancement of impoverished villages and increased two pilot projects of entire village advancement in old revolutionary base areas supported by central lottery funds.

【Infrastructure Construction】In 2012, the province's 3,400 poor villages newly built and reinforced village-reaching highroads and village roads of 4151 km; improved and constructed basic farmland of 24,300 mu, launched 1,599 basic food and water conservancy projects and 3,877 infrastructure construction projects, involving demonstration villages, road traffic, new rural construction, immigrants’ electricity use, drinking water safety and communications, and declared ten urban water supply projects and 31 irrigation projects for 11 counties (cities, districts) around Poyang Lake for approval of the state.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 In 2012, a total of 50,229 people and 11,020 households were relocated for poverty reduction, exceeding the annual task by 0.5%, and 60,182 people and 12,877 households were relocated for disaster relief (including 30,000 objects of relocation-based poverty alleviation), exceeding the annual task by 0.3%. We actively organized the implementation of the new task of relocating the masses living in rural areas with heavy metal pollution, and built 50 provincial demonstration points for concentrated resettlement of immigrants.

【Rain Plan】  The province launched pilot reform of the Rain Plan implementation mode in nine key counties for national poverty alleviation and development and held the vocational education and training of “three teachers for each village” (one tea specialist, one kindergarten teacher and one e-commerce engineer” in 3,400 key villages for poverty reduction. The province completed training of 36,513 people, accounting for 102.83% of the scheduled task, the labor transfer and employment rate reached 97.9%, and the trainees who transferred to local industrial parks accounted for 80.9% of the total.

【Poverty Alleviation by Science and Technology】The province implemented the "crop nutrient balance agent product" projects in the pilot counties for Rain Plan implementation reform. As a technology-based poverty alleviation project recommended by LGOP, the product was promoted in the pilot counties for 20,000 mu, and the crops included rice, peanuts, tea, vegetables, etc. Comparative results: Rice yield increased by 10% and peanut yield rose by 20.4%, 9.1 percentage points above that with Penshibao; wax gourd yield grew by 18.2%, mulberry yield rose by 10% and the net income growth per mu was 450 yuan for tea planting. Besides, we promoted the implementation of the "low-carbon energy-saving (CFLs replacement for poor households)" project. Under the direct guidance of LGOP for declaration and implementation, this project was launched in four counties (cities, districts), namely Ji’an, Taihe, Qingyuan and Jinggangshan, benefiting 200,000 – 300,000 rural households.

【Pilot Projects of Contiguous Development】A total of 1.46871 billion yuan was invested for the project, accounting for 116.46% of the planned amount, of which 48 million yuan was from the government and 1.42071 billion yuan was integrated funds. The pilot program covered 237 impoverished villages. As of December 2012, the project funds were allocated in full to the four project counties (Jinggangshan City, Yugan County, Guangchang Count and Xiushui County) and the projects were completed or overfulfilled.

 【Pilot Projects of Lottery Public Welfare Funds】We organized inspection and guidance on the work done in 2011. In 2012, Jiangxi Province increased two pilot counties for the entire village advancement with central lottery funds in old revolutionary base areas and 11 pilot counties for central lottery funds to support the innovations in old revolutionary base areas, and organized the project planning formulation. The planned total investment was respectively 87.2 million yuan and 378.82 million yuan, of which 30 million yuan and 120 million yuan was respectively state subsidy for pilot projects. Meanwhile, supervision and inspection were organized on the pilot work of entire village advancement with central lottery funds in old revolutionary base areas of Jiangxi.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】In accordance with the relevant requirements of LGOP’s document on the rectification of dividend of pilot mutual funds of impoverished villages, Jiangxi Province organized a comprehensive survey on 354 pilot villages. In 2012, the province increased 50 pilot villages for the mutual funds of poor villages with an investment of 7.5 million yuan.

【Pilot Projects of Financial Cooperation for Poverty Alleviation】In accordance with the relevant requirements of LGOP’s “Circular on Organizing the Declaration of Pilot Projects of Anti-poverty Financial Cooperation in 2012”, Jiangxi recommended six enterprises to declare the pilot projects of anti-poverty financial cooperation in 2012, including Xingguo Lvbao Rice Industry Co., Ltd, Jiangxi Dahua Yuntong Fiberglass Co., Ltd, Xinfeng Henglong Medical Stone Wine Co., Ltd., etc.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, a total of 2.005 billion yuan was allocated for the poverty alleviation projects in 38 counties of former Central Soviet Area and contiguous poor areas in Jiangxi Province, of which 380 million yuan was special funds for poverty alleviation industry, 149 million yuan was put in by industrial sectors, 180 million yuan was credit funds, 790 million yuan was self-raised funds or labor services of the masses and 506 million yuan was other funds. The funds were mainly invested in the planting and breeding industry directly participated by impoverished rural households with good harvest. In the whole year, we planted tea of 56,800 mu, fruit trees of 50,000 mu, tea-oil trees of 90,100 mu, flowers and seedlings of 23,400 mu and other cash crops of 186,600 mu, and bred 654,500 heads of livestock and 1.2208 million poultries.

【Integrated Poverty Alleviation Measures】 In accordance with the management mechanism of “central government making overall deployment, provinces assuming overall responsibility and counties responsible for implementation” and the work mechanism of “village and household poverty reduction targeting at contiguous poor areas” for a new round of poverty alleviation and development determined by the central government, Jiangxi provincial government decided to implement the special measure of “four one” for integrated poverty alleviation since 2012, focusing on supporting the poverty alleviation in 38 counties in the contiguous poor areas and Central Soviet Area. To be specific, each of the provincial party committee and government leaders, other provincial leaders and the army leaders in the province was twinned with one of the counties of the contiguous impoverished areas and Central Soviet Area for fixed-point poverty alleviation to guide the formulation and implementation of poverty alleviation planning of the contiguous poor counties and guide the formulation and implementation of revitalization planning of the Central Soviet Area. Each county was equipped with a powerful provincial department to assist the provincial leader’s work in the fixed-point poverty alleviation and a state-holding enterprise with certain strength to support the provincial leader. For ten consecutive years, the provincial government allocated 10 million yuan of special poverty relief funds per year to support industrial development of each county. In 2012, more than 800 provincial (military general) leaders, provincial departments and state-owned enterprises carried out field research in the 38 counties, guided the implementation of 843 poverty alleviation and revitalization projects of the counties, and the relief funds allocated amounted to 1.33 billion yuan. The provincial government issued 10 million yuan of special funds to support each of the 38 counties. In April 2012, the funds were timely issued to the counties and the “Methods on the Use of Relief Funds” was specially formulated.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 The plan on division of labor for industrial sectors involved in the implementation of a new round of “Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program of Jiangxi Province” was formulated to strengthen social poverty alleviation, and ten central organs and enterprises were arranged to support the fixed-point poverty alleviation of the key counties in Jiangxi Province, covering all 21 key counties in the province. 291 provincial organs were responsible for the poverty reduction of impoverished villages through contract signing, the cities and counties (cities, districts) adopted relevant measures referring to the practices of the province, and 3700 units in the whole province got involved in the poverty reduction of poor villages by contract signing. The provincial government strengthened the provincial leading group of poverty alleviation and development composed of comrades from 35 provincial departments, and the leading group formulated the “Assessment Methods” to supervise the implementation of the anti-poverty work.

【Poverty Alleviation Publicity and Research】 The province strengthened the guidance on poverty alleviation publicity and research, established the mechanism for regular report of publicity results, improved the mechanism for assessment of propaganda performance and strengthened the cooperation with People’s Daily, Farmers’ Daily and People’s Daily Online. In April, we carried out in Ganzhou and Ji’an a series of large-scale reporting on "grassroots survey, transformation of working and writing style" in the "Journey in Poor Mountain Areas" jointly with People’s Daily; in late May, live web castling was organized by http://www.jxgdw.com/ on the development of the contiguous poor areas and Central Soviet Area. In June, we supported the provincial party committee’s publicity department to make active propaganda on the measures of “four one” for integrated poverty alleviation and the poverty reduction work in Central Soviet Area to the major media of the province. Jiangxi Daily, People’s Daily Online, Xinhuanet, Jiangxi Broadcasting Station, Jiangxi TV, Jiangxi Morning Paper, Jiangnan City Daily and  New Legal News made propaganda on the poverty alleviation and development work of Jiangxi Province for one week. In cooperation with Jiangxi TV, we presented the “Poverty Reduction Stories” for 23 days at the golden time every evening to celebrate the holding of the 18^th National Congress of the CPC.

【Participants of the Seminar on MDGs and Sustainable Poverty Reduction for Developing Countries Carried out A Field Survey in Jiangxi】From April 21 to 26, the participants of the Seminar on MDGs and Sustainable Poverty Reduction for Developing Countries and the IFAD officials carried out a field survey on the rural poverty alleviation and social development work in Jiangxi Province, focusing on the research of rural poverty alleviation and development, rural education, health care, ecological environmental protection, labor employment and social security issues. The seminar was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and organized by International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC). 29 participants respectively come from the government departments of poverty reduction and development of 19 countries including Burma, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Tanzania, etc. IPRCC officials and the relevant comrades of the central organs and Baoshang Bank assigned the task of fixed-point poverty alleviation took part in the field survey.

(Gong Liangbao, Jiangxi Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Immigration Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shandong Province

 

【Overview】2012 is the first year for the careful planning for the rural poverty alleviation and development in Shandong Province in a new decade. The provincial government formulated the “Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas of Shandong Province (2011-2020)” and the “Work Program on Implementing the Objectives and Tasks of the ‘Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas of Shandong Province (2011-2020)’” and introduced a series of policy measures. Meanwhile, it created a grand pattern of "trinity" poverty alleviation integrating special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation, and lifted one million rural poor people out of poverty.

【Outline for the Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas】 The government formulated the “Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas of Shandong Province (2011-2020)” and identified the poverty-stricken people. The province has a large rural low-income population and 8.2 million rural residents living below the poverty line of 2500 yuan, accounting for 11.4% of the total. Meanwhile, the provincial poverty line was set. In the previous five years, the poverty line was 2500 yuan of farmers’ per capita net income (2010 constant price) and that for the next five years is expected to be raised to 4600 yuan. The cities may determine the poverty standards based on the actual situations of local area. The province identified 200 towns and 3000 impoverished villages in the central and western poor mountain areas, the Yellow River Floodplain, saline-alkali wetland, reservoir areas and minority regions as the key areas for its support. Other poverty-stricken people were supported mainly by the relevant forces mobilized by local party committees and governments. The objectives were put forward: By 2015, double the income of 90% of the poverty reduction objects in key villages, and basically achieve “five accesses and ten possessions”: access to roads, electricity, tap water, radio and TV programs and information; having farmland with stable yields despite drought or excessive rain, projects to enrich people, offices for “two committees” of administrative villages, clinic service, clean-keeping system, preschool education, cultural activity room, fitness place, good ecological environment and employment guarantee measures. By 2020, stably achieve “two no-worry and three guarantees” for the objects of poverty reduction: no worry about food and clothing; guarantee compulsory education, basic medical service and housing; the growth rate of per capita net income of farmers in impoverished regions is expected to be above the provincial average, the main indicators for basic public service fields are expected to approach the national average, and the widening development gap is expected to be reversed. Meanwhile, the province clarified a series of pro-poor policy measures, covering public finance, financial service, industrial poverty alleviation, the use of land, talent guarantee and support for regional development.

 【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, more than 2 billion yuan of anti-poverty funds was allocated for the province, of which 97.5 million yuan was from the central government, 200 million yuan was from the provincial government, 173 million yuan was from the city and county governments, 1.3295 billion yuan was integrated funds of various sectors, and 200 million yuan was material donations of social organizations and individuals. Use of relief funds: 600 million yuan was put in to improve the production conditions of the masses in impoverished villages and 1.4 billion yuan was invested to improve the living conditions of the masses in poor areas.

【Entire Village Advancement】 Mainly targeting at the 579 impoverished villages supported by the “First Secretary” of relevant provincial organs. In accordance with the central government’s arrangements for the poverty alleviation and development work in Shandong Province and the provincial government’s budget for poverty reduction, 300,000 yuan was allocated for the industrial development of each village, featured farming, agricultural processing or production and transportation projects were arranged for 355 villages with a foundation for industrial development, and guidance was given on the establishment of mutual funds cooperative organizations in 220 villages without a basis for industrial development.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 5 million yuan of anti-poverty interest subsidy funds was allocated, which guided the issuance of loans of 158.81 million yuan, of which 2.5 million yuan was issued to 13 poverty alleviation leading enterprises to guide the issuance of loans of 108.29 million yuan, and  2.5 million yuan was issued to 3938 rural households to guide the issuance of loans of 50.52 million yuan, helping enterprises and farmers solve some difficult problems.

【Rain Plan】The Rain Plan demonstration bases were expanded to 18 training units of eight cities. The province assigned annual task of transfer trainings of 8680 people, mainly one-year short-term labor skills training. 500 yuan of subsidy was issued to each transferred person and the demonstration bases were responsible for job arranging for the trainees. In 2012, we fully completed the task of transfer employment, and the monthly labor income of the trainees exceeded 2000 yuan per person.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】In 2012, the province increased 350 pilot projects of Village-level Mutual Funds, and the pilot area was expanded to 1038 villages. 136,000 rural households joined the mutual aid societies, which had a total of 263 million yuan of aid funds, including 194 million yuan of financial funds and 69 million yuan of equity funds raised by the villages. The rural households must repay the village mutual funds in six months. The mutual funds addressed the capital shortage of some rural households for the development of production.

【Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas】 The pilot innovation project of Yimeng Old Revolutionary Base supported by central lottery funds was launched, covering 12 counties, namely Yinan, Tancheng, Sishui, Feixian, Linju, Pingyi, Juxian, Wulian, Yiyuan, Cangshan, Junan and Linshu, with 6 million yuan for each county. The projects built production roads of 286.5 km, 907 bridges and culverts, 211 wells and 51 barrages, and dug irrigation and drainage channels of 130.7 km, covering 253 impoverished villages and 118,200 people.

【Poverty Alleviation by Party Building】 In the new stage, Shandong Province put forward the strategy of promoting poverty reduction by party building and proposed to achieve the goals in three years: A significant enhancement of the combat effectiveness of the village party branches and the capability and quality of village party secretaries, unity of "two committees" of the villages with stronger ability to guide the development and serve the masses; accelerated pace of poverty reduction; village projects to enrich people; per capital net income doubling of 90% of the poor, a certain amount of operating income of village collectives; a significant improvement in the production and living conditions of villagers; continuous improvement of village infrastructure, improvement and implementation of basic social security, clean and neat village appearance; a higher degree of civilization; enhancement of scientific and cultural level of the villagers, frequent mass activities of spiritual civilization to promote new trend and healthy atmosphere; village harmony and stability; a significant enhancement of the basic security, independent arenas with complete functions for frequent use by village party branches, a guarantee for village cadres’ remuneration packages, and the proper operation of village-level organizations. To implement the task of party building, the province sent “first secretaries”, science and technology correspondents and college village cadres to impoverished areas, selected 26,000 young leaders to act as the “first secretary” of the economically weak villages, of which 18,000 were sent to serve party building for poverty reduction in poor villages based on a one-year rotation, and the fixed-point poverty alleviation work period is three years for the moment. The “first secretary” will not be withdrawn and the counterpart support will not stop until great changes take place to the production and living conditions of the rural residents in the contracted villages.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 In accordance with the requirements of the provincial government on anti-poverty work, 17 provincial organs formulated and announced the Counterpart Support Plan 2012-2014 for Industry Poverty Alleviation to receive social supervision. To implement the task of counterpart support. 582 “first secretaries” of the relevant provincial organs issued 120,000 questionnaires to 579 impoverished villages, 102 towns, 36 counties (districts) and 9 cities, held forums of village cadres and the masses for more than 5000 person-times, and helped introduce 494 projects to enrich people, increasing villages’ collective operating income by 8.4 million yuan.

In 2012, we set up 63 agricultural processing bases in impoverished regions, provided jobs for 108,000 children from needy rural families, subsidized 5600 students from rural poor families, provided condolence payments of 180 million yuan to the rural poor, cleared garbage ditches of 62 km and cleared “three major rubbish” of 5 million tons in rural areas.

【Poverty Alleviation Training】 We organized trainings to enhance the level of management of poverty-relief cadres and leaders for 2648 person-times. First, the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee held in Linyi University the training for provincial organs to send 582 “first secretaries” to poor areas, and held the training of 912 party secretaries of poor villages in Shandong Agricultural University; Second, held the training of 562 general directors and accountants for poor villages’ mutual aid societies in Shandong Agricultural University; Third, in cooperation with the relevant units, the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office held the training of 592 science and technology correspondents.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】 The Provincial TV station and broadcasting station vigorously made propaganda for major poverty alleviation and development initiatives and policy and the provincial government website strongly publicized the rural poverty alleviation and development policy measures of Shandong Province for the new decade. "Dazhong Daily" opened up special column for continuous reporting on poverty reduction by party building and publicity of the experience and practices of “first secretaries” in the poverty reduction of relevant poor villages. The Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Bureau of Telecommunications jointly established the website of Action by “First Secretary” and a platform for exchange of information and experience for the “First Secretary” to participate in poverty reduction by party building. The Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee compiled and printed 106 "Briefings on Poverty Alleviation by Party Building" to guide the poverty reduction by party building in various regions. The Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office compiled and printed six "Briefings on Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shandong Province" to publicize the progress in the provincial poverty alleviation and development work and the experiences and practices of various regions as well.

【Institution Construction】 On July 20, 2012, the General Office of the Provincial Government issued the "Notice on Adding the Brand of Shandong Provincial Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development for Shandong Provincial Department of Agriculture": "To further promote the poverty alleviation and development work in Shandong Province, after careful study and the approval of the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR), we decide to add the brand of Shandong Provincial Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development for Shandong Provincial Department of Agriculture.” The institutional construction of various cities and counties’ poverty alleviation and development agencies has also been intensified, and the poverty alleviation cadre team has been constantly expanded.

                          (Shandong Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

 Poverty Alleviation and Development in Henan Province

 

【Overview】 2012 is the first year to thoroughly implement the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and Henan Provincial Work Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development. Henan Province thoroughly implemented the spirit of the central and provincial work conferences on poverty alleviation and development, the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” and the “Opinions of CPC Henan Provincial Committee and Henan Provincial People’s Government on the Implementation of the ‘“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’”, adhering to the guideline of development-oriented poverty alleviation and scientific planning, made steady progress in entire village advancement, poverty-relief relocation, Rain Plan training, industrialization poverty alleviation, poverty reduction by science and technology and foreign-funded poverty alleviation, and integrated the funds, resources and policy measures of special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation to boost the economic and social development of impoverished regions and promote the rapid income growth of poor farmers. The per capita net income of farmers in 53 national and provincial key counties rose by 15.57%, 1.5 percentage points above the provincial average, the per capita living expenditure of the farmers in impoverished regions increased by 12%; and 1.13 million rural poor residents shook off poverty steadily, exceeding the planned figure by 1.3%.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 A total of 5.879 billion yuan of anti-poverty funds was invested, of which 1.512 billion yuan was from the central government, 436 million yuan from provincial government, 496 million yuan from the city and county governments, 2.03 billion yuan was social poverty alleviation funds and 1.405 billion yuan was raised by the masses. The provincial anti-poverty funds increased by 122% over the previous year.

【Entire Village Advancement】 2.483 billion yuan was invested, of which 612 million yuan was central and provincial anti-poverty funds, 79.54 million yuan was from the city and county governments, 1.222 billion yuan was integrated funds of various sectors and 569.11 million yuan was raised by the masses. Entire village advancement projects were launched in 1085 impoverished villages, and a total of 5956 construction projects were completed, including the construction of roads of 2655 km and 287 bridges, addressing the travel problem of 2.18 million people; the construction of 129 wells, reservoirs and water cellars, addressing the drinking water problem of 83,000 people; and the construction of 2206 motor-pumped wells and 675 other buildings, increasing food production by 23,000 tons. Through the implementation of the entire village advancement program with “six access and one increase” project as the main content – rural households’ access to water, electricity, roads, gas, housing and environmental improvement and the income growth of farmers, the production and living conditions of impoverished villages were significantly improved, the income of farmers increased substantially, the development of featured industries was accelerated, the construction of a civilized atmosphere, democracy and the rule of law as well as village organizations were further promoted, and the relationship between party and the masses, between cadres and the masses and between neighbors became more harmonious.

【Pilot Projects of Contiguous Development】The implementation period of the pilot projects of national contiguous development launched in 2010 in Songxian County, Huaxian County, Lushi County and Suixian County was 2010-2012. In 2012, a total of 41.77 million yuan was invested for the implementation of 72 projects. As of the end of November 2012, we fully completed the construction of the pilot projects in the four counties. The implementation period of the pilot projects of provincial contiguous development launched in 2011 in Luanchuan, Fanxian, Taiqian and Xinxian County was 2011-2013. In 2012, a total of 140.84 million yuan was put in for the construction of 265 projects. Pilot projects of provincial contiguous development were launched in five counties in 2012, namely Ruyang, Yiyang, Lushan, Tongbai and Gushi County, involving 33 impoverished villages. The planned investment was 290 million yuan and 210 projects were planned to be launched. In 2012, in fact, 104.73 million yuan was issued for the construction of 69 projects, accounting for 33% of the total.

【Rain Plan】The Rain Plan further innovated the training mechanism, highlighted vocational skills training, actively implemented the projects of promoting poverty alleviation by brand building and business launching by returned villagers, initially set up 265 provincial, municipal and county training bases, forming a training and employment network covering both urban and rural areas throughout the province, and cultivated a number of service brands. In 2012, a total of 152.61 million yuan of anti-poverty training funds was issued, and 203,000 people received trainings of the Rain Plan, accounting for 101.5% of the planned task, resulting in an annual income growth of 2.5 billion yuan. Meanwhile, we successfully held the Skills Competition of Rain Plan in Henan Province in 2012.

【Poverty Alleviation by Technology and Industry】 61.5 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was allocated to support the implementation of 173 projects of poverty alleviation by science and technology, of which 1.5 million yuan was invested by the central government for the construction of one project of poverty alleviation by science and technology and 60 million yuan was from the provincial government to support the implementation of 172 projects, support 267 impoverished villages and 24,000 poor households, promote 376 new species and new technologies, support agricultural technical training for 171,000 person-times, print 420,000 copies of technical materials, and organize 373 experts to give on-site guidance for poor areas, benefiting 170,000 poor people. Meanwhile, the province gave full play to the role of industrialization poverty alleviation and put in 90 million yuan of poverty relief loan interest subsidy funds to support 265 leading enterprises and farmers’ cooperatives, encouraging the issuance of poverty-relief loans of 3 billion yuan by financial institutions, increasing the income of 390,000 poverty-stricken people.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】Adhering to the principle of "government guidance, measure adjustment to local conditions on a voluntary basis for orderly promotion", the province made mechanism innovations and scientific planning, strengthened the management and implementation, combined relocation-based poverty alleviation with the construction of new rural communities, the new urbanization construction and the follow-up industrial development of relocated people to achieve "affordable relocation, steady progress, sustained development and poverty reduction". A total of 1.4 billion yuan was invested in relocation-based poverty alleviation projects in 2012, of which 195 million yuan was from the central and provincial government, 80.73 million yuan was from city and county governments, 243 million yuan was integrated funds of various sectors and 882 million yuan was raised by the masses. A total of 97 resettlement communities (new villages) were built for relocation-based poverty reduction, resettlement houses of 1.305 million square meters were set up for the poor, power grid of 181 km was erected, roads of 240 km were built, drinking water pipelines of 492 km were paved, and 9710 poor households and 42200 people in mountain and stocky areas were relocated, 12,000 more than the scheduled figure.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】  Based on the former 13 central organs for counterpart support in Henan Province, the state increased 11 central organs to provide counterpart support for our province, and the fixed-point poverty alleviation supported by central organs achieved the full coverage of all the 31 national key counties for the first time. In August 2012, Henan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce jointly held the work conference on the fixed-point poverty alleviation by industrial sectors and one thousand enterprises’ support for one thousand villages in the province, summarized our province’s achievements and experience in the fixed-point poverty alleviation by industrial sectors and one thousand enterprises’ support for one thousand villages, and made deployments for this work in the new stage. The leading aiding units sent department cadres to participate in the fixed-point poverty alleviation. 193 provincial organs involved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation sent 257 aiding team members (including 81 provincial department leaders) to support the poverty reduction in 193 impoverished villages of 53 key counties. In 2012, 1,231 private enterprises involved in the pilot poverty reduction by village and enterprises in Henan Province were designated to provide counterpart support for 1,122 impoverished villages, and directly invested 470 million yuan of funds (including materials converted into money). Henan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office also carried out the “activities of donating ‘care packages’ for impoverished areas” jointly with the Provincial Association of Industry and Commerce and the Provincial Postal Corporation, which raised more than 3.7 million yuan to subsidize 31,000 students.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】Taking poverty alleviation and development as a major event and practical thing directly related to people's livelihood, the provincial government agencies and departments implemented the accountability system for main leaders to assume the overall responsibility and department heads to take charge of implementation, and established the leading organization for industrial poverty alleviation. Most industry sectors gave priority to impoverished regions in the allocation of relief funds and projects based on their functions and division of labor, aiming to promote the rapid and sound economic and social development of poor areas. In 2012, the provincial industrial sectors put in a total of 17.163 billion yuan in the contiguous poor areas and key counties; and the provincial government mobilized 884 million yuan of social poverty alleviation funds for the contiguous poor areas and key counties.

【Microcredit and Mutual Funds】 50 million yuan of interest subsidy funds was issued, and microcredit projects were continuously implemented to the households in the national and provincial key counties and some other counties to boost the income growth of the poor. The province issued a total of 910 million yuan of petty loans to rural households, covering 4,081 impoverished villages, supported 32,007 poor households to develop income-generating projects of farming and featured industry, resulting in per household income growth of 2,600 yuan, put in mutual funds of 25.87 million yuan and increased 160 pilot villages for the mutual funds.

【Household Income Growth】195 million yuan of financial funds for income-generating projects of poor rural households was allocated to support industrial development of the registered poor households. We arranged a total of 752 pilot projects for income growth of poor households in poverty alleviation and development, covering 762 administrative villages and 53,153 poverty-stricken households, directly benefiting 198,515 people. As a result, per capital income growth of the involved rural households reached 6,000 yuan. To address the contradiction between the scattered operation of thousands of households and the big market, the household income growth projects explored five models: cooperative operations, equity participation-based management, leading enterprise driving, science and technology depending and pairing-off poverty reduction. In addition, through turnover poverty alleviation, rotary support, industrial guidance and scattered support, we provided support directly to the poor to guarantee the effectiveness of household poverty reduction funds.

【Foreign-funded Poverty Alleviation】A total of 391.68 million yuan was allocated for foreign-funded poverty alleviation projects and the project implementation period is five years (2010-2014). 148 million yuan of project funds has been invested so far, accounting for 37.8% of the total, of which: 122 million yuan was put in the construction of infrastructure and public service sub-projects, accounting for 55% of the total target; 11.173 million yuan was put in the construction of community development fund sub-projects, accounting for 10.9%; 1.772 million yuan was issued to the construction of the sub-project of sustainable land management and climate change adaptation (GEF), accounting for 18.1% of the total; and 12.93 million yuan was put in project management, monitoring and appraisal, accounting for 64.3% of the total.

【Pilot Projects of Lottery Public Welfare Funds】The construction period the central special lottery project is two years. From 2010 to 2012, a total of 391.105 million yuan was invested in the project (including 107 million yuan from the central government, 6 million yuan of provincial matching funds, 15.44 million yuan of county matching funds, 198.776 million yuan of integrated funds and 63.889 million yuan of self-raised funds. As of the end of 2012, all the projects launched in 2010 had been completed; all the infrastructure construction projects launched in 2001 had been completed and the industrial development sub-projects were under construction; the project planning for 2012 had been approved, 45 million yuan of central special funds was all issued, and the pilot counties were organizing the project construction. In 2012, Henan province began to use provincial lottery funds to support the pilot projects of entire village advancement in old revolutionary base areas and arranged 10 million yuan for the project construction in ten impoverished villages of Yuanyang and Wuyang County. As of the end of 2012, all the infrastructure construction projects had been completed and the industrial development sub-projects were under construction.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, we had more than 600 articles printed in the news media and networks at all levels, including more than 100 printed in national news media, more than 60 in provincial news media and more than 380 in provincial websites, creating a new record. We compiled and printed 71 "briefings on poverty alleviation and development" and 38 "Internet Public Opinion", and had all the "briefings on poverty alleviation and development" presented at the portal website of Henan Province for public viewing. Meanwhile, we compiled and printed ten "Special Reports on Poverty Alleviation" and timely submitted to the main leaders of LGOP, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government.

                          (Fan Zhiyong, Henan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hubei Province

【Overview】2012 is the first year of a new round of poverty alleviation and development in Hubei Province. In this year, the government held the provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development to make deployments on the anti-poverty work in the new decade; the 10^th provincial congress of CPC made poverty alleviation and development into an important part of the construction of a happy province of Hubei and strongly pushed forward the work taking it as the top of the ten tasks to be completed; clarified to make Wuling Mountain, Dabie Mountain, Qinba Mountain and Mufu Mountain Area as the main battlefield of poverty alleviation and development in the province, targeting at 8.1961 million registered impoverished people; determined the “two-wheel drive” strategy (poverty alleviation and development and social security), simultaneously boosted regional development and poverty reduction among villages and households, implemented the “trinity” strategy combining special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation with attention equally paid to anti-poverty work and environmental protection, and comprehensively completed the top-level design for the cause of poverty alleviation and development. In 2012, we solved the food and clothing problem of 509,000 registered poor people, launched the entire village advancement of 300 impoverished villages, completed the key task of giving priority to 309 villages in old revolutionary base areas and 200 scattered impoverished villages in poverty reduction; and relocated 10,248 households and 40,992 people, overfulfilling the plan by 2.48%. The "Rain Plan" completed transfer training of 51,411 people, overfulfilling the plan by 2.8%; rural per capita net income growth of key counties was above the provincial average, key counties witnessed rapid and sound economic and social development and great changes took place to the appearance of the impoverished regions in old revolutionary base areas. All these played a positive role in accelerating the construction of “five Hubei”. The poverty alleviation and development work in Hubei was fully affirmed by the state and Hubei Province won "double A" in two assessments – the national assessment of poverty alleviation and development work and the assessment on the performance of anti-poverty funds.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】Hubei Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the Provincial Development and Reform Commission held a special training on planning formulation for the contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties. Adhering to the guiding ideology of "promoting poverty alleviation and development by regional development and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation and development", we successfully completed the planning formulation for four contiguous poor areas. Meanwhile, we set up a high-level leading group for key problem tackling in the contiguous poor areas, and made innovations to the poverty alleviation mechanism in contiguous poor areas for provincial leaders to contact contiguous poor areas, provincial organs to take a lead in coordination and the relevant departments to conduct close cooperation with each other. The provincial government introduced special support policies and measures and one guiding opinion for each contiguous poor area to really support the poor areas. 300 – 500 million yuan of anti-poverty funds are allowed to be increased per year for each contiguous poor county. Industrial development fund was set up and 5 billion yuan was taken out to specially support the industrial development of the four contiguous impoverished areas. Relevant provincial departments gave priority to the contiguous poor areas in policy formulation, allocation of funds and projects, and the increased anti-poverty funds were mainly invested to contiguous poor areas.

In 2012, the four contiguous poor areas recorded a GDP of 285.427 billion yuan, local general budget revenue of 28.904 billion yuan and rural per capita net income of 5,210 yuan, up 12.4%, 15.8% and 17.5% respectively。

【Entire Village Advancement】In accordance with the requirements of resource integration and centralizing the investment, the province integrated a total of 914.82 million yuan of project funds for the 300 villages involved in entire village advancement projects launched in 2012, averagely 3.05 million yuan for each village, of which: 325 million yuan was financial anti-poverty funds, averagely 1.085million yuan for each village. The 300 villages developed planting projects of 303,000 mu, accounting for 102% of the target; bred 1.58 million sheep, accounting for 103% of the target, built highroads of 1700 km and 900 irrigation projects, respectively accounting for 105% and 109% of the target; and completed rural environment improvement for 1248 regions, accounting for 100% of the target.

Through the implementation of entire village advancement projects, the poverty-stricken population of the 300 villages was reduced from 221800 at the end of 2011 to 109,000 at the end of 2012, with a decrease of 113200, the poverty rate dropped from 45% to 22%, and per capita net income of farmers increased from 3120 yuan to 3874 yuan, with per capita income growth of 754 yuan.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 Taking it as an important way to reduce household poverty, enhance the self-development capability of poverty-stricken rural households and achieve poverty reduction and income growth of the poor, the province vigorously promoted industrial poverty alleviation, continued to thoroughly implement the working mechanism for poverty alleviation loan discount funds and decentralized the rights of approving discount funds to the key counties for poverty alleviation and development. The counties might determine the enterprises and projects for the discount funds according to the discount fund amount determined by the provincial government The province arranged nearly 100 million yuan of poverty-relief project loan discount funds to encourage the issuance of project loans of 3 billion yuan; allocated microcredit interest subsidy of 11.25 million yuan for household poverty reduction to support the poor in impoverished villages to obtain loans of 225 million yuan, effectively addressing the fund shortage of the poor for production; and put in financial anti-poverty funds of 31.9 million yuan to launch pilot mutual funds for poverty alleviation in 201 villages. More than 18 million mu of featured agricultural bases were built in the poor areas of the province.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】Following the principle of government guidance, measure adjustment to local conditions for relocation of the poor on a voluntary basis, the province vigorously implemented the poverty-relief relocation. Combining poverty-relief relocation with entire village advancement, the development of agricultural bases, new rural construction, small town building and transfer employment boosting, we must make sure to achieve “affordable relocation, steady progress, development and poverty reduction”. Adhering to the real-name system for objects of poverty relief relocation, we targeted at the registered poor to really solve the production and living problems of the poor living in regions with harsh conditions. In some key counties, we promoted the “one card” model and issued the relocation subsidies directly to the relocated poor to aim at the real poor and ensure fund safety. Adhering to relocation funds integration, we provided a funding guarantee for the poverty-relief immigration through integrating financial anti-poverty funds, work-relief funds and minority development funds. In addition, various regions addressed the fund shortage of the poor for relocation by integrating the funds of various sectors, social donations and individual loans, combined with the assistance village teams by providing labor services and materials. In 2012, the province invested a total of 80 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for the immigration of 10248 households and 40,992 people, overfulfilling the task by 2.48%, and addressed the stable poverty reduction and long-term development problems of the relocated poor households.

【Rain Plan】 Focusing on promoting the stable employment of the poor, adhering to the principle of “guidance by plan, funds to the county, trainings to households, subsidies to the people, department collaboration and whole process supervision”, in accordance with the procedures of "propaganda and investigation first, then farmers’ application and audit by relevant department, followed by public announcement, object identification and funds disbursement”, we actively implemented the Rain Plan to do a good job in poor labor transfer training. In 2012, 50 million yuan of Rain Plan subsidies were allocated, 1,000 yuan per person, and the Rain Plan organized transfer training for 51,411 people, overfulfilling the planned task by 2.8%.

Focusing on the key work of poverty alleviation and development, in 2012, we held 21 trainings for more than 2100 poverty alleviation cadres at all levels, overfulfilling the planned task by one third, of whom 176 were party and government leaders of county or higher level, 937 were party secretaries of key poor villages, 383 were special poverty alleviation cadres, 55 were industrial poverty alleviation leaders and 281 were the assistances of grassroots poverty alleviation of “three supports and one assistance”. We organized the party and government leaders of the contiguous poor areas in Hubei Province, poverty relief cadres and the main cadres of the key villages to participate in national trainings for more than 130 person-times, and received and organized 64 African poverty alleviation officials to take part in the training and field survey in Hubei Province.

【Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas】In 2012, 92.7 million yuan of anti-poverty funds was allocated to support the towns in provincial key old revolutionary base areas and 55.51 million yuan of anti-poverty funds was issued to support the scattered impoverished towns. The 309 towns in provincial key old revolutionary base areas and the 200 provincial scattered impoverished towns each chose one impoverished village for key support according to the practice of entire village advancement. A total of 1244 projects were launched in the poor villages of the 309 towns and 658 projects were constructed in the poor villages of the 200 provincial scattered impoverished towns. The provincial government increased 40 million yuan of poverty-relief funds for the old revolutionary base areas and scattered impoverished regions and, through competition, determined to launch entire village advancement and contiguous development in 12 key towns of the old revolutionary base areas and 4 scattered impoverished towns, with 2.5 million yuan for each contiguous area.

【Pilot Work of Poverty Reduction for Building A Well-off Society】2012 is the fourth year of the pilot work of poverty reduction for building a well-off society in Hubei Province. Adhering to the principle of promoting at a high level, planning in advance, industry support, project leading, policy support, fixed-point poverty reduction and demonstration of pilot projects, we strove to make the pilot work the a highlight, a model and a sample of the key problem tackling for poverty alleviation in the contiguous poor areas. In 2012, a total of 38.033 billion yuan was invested for the project construction of seven pilot counties, up 68.72% over 2011, with the highest growth rate over the years; the 7 counties and cities put in project funds of 39.304 billion yuan, accounting for 103.34% of the planned annual investment; the provincial relevant departments seriously implemented specific industry support policies and arranged special funds of 2.888 billion yuan (including 700 million yuan of discount loans), with an increase of 23.96% over the previous year. In 2012, the 7 counties and cities’ GDP reached 47.766 billion yuan, up 13.9%; industrial added value amounted to 14.318 billion yuan, up 22.2%; fixed assets investment was 48.534 billion yuan, up 41.5%, fiscal revenue was 4.711 billion yuan, local public budget revenue was 2.84 billion yuan, total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 20.81 billion yuan, rural per capita net income was 5320 yuan and disposable income of urban residents was 14,501 yuan, respectively up 23.2%, 28.7%, 18.5%, 16.4% and 13.2%. The growth rate of a number of economic indicators was above the provincial average.

【Pilot Projects of Contiguous Development】 In 2010, Xuan’en, Yunxian County, Luotian and Zigui were identified as the pilot counties for “county-based entire village advancement and contiguous development by integrating funds”. A total of 340.954 million yuan was invested in the four counties, accounting for 135% of the planned figure, of which 40 million yuan was from the central government, 288.95 million yuan was social relief funds and integrated funds of various sectors, and 57.92 million yuan was raised by the masses. The project effectively supported 11,538 rural households and directly benefited 3,055 impoverished households. Due to the implementation of industrial development, infrastructure construction, village improvement and social development projects, the rural per capita net income in the project areas rose by 1641 yuan and the income of the poor increased by 1356 yuan.

【Pilot Projects of Central Lottery Public Welfare Funds】 In 2012, the pilot projects of Central Lottery Public Welfare Funds were launched in Yingshan County, Badong County and Fangxian County. 557 projects were planned for the three pilot counties with a total investment of 107.552 million yuan and the pilot projects are being constructed according to the schedule.

【Pilot Projects of Village-level Mutual Funds】 The pilot work was launched in 201 villages of the 29 key counties (cities) for poverty alleviation and development, covering a total of 83,609 households, including 39,486 poverty-stricken households. The total mutual funds of the province amounted to 38.0415 million yuan, of which 31.9 million yuan was financial anti-poverty funds (including 26.2 million yuan from the central government and 5.7 million yuan from the provincial government), 4.4291 million yuan was paid by rural households and 1.7124 million yuan was other funds. The province issued a total of 78.1962 million yuan of loans, of which 51.0554 million yuan was issued to poor households, promoting the income growth of 9,364 rural households and the poverty reduction of 1,592 impoverished households.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 Taking strengthening infrastructure construction, supporting featured pillar industries, developing social undertakings and promoting equalization of public services as the focus of industrial poverty alleviation, the province integrated relevant resources and practiced target management to promote the development of impoverished regions. In 2012, the relevant departments of Hubei Province invested a total of 53.58 billion yuan of industrial poverty alleviation funds to the contiguous poor areas and key counties for poverty alleviation and development, with an increase of 25.98 billion yuan, up 94.1%.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】Focusing on establishing the aid mechanism characterized by complementary advantages and mutual benefits for a win-win situation, we practiced institutionalized management to promote the poverty alleviation and development. Seven central organs, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, the State Grid Corporation of China, Chinalco and China Hengtian Group Co., Ltd were designated to provide counterpart support for 13 key counties and directly put in 46.48 million yuan in kind and cash to help introduce various funds of 200.8 million yuan, 37 projects, 10 technologies and 6 talents to hold trainings for 5015 person-times.

The provincial government and the provincial military command issued the "Implementation Opinions for Units above Regimental Level of the Army Garrison in China to Participate in the Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hong’an and Macheng Old Revolutionary Base Area" and held the joint meeting on counterpart support provided by the army garrison for Hong’an and Macheng Old Revolutionary Base Area. Over the past three years, the military areas donated a total of 12.6 million yuan for the construction and renovation of 45 Primary Schools Hope and the support for 1190 disabled soldiers and revolutionary martyrs, benefiting nearly 10,000 poor people. The army garrison, police officers and military colleges in Hubei actively supported the development of poor areas. In 2012, the army garrison in Hubei Province invested relief funds of 4.4 million yuan.

In cooperation with the Provincial Federation of and Industry and Commerce, the Provincial Commission of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration and the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, the United Front Work Department of the Provincial Party Committee implemented the poverty alleviation project of “supporting one thousand villages by one thousand enterprises”, actively organized 3057 private enterprises to build bases and launch joint ventures in poor villages to achieve a win-win situation. We helped a total of 2,687 impoverished villages, implemented 2693 aid projects, put in 4.3616 billion yuan, and mainly organized 1,819 state-owned and private enterprises to participate in the poverty alleviation. A total of 670 million yuan was directly invested, introduced and donated.

From 2011 to 2012, through the Provincial Charity Federation, all circles of society in Hubei extensively got involved in the charity activities, including supporting the elderly and children, helping students, providing financial aid for the poor and making a contribution to disaster relief, and donated a total of 584 million yuan in kind and cash, benefiting more than 500,000 people. The Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Association mobilized the member companies and organizations to invest 300 million yuan of funds and materials for poverty alleviation and development. The Provincial Council for the Promotion of Construction in the Old Revolutionary Base Areas actually received donated relief funds of 870,000 yuan.

105 provincial party and government organs and NGOs got involved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation, directly put in relief funds and materials of 853.05 million yuan, helped introduce funds of 792 million yuan, introduced 1,311 projects, 126 technologies and 271 talents, and organized labor transfer for 62,708 people. 17 city (prefecture) organs directly put in relief funds and materials of 455.86 million yuan, helped introduce 441.16 million yuan of funds, introduced 2,315 projects, 593 technologies and 3,471 talents, and organized labor transfer for 84,753 people. The county organs directly put in relief funds and materials of 480 million yuan, helped introduce funds of 527 million yuan, introduced 3,337 projects, 862 projects and 1,347 talents, and organized labor transfer for 371,886 people.

【Management of Anti-poverty Funds】 According to the national regulations on the management of financial relief funds, combined with the actual situation of Hubei Province, we improved the "Measures for the Management of Financial Anti-poverty Funds of Hubei Province" and changed the allocation factors of financial anti-poverty funds as "poor population, rural per capita net income, per capita income, per capita GDP and performance evaluation" with weight ratio of 4:3:1:1:1.

To strengthen the delicacy management of poverty alleviation and development, maximize the effectiveness of anti-poverty project funds and the benefits of impoverished regions and people, enhance the overall image of the poverty alleviation team and maximize security, the province introduced six trial procedures respectively on entire village advancement, poverty-relief relocation, Rain Plan, anti-poverty discount loans, poverty-relief microcredit interest discount and the special poverty alleviation in old revolutionary base areas and scattered poor areas, achieving  "decentralization of power, clarified responsibilities, standardized procedures, strengthened supervision , improved efficiency and safety". According to the poverty alleviation and development planning, we strengthened the construction of the poverty alleviation project library and established a number of projects, forming the participation mechanism. While selecting financial anti-poverty funds, local regions implemented mass participation and democratic decision-making approach. We fully implemented the publicity system for poverty-relief funds, and announced the assessment results of the financial anti-poverty funds and poverty alleviation performance at the website of “Poverty Alleviation in Hubei”. Meanwhile, the city and county poverty alleviation offices announced the poverty-relief fund projects in local media and town and village administrative bulletins in various forms, and organized regular or irregular inspections on the management of the use of relief funds in various regions through field survey and unannounced visits, aiming to find out the problems, improve the system and prevent risks. In addition, we made steady progress in the performance evaluation of financial anti-poverty funds.

【Field Research on Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, the province's poverty reduction systems completed the preparation of more than 100 research reports, of which 16 were affirmed by LGOP and the provincial government. Full texts of the reports on the regional development and poverty reduction situation in Wuling Mountain, Qinba Mountain and Mufu Mountain Area of Hubei Province were printed in Hubei Daily. The research reports of "Investigation and Reflection on the Settlement and Transfer of Rural Labors in the Contiguous Poor Areas of Hubei Province" and "County Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation and Development", and the "Study of the National Strategy to Promote the Development of Wuling Mountain Experimental Zone of Hubei Province" and the "Study of Poverty Alleviation and Development and Social Harmony and Stability" were affirmed by the provincial party and government leaders. We continued to organize the "grassroots survey by provincial, city and county organizes" and wrote more than 80 research reports. Some research results have been transferred into provincial government’s decisions on poverty alleviation.

(Xia Zhi, Hubei Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hunan Province

 

【Overview】In 2012, Hunan Province seriously implemented the spirit of the 18^th National Congress of the CPC and the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development. To achieve the goals set by “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” and the “Outline for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hunan Province (2011-2020)”, focusing on the work in Wuling Mountain Area and Luoxiao Mountain Area, taking Xiangxi Autonomous Region as the main battlefield, we spared no pains to establish a grand pattern of “trinity” poverty alleviation integrating special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation, and actively promoted the rapid and sound economic and social development in impoverished areas, achieving remarkable results. There was a reduction of 1.41 million in the number of poverty-stricken people of the province, the rural per capita net income of 48 contiguous poor counties and key counties reached 4252 yuan, up 14.5%, and the roads, water conservancy, electricity, telecommunication, housing and other infrastructures in poor areas were significantly enhanced, the production and living conditions of the poor were greatly improved and the self-development capability of the poor were significantly strengthened, laying a good foundation for building a well-off society in the province by 2020.

【Introduction of New Outline】On March 31, Hunan provincial government held a high-level work conference on poverty alleviation and development. Party Secretary Zhou Qiang and Governor Xu Shousheng each delivered ​​an important speech. The "Development Planning on the Eradication of Poverty and the Construction of A Well-off Society in Hunan Province During the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period and the “Outline for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hunan Province (2011-2020)” were issued to make an overall deployment on a new round of poverty alleviation and development in the province.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas】 In Accordance with the guiding ideology of "promoting poverty alleviation by regional development and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation" and "planning for construction from a high starting point, and high-level green development", we carefully prepared the "Implementation Plan for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Wuling Mountain Area" and the "Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Luoxiao Mountain Area". On October 30, the provincial government officially approved the "Implementation Plan for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Wuling Mountain Area", which became the first planning of provincial contiguous poor areas reported to the state for record. The "Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Luoxiao Mountain Area" was also approved. In the preparation process of the planning for the two contiguous poor areas, combined with the requirements of the national planning, department planning and the provincial government’s “12^th Five-Year Plan”, we determined more than 7100 projects in six categories, namely infrastructure construction, the improvement of livelihood, special industries, capacity building, urban development and ecological improvement, and launched a number of key projects, including the poverty alleviation and development by developing tourism in Aizhai, Jishou of Xiangxi Prefecture, the construction of a beautiful county of Fenghuang and Shimei Power Plant of Huaihua City, achieving good and economic benefits.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, the central government allocated financial anti-poverty funds of 1.1 billion yuan to Hunan Province, up 35.3% over 2011; and the work-relief funds and minority funds allocated by the central government also increases substantially. The provincial matching funds also increased significantly. In 2012, the province increased financial anti-poverty funds of 100 million yuan, and the provincial financial relief funds amounted to 190 million yuan, up 111%. Meanwhile, the cities and counties also significantly increased investment.  Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture clarified that the prefecture and county government’s investment of anti-poverty funds must increase by no less than 10% every year.

【Entire Village Advancement】In accordance with the principle of "key-problem tackling first, relative concentration" and the requirement of "two years for a round", the province allocated financial anti-poverty funds of 290 million yuan, mainly to launch entire village advancement projects in the 480 national poor villages in the first round of poverty alleviation and development, and put in a total of 2.16 billion yuan in the two years, 4.496 million yuan per village. The financial relief capital per village was 1.216 million yuan and integrated fund per village was 2.43 million yuan. A total of 5760 projects were constructed, which greatly improved the backwardness of the poor villages and accelerated the pace of development in poor villages. We successfully completed the task of entire village advancement in this round of poverty alleviation and development.

For poor villages in minority areas, alpine mountain areas and other special areas, the provincial government formulated the "Opinions on Addressing the Production and Living Difficulties of the Poor in Minority Areas and Alpine Mountain Areas" and developed planning for 770 poor villages in alpine mountain areas at an altitude of 800 meters. Based on the pilot work in Laer Mountain Area of Fenghuang County in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, the government issued financial anti-poverty funds of 112 million yuan to 24 minority counties and the counties with minorities accounting for more than 50% of local a population in the province, mainly supporting 112 villages in alpine mountain areas. The "triple linkage and one contract" system was implemented for the work in 98 extremely poor villages of Huaihua City. The city government issued 10 million yuan of financial funds and integrated 47.4 million yuan to promote the anti-poverty work.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】We established the key industrial project library for poor areas and actively accelerated the pace of agricultural industrialization in poor areas through “discount loans”, “contiguous development”, “mutual funds” and “poverty alleviation by science and technology”, aiming to increase the income of farmers. In 2012, 30 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was arranged to support 92 poverty alleviation leading enterprises and cultivate a number of cooperatives and large households engaged in farming. 346 million yuan of industrial base funds were allocated to support the development of featured pillar industries such as tea, tea-oil camellia, lily and cattle breeding. 650,000 mu of industrial bases were set up and 350,000 heads of livestock were bred.

Through making extensive financial cooperation with Agricultural Bank of China Hunan Branch, the province arranges a certain amount of financial anti-poverty interest subsidy funds every year to support Agricultural Bank of China to issue loans to poverty alleviation leading enterprises and encourage them to promote the construction of industrial bases through “enterprises + cooperatives + rural households”, etc.

【Poverty Alleviation for Specific Households】According to the new national poverty line, we organized a comprehensive investigation on 9.08 million objects of poverty reduction in Hunan Province. Under the principle of “key-problem tackling first, implementation in batches by stage”, we included the 800,000 registered objects of poverty reduction into the key work for provincial assessment of anti-poverty performance, and decomposed the task to 48 key counties for poverty reduction. In accordance with the requirements of "poverty reduction planning and project planning for households, capital issued directly to households, counterpart support responsibility to individuals, project construction responsibility to individuals and liaison responsibility to individuals", the province allocated financial anti-poverty funds of 333 million yuan, launched more than 200,000 big and small projects, basically achieving “development for each household and project for each family”. Per household income growth reached 2500 yuan and the poverty reduction effect was obvious. The project implementation was welcomed by the masses and cadres in impoverished regions.

【Rain Plan】Hunan Province allocated a total of more than 80 million yuan for the Rain Plan. In 2012, the program held practical technical trainings for 140,000 rural people, held trainings for more than 4,000 cadres and backbones of poor villages, helped 14,000 children from needy families to complete their vocational education and achieve employment, and launched the pilot reform of Rain Plan in 13 key counties for poverty alleviation and development.

Attaching high importance to the schooling of poor college students, the government allocated anti-poverty funds of 12 million yuan to support the pilot work in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture and subsidized the poor college students according to the standard of 5000 yuan per person per year. Meanwhile, 2.8 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds were issued to solve the schooling problem of 2330 left-behind children in impoverished regions.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】The provincial government introduced the "Plan for Division of Labor for the Implementation of the Important Policy Measures of the ‘Outline for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hunan Province (2011-2020)’" and further clarified the department responsibilities. Based on their actual situation, the provincial departments of finance, development and reform, education, civil affairs, transport, and land and resources introduced some policy measures to support the development of impoverished areas. The province's poverty-stricken areas all implemented the "five in one" rural medical aid policy and carried out pilot work of medical assistance for major diseases. More than 96% of the farmers participated in the system, the dropout rate of primary and secondary schools was respectively controlled within 1.5% and 2%, and smooth progress was made in the renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas. To ensure the implementation and effectiveness of the industrial poverty alleviation, the province set up the leading group for poverty alleviation and development work assessment, introduced the “Measures on the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work in Hunan Province” and comprehensively established the anti-poverty work performance assessment and incentive accountability mechanism.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】10 Hunan-based units sent 14 temporary cadres and 372 survey cadres to carry out poverty reduction and directly put in 174 million yuan for the work. Four units - the Ministry of Commerce, Minmetals Group, Central South University and Hunan University were increased to support four counties in Hunan Province, namely Chengbu, Huayuan, Jianghua and Longhui, achieving full coverage of national key counties in the province. Meanwhile, the province further promoted the pairing-off poverty alleviation, continued to mobilize and organize the six cities directly under the provincial government to provide counterpart support for six counties in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, further carried out the poverty reduction in villages, and successively sent 5012 work teams and invested 2 billion yuan in kind and cash to support 5012 impoverished villages. The government actively mobilized all circles of society to participate in the poverty alleviation and development, and praised 107 advanced collectives and 93 advanced individuals for poverty alleviation and development. We actively promoted the construction of "2211 Project for Troops to Support the Construction of A Moderately Prosperous Society in the Old Revolutionary Base Areas”, gave full play to the role of the Provincial Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and the Provincial Federation of Poverty Alleviation and Development, and extensively organized the activities of "Common Development through Village-enterprise Cooperation in Construction", "postal care package", "Fraternity of Overseas Chinese in Hunan" and "Hand in Hand", which introduced social investment of more than 300 million yuan.

【Management of Anti-poverty Funds】The province introduced the "Measures on the Management of Financial Anti-poverty Funds of Hunan Province", further improved the assessment systems and intensified the supervision on the use of financial anti-poverty funds as well. In accordance with the deployments of the "Circular Concerning Special Inspection on Financial Anti-poverty Funds", the poverty alleviation, financial and supervision departments carried out a comprehensive inspection on the management and use of the provincial financial poverty relief funds over the past two years. According to the inspection results, the management of the poverty-relief funds was standardized and the anti-poverty projects achieved substantial results.

(Hunan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province

 

【Overview】 Always attaching great importance to poverty alleviation and development work, in 2012, Guangdong Province continued to further promote the poverty alleviation and development work by "planning for households with responsibility to specific person" and carried out fixed-point, fixed-person and fixed-responsibility poverty alleviation in 3407 impoverished villages, covering 367,000 poverty-stricken households and 1.586 million poor people, achieving remarkable results. As a result, the income of the poor increased substantially. As of the end of 2012, the per capita net income of 1.586 million poor people reached 7,762 yuan, 73% of the average income of rural residents in the province. Rural development vitality was significantly enhanced. A total of 8,498 economic projects were launched in the 3,407 poor villages covered by the poverty reduction in the province; the collective economic income of the 3407 provincial key villages all exceeded 30,000 yuan, averagely 110,900 yuan for each village. Infrastructure was greatly improved. We completed the construction of 300 "Demonstration Villages of Happy Resettlement by Entire Village Advancement", house rebuilding for 100,000 low-income families with housing difficulty, and the relocation of 14639 households of 850 impoverished villages with “two no-possession”. The institutional construction for poverty alleviation and development was strengthened. The "Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province" was formally promulgated and the poverty alleviation and development work embarked on a path of legislation; and the relative poverty standard support policies were determined to address the long-term major strategic issue of poverty alleviation and development.

【Work Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development】On February 1, 2012, Guangdong provincial government held a work conference on the poverty alleviation and development in the province to implement the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development, summarize the achievements and experience of the anti-poverty work done in the past decade, especially the work of “planning to households and responsibility to individuals”, and made deployments for the poverty alleviation and development for a new decade. On June 4, Guangdong provincial government held a meeting on the assessment of the poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals" and the activities of the "Day of Helping the Poor", announced the results of the provincial poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals" and made deployments for the activities of "Day of Helping the Poor of Guangdong".

【Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Work】The provincial government formulated the "Measures on the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Characterized by ‘Planning to Households and Responsibility to Individuals’ in Guangdong Province", and implemented the assessment of "planning to households and responsibility to individuals" in 3407 poor villages of the province in December 2012. The provincial poverty alleviation and statistics department leaders at all levels were mobilized to carry out investigations among 370,000 poverty-stricken households, forming the basic data of village forms and household forms. Relevant provincial organs carried out a 10-day verification on the work, forming the assessment report on 3407 poor villages of the province. On this basis, we comprehensively summarized the experience of the three-year poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals" and initially summed up the theoretical system, policy system and working mechanism for poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals" formed in the anti-poverty work.

【Legislation for Poverty Alleviation】 The government formulated the "Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province" to promote poverty alleviation and development to embarked on the path of legislation; and prepared the "Interpretation of the Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province" to explain the legislation purpose and background of the ordinances. On January 13, it formally promulgated the "Opinions on the Implementation of Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province", developed an overall planning for the anti-poverty work from 2011 to 2020 and creatively implemented the relative poverty alleviation standards, providing a system guarantee for promoting the long-term, institutionalized poverty alleviation and development in the new era.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】The provincial government formulated the "Circular Concerning the Management of Donations Collected on the Day of Helping the Poor" and set up a special account of provincial integrated funds in Minsheng Bank to regulate the management of donations collected on the "Day of Helping the Poor". On the "Day of Helping the Poor" in 2012, we collected donations of nearly 3 billion yuan, created the new "trinity" poverty alleviation and development mode integrating special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation, forming a grand pattern of poverty alleviation with local characteristics of Guangdong.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】The province implemented the house building projects for rural low-income families with housing difficulty. As of the end of December 2012, the province had invested a total of 1.5 billion yuan for house rebuilding and completed the house renovation of 100,000 rural households, averagely 15,000 yuan for each household. Meanwhile, we organized relocation of residents in the villages with no production and living conditions. In 2012, we completed the relocation of 14639 households of 850 impoverished villages with “two no-possession” (no production conditions and no living conditions). In addition, the government issued the "Notice on Effectively Promoting the House Renovation for Rural Low-income Households with Housing Difficulties and the Resettlement Land Guarantee for the Relocation of Villages Without Production and Living Conditions" to effectively guarantee the resettlement land for the immigrants.

【Poverty Alleviation Training】To promote the poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals", Guangdong Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office held various types of trainings. In 2012, a total of 13.45 million yuan of training funds was allocated for the province, of which 2.24 million yuan was for provincial trainings, 3 million yuan for trainings in poverty alleviation bases and 7.61 million yuan for the city and county-level trainings. The provincial departments held a total of ten trainings, including training of poverty relief cadres, industrialization training, provincial training of pilot projects of village mutual funds and the training on anti-poverty work monitoring and supervision, covering 1025 cadres at all levels. The provincial poverty alleviation training bases held trainings for 1940 people. More than 5,000 copies of various policy measures and relevant materials were collected for the training work.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】Making full use of internal communications platform, we printed the experience and practices of various regions in poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals" to provide new ideas and methods for the anti-poverty work of various regions; invited central media representatives in Guangdong to carry out field survey in Shaoguan and Qingyuan to enhance the influence and release rate of poverty reduction work; made propaganda on "June 30 – Day of Helping the Poor" in cooperation with the provincial propaganda department to create a platform for helping the poor; wrote and photographed a series of works on poverty alleviation, including the picture album of "Towards Happiness –On-the-Spot Report on the Poverty Alleviation of ‘Planning to Households and Responsibility to Individuals’ in Guangdong", the DVD of "Great Love – On-the-Spot Report on  the Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangdong Province", "Light up Happiness – Theory and Practice of Poverty Alleviation and Development of ‘Planning to Households and Responsibility to Individuals’ in Guangdong" and the "Spring in Southern Guangdong", etc., to present the remarkable achievements of poverty alleviation and development characterized by "planning to households and responsibility to individuals". In the whole year, the central main media, industrial media and LGOP media printed or reprinted 261 news reports on the poverty alleviation and development in Guangdong Province, laying a solid foundation for all circles of society to understand the poverty alleviation and development work in Guangdong.

                       (Guangdong Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regions

 

【Overview】 2012 is an extremely important year in the history of poverty alleviation and development in Guangxi. Under the strong leadership of Guangxi Party Committee and Government, the party, government and relevant departments at all levels seriously implemented the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” and the spirit of central and Guangxi work conference on poverty alleviation and development, carefully organized the implementation of the “Decision on the Implementation of A New Round of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangxi” and 28 supporting documents, seized the opportunity for innovations and made steady progress in various work, creating a new situation for local poverty alleviation and development work.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, a total of 1.786 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was invested in Guangxi, of which 1.155 billion yuan (not including work-relief funds and ethnic minority development funds) was from the central government, 330 million yuan was from Guangxi and 300 million yuan was from the city and county governments. The central poverty relief funds include: 1.09 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty funds (development funds) and 643.77 million yuan of various kinds of special funds (including anti-poverty loan interest subsidy of 27 million yuan, project management fee of 22.41 million yuan, post-disaster reconstruction funds of 2 million yuan, fixed-point supervision funds of 150,000 yuan and pilot funds of Rain Plan of 13.21 million yuan).

【Poverty Alleviation by Credit】 In 2012, Guangxi issued a total of 110 million yuan of poverty-relief loan interest funds, of which 51 million yuan was project loan interest subsidy and 60 million yuan was household loan interest subsidy. As of the end of 2012, Guangxi issued discount loans of 1.7 billion yuan to support 150 anti-poverty projects of 150 leading enterprises and encourage poor villages to develop competitive industries, and issued household loans of 1.213 billion yuan to support the development of production of 1.02683 billion poor rural households, and the timely repayment rate reached 95.63%.

【Pilot Projects of Village-level Mutual Funds】The pilot projects of village mutual funds in Guangxi covered 37 counties and 210 villages. As of the end of 2012, we set up a total of 230 village mutual aid societies and 2339 mutual aid teams participated by 13991 rural households, including 10175 objects of poverty reduction, accounting for 73% of the total. In the whole year, the pilot villages issued a total of 46.5618 million yuan of loans to 8373 rural households, the loan receivables was 23.8035 million yuan and the repaid loan was 23.9468 million yuan (some people repaid in advance), with a repayment rate of 100.6%.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 To steadily promote the implementation of ex-situ poverty-relief relocation project and help the poor shake off poverty through relocation, combined with the actual situation of Guangxi, we strove to explore new models for ex-situ poverty-relief relocation, combined the ex-situ poverty-relief relocation with urbanization, industrialization and agricultural industrialization, formulated and issued the "Landless Resettlement Program for Relocation in Impoverished Areas" and, taking it as a practical thing for the people in Guangxi, accelerated the ex-situ poverty-relief relocation. In 2012, we selected five counties – Dahua, Sanjiang, Luocheng, Jingxi and Longzhou as the demonstration counties for resettlement of immigrants involved in anti-poverty relocation relying on urbanization, and actively constructed demonstration zones for implementing the new model of ex-situ anti-poverty relocation.

【Entire Village Advancement】During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, Guangxi determined to launch the entire village advancement projects in 3000 poor villages. In 2012, it launched the project in 2219 impoverished villages (including that launched in 2011). Through the implementation of entire village advancement, the infrastructure of most poor villages was significantly improved, the villages took on a new look, social and cultural undertakings witnessed rapid development, the level of democratic governance and construction of spiritual civilization has been enhanced substantially, competitive leading enterprises witnessed further development, and the income level and self-development capability of farmers were enhanced significantly. Guangxi took on a new look of civilization, harmony and sound development, and a large number of villages covered by entire village advancement became the model villages for local new rural construction.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】The “Ten, Hundred and Thousand” Demonstrative Project for industrialization poverty alleviation is one of the five key anti-poverty projects of Guangxi during the 12^th Five-Year Plan period. 71 million yuan was put in 25 “Ten, Hundred and Thousand” project counties in 2012, mainly to support the development of oil-tea camellia, walnut, tea, sugar cane, bamboo, sugar orange, grape, red pomelo, pueraria thomsonii, honeysuckle, daisy medicine and passion fruit tree planting, transformation of low-yield moso bamboos and tea gardens, sericulture industry, tilapias, laying hen, rabbit and bamboo rat breeding. Meanwhile, we developed featured competitive planting area of 58,000 mu, improved low-yield farmland of 35,000 mu, bred 70,000 laying hens, 113,000 rabbits, 31,000 bamboo rats and 1380 cases of tilapias, covering 223 villages, benefiting 22,000 poor rural households. Remarkable achievements were made in the project construction.

Objectives of the industrial poverty alleviation program in 2012: To put in financial anti-poverty funds of 120.5 million yuan for the development of planting area of 242,000 mu, the transformation of low-yield farmland of 104,000 mu, the breeding of 888,000 poultries and 26,000 heads of livestock, as well as aquatic farming of 150,000 kg. The objectives were all achieved with significant results. Guangxi allocated 254.87 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to support the base construction for featured industrialization poverty alleviation projects in impoverished villages. Various regions actively developed planning for industrial projects, encouraged the masses in poor villages to develop industries, supported large-scale featured agricultural projects, developed planting area of 472,000 mu, transformed low-yield farmland of 319,000 mu, provided follow-up management of farmland of 35,000 mu, bred 1.898 million poultries and 49,000 heads of livestock, and developed aquatic farming of 438,000 kg. The projects covered 2548 villages and benefited 1.6 million people.

【Infrastructure Construction】 In 2012, Guangxi completed the construction of 1607 2 village roads of 4520 km (including 1615 village sandstone roads of 3037 km and 2992 hardened village roads of 1483 km), 82 water damaged roads of 2933 km, 258 independent bridges of 3644 linear meters, 734 drinking water projects for people, 37 small water conservancy projects and three small docks with a total investment of 985.0679 million yuan, of which 789.13 million yuan was financial anti-poverty funds, 39.282 million yuan was integrated funds of industrial sectors, 14.179 million yuan was local matching funds and 142.4669 million yuan was other funds, benefiting 3,107,268 people. Meanwhile, it allocated 40 million Yuan of special funds for infrastructure construction in border areas, including the construction of 124 village roads of 199.7 km and one independent bridge of 167 linear meters. We invested 5 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for Phase IV project of the improvement of urban and rural appearance, completed the improvement of the appearance of famous historical and cultural towns and villages visible at the main traffic entrances, both sides of main roads and important street nodes and along the Class I and II highways, and built 13 village roads of 22.3 km.

【Pilot Projects of Contiguous Development and Poverty Alleviation】The six counties with pilot projects launched in 2009, namely Mashan, Sanjiang, Napo, Xilin, Donglan and Jinxiu County completed the project construction and passed the inspection and acceptance of the autonomous region. As of the end of 2012, the six counties with pilot projects launched in 2010, namely Tiandeng, Xincheng, Huanjiang, Fengshan, Tianlin and Pingguo had invested a total of 388.88 million yuan for the pilot projects (of which 55.4 million yuan was from central government, 5.07 million yuan was provincial, city and county matching funds, 189.39 million yuan was integrated funds of industrial sectors, 108.52 million yuan was raised by the masses, 3.86 million yuan was pairing-off anti-poverty funds and 26.64 million yuan was other funds), completing 97.05% of the task. Meanwhile, we made steady progress in the pilot work of contiguous development and basically achieved rapid development of leading industries, significant improvement of infrastructure, substantial increase in income of farmers, great change to village appearance, rapid progress in social undertakings, significant improvement of the quality of the masses and tangible results.

【Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, the aiding units of Guangxi sent a total of 15039 poverty alleviation team members (including 3000 first secretaries of the party organizations of poor villages) to provide counterpart support for impoverished villages. 7677 units were designated to provide support for fixed-point poverty alleviation, of which 210 were directly under the administration of the central government and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Government, 2112 were directly under the city government and 5355 were directly under the county government. Guangxi achieved full coverage of 3,000 impoverished villages involved in entire village advancement in the fixed-point poverty alleviation during the 12th Five-Year Plan period and achieved significant results in village poverty reduction contracted by designated units. The central, Guangxi, city, county (city, district) aiding units directly put in relief funds of 803.58 million yuan, up 148% over 2011, and introduced various funds of 1.29845 billion yuan, up 89%.

【Cooperation for Poverty Alleviation】2012 is the second year for a new round of Guangdong - Guangxi pairing-off poverty alleviation. According to statistics, in 2012, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, Dongguan City, governments at all levels, various departments and all circles of society provided donations of 44.5 million yuan in kind and cash to Guangxi, of which 35.6 million yuan was from governments at all levels of Guangdong, 8.9 million yuan was social donations in cash, 520,000 yuan was donations in kind.1738 trade and economic cooperation projects were signed between Guangdong and Guangxi with an agreed investment of 200.984 billion yuan, and the actual investment was 198.28 billion yuan. Guangdong assisted Guangxi in holding 34 trainings for 5268 person-times, including cadre trainings for 550 person-times. In 2012, Guangxi organized a planned labor transfer of 389,100 to Guangdong and recorded a net income of 4.6692 billion yuan.

【Poverty Alleviation Training】 In 2012, we organized farmers’ practical technical training for 278,000 person-times, cultivated a large number of leaders in becoming rich relying on science and technology, economic experts and agricultural experts; and supported 10,000 children from needy families to receive vocational education (including 5000 from rocky mountainous areas and 5000 from other areas). The number of children supported to receive vocational education reached 20700 that year. Meanwhile, we allocated relevant funds to support 1000 children from rural needy families who passed the entrance exam of universities to continue their study; and helped more than 30,000 labors of poor areas to receive short-term skills training. Through receiving trainings and education, the job skills and market competitiveness of the labors in impoverished regions were significantly enhanced, driving a large number of poor families to shake off poverty, playing a good effect of “lifting one household out of poverty by training one person, and promoting the development of one region by transfer one person”. 5968 people from the autonomous region’s poverty alleviation system received trainings and the quality of the cadre team was further enhanced.

【File Archiving for Poverty-stricken People】 In 2012, we comprehensively started the identification and card making and filing of the rural poor across the countryside and identified a total of 2.92 million poverty-stricken households and 10.12 million poor people scattered in 14,668 village committees (communities) of 1,146 towns in 105 counties. Local regions entered the information of the poor into the information management system and created the paper records and achieve the goal of “cards for households, volumes for villages, data for towns and e-records for counties”, laying a solid foundation for household poverty reduction.

【Actions to Vitalize Border Areas and Enrich Local Residents】 At the end of November 2012, Guangxi People’s Government officially approved the “Implementation Plan for the Grand Action of Vitalizing Border Areas and Enriching the People in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region”, marking the grand action of Vitalizing Border Areas and Enriching the People in Guangxi entered the stage for comprehensive implementation from the preparatory phase. From 2013 to 2015, the government will raise 5.33 billion yuan to achieve the goal of “eight accesses” – access to water, electricity, roads, telephone lines, broadcasting and TV programs, Internet, regular bus and border trade centers in 540 administrative villages of 44 towns in 8 border counties (cities, districts), Debao County and Tiandeng County, which are within 20 kilometers to the borderline, and the goal of “eight possessions” of border residents – possession of basic farmland, housing, village-level public service center, township (village) hospitals (clinics), clean energy facilities, farmers’ markets and border facilities system, industries for stable income growth and basic social security.

【International Cooperation and Exchange】 In 2012, we successfully assisted the holding of the "Sixth China - ASEAN Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction", the "Seminar on the Development of Rural Areas of Nepal", the "Seminar on Formulation and Implementation of Strategic Planning on Rural Development and Poverty Reduction for Developing Countries" and the "Training of Party and Government Leaders for Seven Counties in South Asian", met with the high-level delegation of Tanzania and presented Guangxi’s poverty alleviation and development effectiveness and experience to the developing counties in Asia and Africa, playing a positive role in promoting the international exchange and cooperation in poverty alleviation of Guangxi and serving China’s diplomatic strategy. At the same time, we strengthened cooperation with international non-governmental organizations and the cooperation projects with international non-governmental organizations completed an investment of 30.55 million yuan, of which 29.55 million yuan was donated by international non-governmental organizations to support rural infrastructure construction, sustainable agricultural development, the development of education, health, women and children, capacity building for industrial development, and disaster relief, achieving significant effects.

【Pilot Projects of Central Lottery Public Welfare Funds】In 2012, a total of 238.3909 million yuan of project funds was invested, of which 69.9092 million yuan was central lottery public welfare funds. In June 2012, Guangxi Department of Finance and Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Office jointly held in Nanning the Meeting on Competition for Pilot Counties of Entire Village Advancement in Old Revolutionary Base Areas Supported by Central Lottery Funds in 2012. Eight eligible old revolutionary base counties in the key counties for national poverty alleviation and development participated in the competition and three of them – Du’an, Tiandong and Fuchuan were selected to implement the project. A total of 45 million yuan was allocated and 15 million yuan was issued to each county. Each county selected ten pilot villages for entire village advancement and 1.5 million yuan of subsidy was issued to each pilot village.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning】 The "Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for the Contiguous Rocky Poor Areas (Guangxi) of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou (2011-2020) " was approved by Guangxi People’s Government. Through striving for support and joint efforts of parties concerned, we made six “skylight counties” and “deeply embedded counties” that were not covered by the planning, namely Youjiang District, Tiandong County, Pingguo County, Jinjiang District, Nandan County and Tian’e County in the coverage of the planning this time, laying a good foundation for the poverty alleviation in the contiguous poor areas of Guangxi.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】 On March 2, 2012, the press conference on the implementation of a new round of poverty alleviation and development in Guangxi was convened, and more than 20 local and non-local news media participated in the event, including China News Service, People Society, etc. It is the first time for Guangxi to hold a press conference on poverty alleviation and development and the event won good social effect. Making full use of the local and central mainstream media, Guangxi strengthened propaganda on its poverty alleviation and development and had 53 reports on its anti-poverty work printed in central traditional media such as the Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily and CCTV, and more than 230 reports published in People’s Daily Online and LGOP Website, etc., ranking among the front row of the poverty alleviation offices of the provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) across the country.

(Huang Lanqing, Wen Xianglin,

Poverty Alleviation Office of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hainan Province

 

【Overview】In 2012, in accordance with the general requirement of "scientific development for a green rise" of its Sixth Party Congress, Hainan Province made steady progress in poverty alleviation and development, and allocated 331.33 million yuan of central government’s financial anti-poverty funds (of which 201.23 million yuan was development funds, 75 million yuan was work-relief funds, 31.1 million yuan was minority development funds and 24 million yuan was the funds to vitalize border areas and enrich the people) and 230 million yuan of integrated funds from provincial authorities, enterprises and institutions to support the poverty alleviation by entire village advancement, industrial poverty alleviation, labor transfer training, poverty alleviation cooperation, construction of old revolutionary base areas and microcredit-based poverty reduction in impoverished regions. The province's five key cities and counties for national poverty alleviation and development achieved a GDP of 20.381 billion yuan, local fiscal revenue of  1.459 billion yuan, rural per capita net income of 6,093 yuan, with an increase of 7.506 billion yuan, 694 million yuan and 1,154 yuan respectively, up 36.8%, 47.6% and 18.9%. The province's rural poor population was reduced from 753,000 to 688,200, with a decline of 64,800. The rural poor population in the five key cities and counties for national poverty alleviation and development was reduced by 19,100 and the poverty rate dropped from 14.6% to 13.4%.

【No. 1 Livelihood Project】 In 2012, the provincial government made a commitment to the public to do 10 practical things to protect and improve people's livelihood, and took it as the No.1 livelihood project to lift 60,000 people out of poverty. To honor their commitments, the relevant provincial department developed the implementation plan, clarified the task, methods and measures for poverty reduction, assigned the tasks to the relevant departments of various cities and counties, refined and quantified the work of planting, breeding, infrastructure construction, technical training and labor transfer that help achieve the goals (i.e. to lift 18,000 people out of poverty by supporting the development of planting industry, to lift 12,000 people out of poverty by supporting the development of breeding industry, to lift 17,000 people out of poverty by organizing labor transfer trainings and to lift 13,000 people out of poverty by carrying out activities of government leadership and social assistance), and required the cities, counties and relevant departments to regularly report the work progress and organize supervision and inspection on the work. As of the end of December, the province had lifted 64800 people out of poverty, overfulfilling the task of No.1 Project.

【Entire Village Advancement】In 2012, It completed the construction of entire village advancement projects in 60 impoverished villages, covering five national key counties and 26 provincial key counties for provincial poverty alleviation and development, and 34 other cities and counties (districts), and completed planning formulation for the construction of model villages for poverty alleviation and development by entire village advancement in 21 extremely poor natural villages. In the poverty alleviation and development by entire village advancement, we constructed rural cement roads of 404 km, 15 bridges, 380 culverts and 46 drinking water projects, dug 23 wells, implemented 12 water conservancy projects, and constructed cultural rooms and playground of 12,000 square meters, addressing the traveling problem of 193,000 people, drinking water problem of 41,000 people and the irrigation problem of farmland of 1000 ha. In addition, we installed 211 sets of solar photovoltaic generating equipment to solve the lighting and TV watching problem of 211 rural households in 11 remote mountain villages.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, the province continued to support farmers to develop planting and breeding industry. It supported 30,000 rural households to plant various kinds of cash crops and tropical fruit trees of 6169 ha, and supported 26,000 rural households to raise 15,000 pigs, 980,000 poultries, 4030 boxes of bees and 10.23 million fishes.

In 2012, the province identified Qiongzhong BenLu Starch Co. Ltd as a provincial poverty alleviation leading enterprise. By then, it had a total of three national poverty alleviation leading enterprises and eight provincial poverty alleviation leading enterprises.

【Rain Plan】In 2012, we continued to entrust Hainan Overseas Chinese Business School, Hainan Economic and Technical School and Hainan Taxation School to set up a three-year secondary vocational education class for poverty reduction and recruit 3300 students. In 2012, we had a total of 5,800 students at school and 1,452 graduates, and transferred the employment of 1,423 people with an employment rate of 98%. 166 trainings were held to guide labor transfer for 8284 person-times, and more than 8,100 labors were successfully transferred. The labor transfer rate was up to 95%.

【Rural Practical Technical Trainings】  In 2012, the province held 703 practical skills trainings for 35,000 farmers. Poverty alleviation departments at all levels in the province and the provincial association for science and technology jointly held 36 trainings on income growth of farmers for 2,160 person-times.

【Trainings of Poverty-relief Cadres】 In 2012, it organized 37 leaders and directors of the poverty alleviation offices of key cities and counties for poverty alleviation and development as well as other relevant persons to receive the national training; held five training courses of sending cadres to poor areas for 542 person-times; organized eight poverty alleviation cadre trainings for 450 person-times and held 49 trainings of cadres of poor villages for 2354 person-times.

【Cooperation in poverty alleviation】 In 2012, on the basis of fixed-point poverty alleviation supported by provincial organs in impoverished villages, the province issued the “Opinions on the Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation of Military and Police Forces in Hainan”, designated 32 regimental units to cooperate for anti-poverty work and launched the fixed-pointed poverty alleviation of military and police forces in poor villages. After the police forces got involved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation, the number of the province's aiding units increased from 136 to 198. In conjunction with the provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, we held the seminar on anti-poverty work to summarize and exchange experience in poverty reduction and explore incentives and methods for anti-poverty work under the new situation. In conjunction with the relevant poverty alleviation units, we sent a total of 295 cadres to serve poor villages and organized field surveys in the impoverished regions for 1308 person-times, including 77 provincial leaders and 190 department leaders; invested and introduced 228.9 million yuan of funds to launch 221 aid projects, covering the development of production, infrastructure construction, poverty alleviation by education, poverty alleviation training, labor transfer, etc.

【Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas】In 2012, it allocated 80 million yuan of special funds (including provincial matching funds of 10 million yuan) for the construction of the old revolutionary base areas in the province, implemented 273 projects, including 243 roads, 95 culverts, 6 bridges, 15 drinking water projects and 9 cultural rooms, covering 187 villages and 175,900 people. 11 relevant units, including the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, the Provincial Council for the Promotion of Construction in the Old Revolutionary Areas and the Provincial Development and Reform Commission carried out a field research on the old revolutionary base areas in the province, prepared the “Research Report on the Basic Situation of the Old Revolutionary Base Areas in Hainan Province”, proposed to the provincial government to strengthen the construction of old revolutionary base areas and improved the database of basic situation of the old revolutionary base areas.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】 In 2012, the province launched pilot mutual funds in 142 villages with investment of 21.5 million yuan, covering 5,433 rural households, and the mutual funds issued loans of 24.8255 million yuan for 6,575 person-times. The loans were mainly used in three fields: 8.5133 million yuan in planting, accounting for 34%; 15.8267 million yuan in breeding, accounting for 64% and 485,500 yuan in commerce, transportation and other fields, accounting for 2%.

【Pilot Projects of Contiguous Development】 In 2012, the province allocated 2 million yuan to support the road building of 3.48 km and the construction of one drinking water project, solving the road problem of 176 households and 750 people and the drinking water safety problem of 72 households and 329 people in three villages, supported 50 households and 200 people to plant greenhouse vegetables of 0.8 ha and supported 90 households and 360 people to raise 1875 geese.

【Pilot Projects of Lottery Public Welfare Funds】Central lottery public welfare funds were allocated to support the poverty alleviation by entire village advancement in the old revolutionary base areas of two key counties for national poverty alleviation and development, namely Baisha Li Autonomous County and Lingao County. Baisha Li Autonomous County developed 39 poverty reduction projects and 69 matching projects with a total investment of 104 million yuan, of which 15 million yuan was central public welfare lottery funds, accounting for 14.4%. Lingao County developed 212 poverty reduction projects with a total investment of 100.2 million yuan, of which 15 million yuan was central public welfare lottery funds. The lottery funds projects are now being constructed.

【Poverty Alleviation by Microcredit】 In 2012, a total of 3.06 billion yuan of microcredit was issued to the farmers in the province, of which 1.646 billion yuan was petty loans for household poverty reduction, accounting for 53.8% of the total. The microcredit program supported the poor to plant and manage various cash crops of 1.85 million mu and breed 2.3 million heads of livestock and poultries, covering 67,000 poor rural households and 321,600 people. In Dongfang City alone, supported by this program, 17,748 households and 85,190 people achieved per capita income of more than 4,500 yuan.

【“Care Package” Program】 In 2012, the “Care Package” Program was continued to be implemented. A total of 194700 yuan of donations from individuals and all circles of society were collected, 1,679 care packages were sent to 19 schools and their students in Wuzhishan and Qionghai City, including 22 packages for the schools and 1,657 for the students, benefiting more than 5,700 people.

【Management of Anti-poverty Funds】Held trainings on the management of financial anti-poverty funds, invited relevant persons from the provincial department of finance to give lectures on the role, use and reimbursement procedures of financial anti-poverty funds as well as relevant requirements; announced poverty-relief projects in the city and county TV, political newspaper, websites and other media and publicity columns to accept social supervision; organized the relevant departments to track poverty alleviation project implementation process and conduct performance evaluation of the relief funds; visited five key cities and counties for national poverty alleviation and development to guide the pilot work of mutual funds, helped impoverished villages to set up mutual aid societies and understand the operation situation of the funds so as to improve the use efficiency; timely reported accurate information on the statistics and monitoring and actively cooperated with the supervision, financial and audit departments to conduct inspection and audit of the use of relief funds. Hainan won the Second Prize in poverty-relief fund performance evaluation.

【Identification of Poverty-stricken People】 Based on the new provincial poverty line, identify the poverty-stricken people. First, hold training courses to learn and master the requirements, principles, methods and work processes for the identification of the poor; Second, estimate the poor population size jointly with the National Bureau of Statistics Hainan Investigation Corps and issued indicators to relevant cities and counties; Third, conduct investigations, screening and verification of the poor with county and city as the unit; Fourth, announce the name list of the poor; Fifth, make records and files of the poor and enter relevant data into computer; Sixth, explore ways to reduce poverty and develop pro-poor measures. According to the new poverty line, the province has a rural poor population of 753,000, including 251100 in five key cities and counties for national poverty alleviation and development, namely Wuzhishan, Qiongzhong, Baoting, Baisha and Lingao.

【Poverty Alleviation Statistics Monitoring】 In 2012, three trainings on poverty alleviation statistics monitoring were held in Haikou. Relevant persons were organized to learn data statistics for the base period, sample survey and file archiving for rural households as well as other business knowledge and skills, and drillings on information management system for the poor were organized. As of the end of December, all cities and counties had completed the relevant data entry and reporting work. Hainan’s poverty alleviation statistics monitoring work won the Grand Prize in the cross-checking organized by LGOP.

【Propaganda and Field Research on Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, we compiled and printed a total of 16 briefings on poverty alleviation with 98 pieces of information and issued 3200 copies to the public. As of the end of 2012, we had compiled and printed 159 briefings on poverty alleviation with 795 pieces of information and issued more than 31.800 copies to the public. Meanwhile, we held trainings for correspondents in the field poverty alleviation to learn knowledge on news covering and writing and improve writing skills by analyzing specific cases; and organized news media to write press releases on poverty alleviation and development in poor areas. In 2012, we had more than 190 pieces of news on the poverty alleviation and development in Hainan Province reported by the national and provincial newspaper, radio and TV, including 12 by "Economic Daily" and "Guangming Daily".

Targeting at minority areas, arid and volcanic regions, the province launched the research activity of "Thousands of Villages and Households", covering at least eight administrative villages of each key city / county for national poverty alleviation and development, six administrative villages for sample survey, 34 villagers groups, 1691 rural households and 8149 people. The research focused on the basic situation, living situation, causes of poverty and pro-poor measures. Through the investigation and research, we not only understood the situation of the impoverished  villages and their rural households,, but put forward suggestions on how to further promote the anti-poverty work, providing a basis for the further implementation of the pro-poor policies.

【Recognition for Advanced Collectives and Individuals in Poverty Alleviation】 In August 2012, the provincial leading group for poverty alleviation and development honor the Advanced Collectives and Individuals in poverty alleviation and development from 2001 to 2011, involving 65 Advanced Collectives and 52 Advanced Individuals, covering the working teams of 18 cities, counties, agricultural reclamation zones, Yangpu Economic Development Zone, poverty alleviation training schools and cooperative poverty alleviation points.

                      (Wang Yuanyu, Hainan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Chongqing

 

【Overview】In 2012, taking Wuling Mountain Area and Qinba Mountain Area as the main battlefields, in order to reduce poverty and increase the income of poor farmers, focusing on entire village poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and coordinated poverty reduction in urban and rural areas, Chongqing City increased investment to make innovations to the relevant mechanisms and vigorously implement relevant programs, overfulfilling the annual task. In the whole year, it reduced the poverty-stricken people by 300,000 and the rural per capita net income of the key districts and counties increased by 716 yuan, reaching 6,000 yuan. Meanwhile, Chongqing completed the poverty-relief and ecological relocation of 120,000 people, built and repaired village highroads of 5892 km, solved the safe drinking water problem of 310,000 people and organized entrepreneurship, employment and practical skills trainings for 115,000 person-times, effectively promoting the coordinated development of economic construction and social undertakings in poor rural areas. In the performance appraisal organized by LGOP, Chongqing won the first prize, was awarded Class A in the performance evaluation of national financial anti-poverty funds for four consecutive years and won the grand prize in national poverty alleviation statistics monitoring work appraisal. Chongqing Poverty Alleviation Office was titled as a “Civilized Unit in Chongqing City” and one of the Ten Most Excellent Units in the program of “Sunny Chongqing”.

【Poverty alleviation standards and objectives】In 2012, in accordance with the scientific judgment of "big regional differences between urban and rural areas, relatively weak comprehensive strength, still in the stage of underdevelopment and still belonging to underdeveloped areas" made ​​by the Fourth Party Congress, Chongqing City held two municipal work conferences on poverty alleviation and development and one meeting of the leading group for poverty alleviation and development to timely unify thinking, improve the ideas and clarify the objectives, and made adjustment and amendment to the local poverty alleviation standards and objectives: As for the poverty standard, when 30% of the rural per capita net income does not reach the national standard of 2300 yuan, we implement the national standard; after the figure reaches 2300 yuan, we implement the relative standard and make dynamic adjustment; as for the anti-poverty work objectives, we changed the goal from "lifting 50% of the key counties and 2000 poor villages out of poverty by 2015" to "basically eliminating absolute poverty and basically completing the poverty alleviation in 2000 poor villages and 4 city-level key counties by 2017".

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, the municipal anti-poverty funds amounted to 8.18 billion yuan, of which 2.3 billion yuan was financial poverty-relief funds, up 63%, 2.1 billion yuan was credit funds and 3.78 billion yuan was social poverty alleviation funds, with an increase of 1.18 billion yuan, up 45%, exceeding the financial poverty-relief funds for three consecutive years. Meanwhile, the relevant municipal agriculture-related departments put in financial funds of 10.3 billion yuan to the poor districts and counties, up 26%; People’s Bank of China allocated credit funds of 71.9 billion yuan to support 12 contiguous poor districts and counties in Wuling Mountain Area and Qinba Mountain Area, up 41%.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】In 2012, the city formulated and issued the "Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Planning of Chongqing City (Wuling Mountain Area, Qinba Mountain Area) (2011-2020)" and completed the preparation of relevant planning for 12 districts and counties in these two contiguous poor areas. One or two small contiguous poor areas were selected from the contiguous poor counties and districts. About 12 million yuan of financial poverty-relief funds was invested to each small contiguous poor area by the governments above city level and 300 million yuan of funds was integrated from various industrial sectors. In the whole year, 1.29 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued to the contiguous poor areas, covering nearly 10,000 projects in 900 poor villages. Measures were adjusted to promote the "six accesses to rural households": Access to water, electricity, road, gas, housing and environmental improvement.

【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2012, according to the standard of (“seven possessions, four accesses and three solutions” for entire village poverty alleviation, it conducted examination and acceptance of the projects launched in 450 poor villages in 2010. More than 4100 relief projects were launched in these villages, 9.5 million yuan per village, and 1.84 billion yuan was integrated. Meanwhile, it invested financial anti-poverty funds of 450 million yuan and integrated 4.5 billion yuan of funds to launch the entire village poverty reduction projects in 450 impoverished villages, and smooth progress was made in the project construction. In 2012, 42 million yuan of special poverty relief funds was allocated, pilot projects of mutual funds were newly launched in 160 poor villages, and the number of pilot villages reached 1313. The government also provided financial support for the poor to develop featured profitable agriculture.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, 150 million yuan of special funds for industrial development was issued and 42 million yuan of construction funds for industrial demonstration zones was allocated to support the development of one or two backbone poverty alleviation industries in each key district / county. The "China Industrial Poverty Alleviation • Cattle Industry Development Summit" was successfully convened in Fengdu County to vigorously promote the poverty alleviation pattern of "Fengdu Beef Cattle". Activities were organized to invite merchants for poverty alleviation by tourism. Contracts worth 4 billion yuan were signed and 500 million yuan was invested already. The government allocated special funds of 80 million yuan and integrated funds of 500 million yuan to support 77 villages of 21 districts and counties to develop tourism industry for poverty reduction. In 2012, more than 6000 rural households of the impoverished villages developed the project of "happy farmhouse" and received a total of 4.5 million visitors, 1.9 times that of the previous year, and the income growth of involved rural households was more than 20,000 yuan per household.

【Immigrants Training】 In 2012, the government allocated financial anti-poverty funds of 270 million yuan to actively and steadily promote the poverty-relief and ecological relocation, completed the poverty-relief and ecological relocation of 220,000 people and the employment transfer of 23,000 poor labors to the city; completed trainings of 115,000 people, including Rain Plan training for 4500 people, practical technical training for 68,000 people, and supported 17,000 people to launch their own businesses, and more than 5000 people successfully created their own enterprises. Meanwhile, we made innovations to the project of “poverty alleviation by vocational education” in the Rain Plan, supported more than 20,000 poor students to receive secondary and high vocational education; implemented the college student subsidy project, provided living allowances for 5000 poor college students, 3000 yuan per person, explored the pattern of poverty alleviation by micro enterprises and comprehensively promoted the entrepreneurship program of 100 college student village cadres.

【Social Poverty Alleviation and East-West Cooperation in Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, the activity of "Contract Signing for Chongqing-Shandong Cooperation in Poverty Alleviation" was held. 67 cooperation projects were signed with a contract worth of 27 billion yuan. 1.68 billion yuan was allocated. 14 cities of Shandong Province were designated to provide counterpart support for 14 national key poor counties in Chongqing, and relief funds of 42.5 million yuan was issued to support the construction of 85 projects. 18 poverty alleviation groups provided poverty relief funds of 960 million yuan for the twinned poor districts and counties, and nearly 500 million yuan of funds were issued for “one circle” to support “two wings”. Meanwhile, Chongqing carried out the “10.l7” activities, praised ten poverty alleviation figures in the city and raised donations of 28.53 million yuan for Rain Plan and the construction of old revolutionary base areas. China Development Bank was designated to provide counterpart support for Qianjiang and Xiushan, and Baoshang Bank was designated to support Pengshui County. Central organs’ fixed-poverty alleviation achieved full coverage of key counties and 780 million yuan of relief funds was issued for the fixed-poverty alleviation that year. In addition, Chongqing vigorously promoted the construction of Phase V poverty alleviation project funded by the World Bank and allocated matching funds of more than 45 million yuan.

【Supervision of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, we organized supervision on the use of financial anti-poverty funds in 32 districts and counties concerned in the city, carefully organized and carried out self-inspection and self-correction activities, praised excellent volunteer supervisors of impoverished villages and cooperated with the audit department to complete the audit of anti-poverty funds of the city. Based on the actual situation of the poverty relief work, we refined and quantized the clean government and anti-corruption task, signed the "clean government objective responsibility" and established the work pattern of "two responsibilities for one position". The city established and implemented the independent risk control mechanism, organized the party members and leaders to carefully look for independent risk points in the work of relevant departments and individuals, decomposed the responsibility of risk control to every person involved in the work and links to achieve whole process control by the entire personnel, creating the "efficient, honest, diligent and pragmatic" image of the poverty alleviation department.

【Innovations to Poverty Alleviation Mechanism】 In 2012, based on the actual situation of Chongqing, we adjusted the poverty alleviation and development objectives, established the mechanism for an effective convergence between the municipal relative poverty alleviation standard and the national poverty alleviation standard, formulated the "Implementation Plan for the Management of Financial Poverty Alleviation Funds in Chongqing City", adjusted the members of the leading group for poverty alleviation and development, developed the measures for competition among projects for poverty alleviation by tourism and the poverty relief funds as well as the measures for the comprehensive assessment of the poverty alleviation and development work in relevant cities and counties, and further improved the mechanism for poverty alleviation and development work.

                           (Yan Yan, Chongqing Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province

 

【Overview】 In 2012, more than 32 billion yuan of poverty-relief funds was invested in Sichuan Province, of which 5.299 billion yuan was central and provincial financial anti-poverty funds to accelerate the development of poor regions and support the improvement of production and living conditions and the enhancement of development capability of 1.6267 million poor people, accounting for 116.19% of the planned task. Sichuan Province launched 96 poverty alleviation and development projects in the contiguous poor areas, completing 120% of the annual task; implemented 723 entire village advancement projects, completing 144.60% of the annual task; and held labor trainings for 65,000 people, completing 108.33% of the annual task.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning】 In accordance with the "Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program of Sichuan Province (2011-2020)" and the "Planning on Division of Labor for the Implementation of Important Policy Measures of the ‘Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program of Sichuan Province (2011-2020)’", the cities (prefectures) and counties (cities, districts ) carefully prepared and introduced the rural poverty alleviation and development programs or implementation plans for the new stage, forming a complete coordinated scientific planning system. According to the requirements for the preparation of regional development and poverty alleviation planning for contiguous poor areas, we concentrated on the preparation of regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Qinba Mountain Area and Wumeng Mountain Area, and formulated the "Entire Village Advancement Planning for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province (2011-2015) ".

【Work Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development】In late February, the Provincial Party Committee held the work conference on poverty alleviation and development, made a comprehensive summary of the anti-poverty work done in the first decade of the new century and made deployments for the poverty alleviation and development in the new stage. On behalf of the party and government, 21 cities (prefectures) held the city (prefecture)-level poverty alleviation and development work conference, highlighted the significance of poverty alleviation and development and made scientific planning, system planning and overall layout for the anti-poverty work in the new stage. The province actively carried out research and demonstration of the "Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province" and listed the "Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province" into its legislation program for local regulations; praised the advanced collectives and individuals in the poverty alleviation and development in the province over the past decade, involving 100 advanced collectives, 200 advanced individuals, 52 leaders and 73 workers of poverty-relief relocation departments.

【Poverty Line】 The province determined to implement the same poverty line as the national one – 2300 yuan (2010 constant prices). As of the end of 2010, the province had a rural poor population of 13.56 million and made more low-income people covered by the poverty reduction. In the whole province, only Chengdu set a poverty line above 2300 yuan and the remaining more than 20 cities (prefectures) all implemented the same poverty line with the national and provincial one. The province steadily pushed forward the effective convergence of "two systems", and established and improved the poor farmers’ information management system to accurately identify the poor and make dynamic management and assessment of the poverty alleviation and development work.

【Objectives and Tasks】Prepared and introduced the "Work Program to Ensure the Completion of the Objectives of Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in the New Stage" and made clear the two major goals of and "poverty shaking off" and "name removal in name list of key counties": To complete 65% of the tasks for the new decade and lift all the poor out of poverty and achieve “two no-worries and three guarantees” by 2020; To remove Nanbu County and Guang’an District of Guang’an City from the name list of key counties by 2015, and remove 25 key counties except Tibetan regions and 9 key counties in Tibetan regions from the name list of key counties by 2019.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】 According to the guiding ideology of "promoting poverty alleviation and development by regional development and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation and development", we concentrated all forces and highlighted key areas to steadily push forward the anti-poverty work and key poverty-relief project construction in contiguous poor areas. 2.48 billion yuan of central and provincial financial anti-poverty funds was issued to the contiguous poor areas and 500 entire village advancement projects and 50 contiguous poverty alleviation and development projects were launched.

Launched comprehensive poverty alleviation in the Tibetan areas with pilot areas for contiguous poverty reduction and development in Aba and the Kaschin-Beck disease (KBD) areas as the core. In 2012, the government invested 40 million yuan of relief funds to launch pilot poverty alleviation and development projects in the Tibetan areas of Sichuan; put in 445 million yuan to implement the pilot projects of poverty alleviation and development and KBD prevention and control in Aba, and achieved good results in project construction, successfully achieving the objectives of the Five-Year Planning for the pilot work.

Accelerated the poverty alleviation and development in Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan area, focusing on the construction of "Yijia New Villages"; completed annual investment of 8.879 billion yuan and launched the construction of 296 "Yijia New Villages" for 25,141 rural households.

Vigorously implemented poverty alleviation in Qinba Mountain Area, focusing on the construction of "Bashan New House" and the contiguous poverty alleviation and development in old revolutionary base areas. 10 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was allocated to support the contiguous poverty alleviation and development in old revolutionary base areas of 41 counties in Qinba Mountain Area and Wumeng Mountain Area; implemented lottery funds projects in two counties of the contiguous poor areas and the pilot innovative projects supported by lottery public welfare funds in six counties; and constructed Phase VI poverty alleviation project funded by WB loans in Wumeng Mountain Area to boost the key problem tackling for poverty reduction in the old revolutionary base areas of Sichuan Province.

 【Entire Village Advancement】 Formulated and implemented the “Entire Village Advancement Planning for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province (2011-2015)”, issued the “Measures for Village Screening for Entire Village Advancement” and the “Record Card”. In 2012, the province put in 618 million yuan for the implementation of 723 entire village advancement projects in the new villages for poverty alleviation; allocated 354 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for contiguous poor areas, and launched the entire village advancement and contiguous development work in 354 villages of 45 counties with a large population. To meet the demands of the poverty reduction objects, targeting at the poor, we held labor trainings for poverty alleviation and transferred 65,000 poor labors, achieving the goal of “lifting one family out of poverty by training one person”; increased efforts on industrial poverty alleviation and increased support for industrial development for contiguous poverty alleviation and development and entire village advancement projects to create sources of stable income for the poor; regulated the implementation of mutual funds and lottery funds projects, approved the mutual funds projects of 36 villages in four counties in 2011, intensified the guidance and management for the use of mutual funds in 1600 villages of 129 counties, and completed the declaration of increasing 90 million yuan of lottery funds for poverty reduction and the competition for pilot innovative lottery funds projects.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 Giving full play to the advantages of the relevant leading departments, the province increased efforts on poverty alleviation. Industry sectors increased investment in the contiguous poor areas and made steady progress in industrial poverty alleviation to boost the development of impoverished areas and help the poor shake off poverty. The Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the Policy Research Office of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Rural Credit Cooperative, Sichuan Development (Holding) Co., Ltd and Wuhou District Party Committee successively signed framework agreements on common aid by two or multi parties with the twinned aiding units and donated more than ten million yuan of relief funds, creating a new mode for pairing-off fixed-point poverty alleviation. The educational departments conscientiously implemented the nutrition improvement program for rural students receiving compulsory education and the directional enrollment plan for four contiguous poor areas. While sending cadres to poor areas, developing the program for “pairing-off poverty alleviation in Tibet” and organizing the activities of “cadre dispatch, village contracting and counterpart support”, the Organization Department and he United Front Work Department of the Provincial Party Committee and the provincial organs’ working committees took the initiative to make the work effectively linked with the fixed-point poverty alleviation. On July 13, the Ministry of Transport held a meeting in Sichuan to promote the poverty alleviation by transport development in national contiguous poor areas, actively boosting the poverty alleviation by transport development in the province. The Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Finance Department, Provincial Department of Water Conservancy and Provincial Department of Health all supported the poverty alleviation and development to varying degrees in various forms in the relevant fields, showing the powerful strength of industrial poverty alleviation.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 18 central and state organs were designated to carry out fixed-point poverty alleviation in 29 key counties of Sichuan Province, directly put in relief funds of 190 million yuan and introduced 242 million yuan of funds and 86 projects. The province comprehensively launched a new round of fixed-point poverty alleviation work, arranged 239 provincial departments (units) to provide counterpart support for 87 counties to achieve full coverage of national contiguous poor counties, key counties and provincial key counties; and designated 7 economically strong cities including Chengdu and Panzhihua to provide counterpart support for 20 counties in the Tibetan areas. In 2012, the provincial departments (units) directly put in relief funds of 447 million yuan, introduced relief funds of 843 million yuan and 645 projects, and sent 110 poverty alleviation cadres to support the anti-poverty work in 75 counties. The relevant poor areas took the initiative to contact the provincial departments (units) and aiding cities for the formulation of the poverty alleviation programs, and significant effects were achieved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation, the poverty reduction with “leaders supporting poor counties, departments supporting villages and cadres for specific households” and the pairing-off poverty reduction.

More than 500 poverty alleviation leading companies invested 6.038 billion yuan for the construction of industrial bases with local characteristics, driving 222,400 farmers to achieve average household income of nearly 1800 yuan. The province continued to implement the Poverty Alleviation Volunteer Action Plan, the "Project Pillars" and other social poverty alleviation projects, constantly deepened the international cooperation in the field of poverty reduction, was allowed to implement in Sichuan Phase VI project of WB – Pilot Demonstration Project of Industrial Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas of China, and further deepened its cooperation with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other multilateral organizations and non-governmental organizations.

【East-West Cooperation in Poverty Alleviation】Leaders of Zhejiang and Sichuan carried out exchange visits and inspections, forming the "Memorandum" on the poverty alleviation cooperation between the two provinces. Zhejiang Province plans to allocate 320 million yuan of special relief funds every year and establish the mechanism for its long-term counterpart support for 32 counties in the Tibetan areas of Sichuan Province. It signed the "Agreement on Project Implementation for Zhejiang Province to Provide Counterpart Support for the Tibetan Areas in Sichuan Province in 2012". Project funds of 24 million yuan were issued for the Tibetan areas in Sichuan and implemented renovation of dilapidated houses for 1200 rural households. It signed the "MOU on Work Conference on Zhuhai – Liangshan Cooperation in Poverty Alleviation", and actively carried out the activities of "Care Action of Zhuhai for Liangshan". In 2012, Zhuhai City provided 17.25 million yuan of funds for Liangshan Prefecture to implement the livelihood projects with the construction of “Yijia New Village” as the core, mobilizing the enthusiasm of the public for poverty alleviation.

【Supervision of Anti-poverty Funds】  Adhering to scientific, standardized, refined human-based management, the province strove to enhance the level of supervision on poverty alleviation and development to guarantee the safety of funds use, increase the effects of project construction and really benefit the masses. It was strict in fund project management, amended and issued the "Measures on the Management of Financial Anti-poverty Funds", established a joint meeting mechanism for supervision on poverty alleviation and development, formulated and issued the "Administrative Measures and Reporting System for the Management of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province" and achieved new results in the monitoring of poverty alleviation statistics; adhering to open operation, the government formulated the "Samples for Publicity of Poverty-relief Fund Projects in Sichuan Province" to regulate the publicity procedures of anti-poverty fund projects at all levels and clarify the publicity time, range, content and format to accept social supervision; extended the coverage of the supervision of management, encouraged the masses to participate in the process of construction and management of anti-poverty fund projects, intensified the supervision and inspection and further improved the poverty alleviation and development regulatory system integrating special supervision, mass supervision and social supervision.

【Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work】Taking it as a work priority to lift 1.4 million rural poor residents out of poverty, the provincial government included it in the target assessment of government and the performance evaluation of provincial departments. In accordance with the requirements of the measures on assessment of anti-poverty work, we issued the "Circular Concerning the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development in 2011", developed the assessment program and conducted sample assessment on the anti-poverty work of various regions in 2011; formulated and issued the "Implementation Methods for Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan (Trial) " to regulate the assessment and promote governments at all levels to do a good job of poverty alleviation and development. The poverty alleviation and development work of Sichuan Province in 2011 was appraised as Class A by the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, and Sichuan Province was praised for its outstanding performance in the anti-poverty work.

【Research and Publicity of Poverty Alleviation】 Completed the preparation of eight important theoretical research papers, including the report on theoretical interpretation of the spirit of the Tenth Party Congress of Sichuan Province, the paper on theoretical research of balancing urban and rural development through interactions between industrialization and urbanization and research report on the effectiveness and role of new rural construction, etc.; organized leaders of poverty-relief relocation system to carry out field research among “thousands of villages and households” in impoverished regions and wrote 112 research reports; completed the compilation of 350,000-word "Poverty Alleviation and Development, Sunshine Project – A Documentary on Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province" – Book Series on accelerating the post-disaster construction of a beautiful home and accelerating the construction of Western highlands for economic development; assisted in the completion of a large docudrama: "China’s Poverty Alleviation Road", published the magazine of Poverty Alleviation in Sichuan jointly with the magazine "Poverty Alleviation in China" to summarize and publicize the great achievements made in the provincial poverty alleviation and development in the first decade of the new century; and had 509 articles printed in central and provincial main media to publicize our achievements in the provincial poverty alleviation and development. During the meeting period for provincial poverty alleviation and development work, we successfully held a large-scale exhibition of the achievements in poverty alleviation and development in the new century in Sichuan Province, which was responded enthusiastically and highly praised. Meanwhile, we compiled and issued the   periodical "Poverty Alleviation and Immigration in Sichuan Province" for six times, officially established the website of "Poverty Alleviation and Immigration in Sichuan Province" and had 3422 pieces of information publicly printed.

(Zhou Jili, Tang Yi, Wu Yong, Poverty Alleviation and Resettlement Bureau of Sichuan Province)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guizhou Province

 

【Overview】  Guizhou is one of the provinces with the largest poor area, the largest poor population and the deepest degree of poverty. The 14 contiguous poor areas identified by the state cover 70 contiguous poor counties in Wuling Mountain Area, Wumeng Mountain Area and the Rocky Desertification Area of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi in the province. Among the 88 counties (cities, districts, contiguous poor areas) in the province, 83 have been assigned the task of poverty alleviation and development, and 50 are key counties for national poverty alleviation and development. In 2012, Guizhou Province earnestly implemented the central work conference on poverty alleviation and the spirit of the “Some Opinions of the State Council on Further Promoting the Rapid and Sound Economic and Social Development in Guizhou” (Guo Fa No. [2012] 2), profoundly implemented the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”, continued to take poverty alleviation and development as the first livelihood project and spared no pains to boost the anti-poverty work. According to the poverty line of 2300 yuan, Guizhou Province had a poor population of 9.23 million and the poverty rate was 26.8%. 128 poor towns of five key counties shook off poverty and were no longer key villages for poverty reduction; the rural per capita net income of 50 key counties was 4469 yuan, up 16.3%, 1.7 percentage points above the provincial average. Guizhou Province won Class A in both the national assessment of poverty alleviation and development work and the performance evaluation of financial anti-poverty funds of various provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities); Guizhou Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office was titled as one of the “Top Best Leading Groups” by the Leading Group for Construction Work of Guizhou Party Committee.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, Guizhou Province obtained central financial anti-poverty funds of 2.979 billion yuan, of which 2.5498 billion yuan was financial anti-poverty development funds, with an increase of 638 million yuan, up 33.8%. The provincial government issued 1.41 billion yuan of relief funds, of which 623.8 million yuan was used by the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office for poverty alleviation.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】Based on the actual situation and industrial foundation of the mountain farming in Guizhou, in accordance with the requirements of "structural adjustment, highlighting key points and scale development to promote industrialization", we used 70% of the financial relief funds to create ten poverty alleviation industries with local characteristics and comparative advantage, namely walnut industry, ecological livestock breeding, Chinese traditional herbs, vegetables, tea, fruit, potato, oil-tea camellia, rural tourism and featured farming, vigorously cultivated industrial counties, industrial towns and industrial villages, develop two or three pillar industries for each industrial county and made the pillar industries cover 50% of the towns, the pillar industries of industrial towns cover 70% of the villages and the pillar industries of industrial villages cover 80% of the rural households. In 2012, a total of 2.654 billion yuan was put in “Top Ten Poverty Alleviation Industries” and 10,096 projects were constructed. We completed walnut planting of 2.026 million mu and grass planting of 335,000 mu for ecological livestock breeding, built hog pens of 937,300 square meters, purchased and bred 539,000 sheep, completed the planting of Chinese traditional herbs of 309,500 mu and pollution-free vegetable planting area of more than ​​230,000 mu, including core demonstration bases of more than 120,000 mu, featured tea planting area of 59,600 mu and fruit planting area of 129,000 mu; completed the production of 17.3328 million breeder’s seeds of virus-free potatoes, expanded the breeding of Grade I basic seeds of 3614.16 mu and Grade II basic seeds of 11,500 mu, planted quality-potato of 223,300 mu in farmland, newly planted oil-tea camellia of 134,200 mu and transformed low-yield camellia oleifera of 170,000 mu. Meanwhile, we implemented poverty alleviation by rural tourism in 56 towns, and mainly created and named 20 rural tourism-based poverty alleviation demonstration zones, including Tianlun Village of Tianlong Town in Pingba County, Youshanhe Scenic Area in Dafang County and Penglai Fairland in Baiyun District, etc., and named ten key counties for rural tourism, including Leishan County, Zhenyuan County, Chishui City, etc.

【Demonstration Counties for Key-problem Tackling in Poverty Alleviation】In accordance with the requirements of "highlighting key points, creating highlights, regional development and contiguous area advancement", since 2012, we mainly invest in ten of the 50 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development every year, aiming to construct demonstration counties for poverty alleviation and development, put in more than 80 million yuan to cultivate two or three poverty alleviation industries and spend five years to concentrate on investing in 50 key counties. In 2012, we constructed ten model counties for poverty alleviation and development, namely Weining Autonomous County, Songtao Autonomous County, Changshun County, Danzhai County, Jiangkou County, Daozhen Autonomous County, Ziyun Autonomous County, Shuicheng County, Qinglong County and Xiukaixi Region (Xiuwen, Kaiyang and Xifeng County of Guiyang applied as a whole, so these three counties had only one target), invested a total of 920 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds, integrated 1.667 billion yuan of funds and implemented 2690 projects of industrialization poverty alleviation, mainly supporting the development of quality walnut, grassland herding, quality camellia, quality tea, fruit, quality vegetables and rural tourism industry.

【Ecological Relocation】 The provincial government decided to spend nine years and invest 24 billion yuan to relocate 2 million people living in remote mountain areas, rocky districts and the regions with harsh environment starting from 2012. In 2012, the province put in 1.811 billion yuan for the relocation of 101300 people, of which 320 million yuan was financial relief funds issued by the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office for ecological relocation of 45,700 people, accounting for 152.38% of the planned task (30,000 people).

【Poverty Alleviation Training】We continued to implement the Rain Plan and completed the pilot reform of Rain Plan implementation mode, the pilot work of Guizhou - Shenzhen Express for Rain Plan, and the "trinity" (corporate recruitment + training + employment) and industrialization poverty alleviation skills trainings for 220,000 people, accounting for 110% of the planned task. 82,000 people achieved the transfer of employment and nearly 100,000 people launched (changed) their businesses. The Dream Action subsidized 5,000 rural poor college students with 4,000 yuan, and the Student Subsidy Program provided financial aid for 10,200 people to receive secondary vocational education. 28,500 rural poor students receiving vocational education and skills training obtained subsidies of 1500 yuan a year. The state implemented the special program of targeted enrollment of 10,000 college students in impoverished regions, covering 65 contiguous poor counties in Guizhou Province. The province held trainings for 21015 cadres of impoverished areas, of which 2023 were party and government leaders, 8257 were young and middle-aged backbone for poverty alleviation and 10735 were grassroots organizations’ principals and rural leaders in becoming rich in poor areas, accounting for 105% of the planned task.

【East-west Cooperation in Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, Dalian, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Ningbo City issued relief funds of 149 million yuan to the poor areas of Guizhou Province to support the implementation of a large number of cooperation projects, making a new contribution to poverty alleviation by education, poverty alleviation by health industry, cadre training and labor training and transfer. Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Guangzhou were newly designated to provide counterpart support for Guizhou, achieving “one-to-one’ pairing-off poverty alleviation between coastal developed cities and the cities (prefectures) of Guizhou Province (except Guiyang).

【Fixed-point Poverty Alleviation and Social Poverty Alleviation】 9 central organs (enterprises) were newly increased to provide counterpart support for Guizhou. So far, a total of 31 central organs have been designated to support the poverty alleviation in Guizhou, achieving full coverage of the 50 key counties in the province. Meanwhile, we succeeded in striving for the support of State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau for poverty reduction in Guizhou and profoundly deepened the poverty alleviation by corporations, by party building and by designated units with cadres sent to the poor areas. 31 leaders above the level of deputy governor were designated to support the poverty alleviation of 32 counties; 101 provincial organs were twinned with 88 counties in poverty reduction and 216 units carried out poverty alleviation by party building in 50 counties.

In addition, in order to clarify the duties of various provincial departments in promoting the poverty alleviation work in three contiguous poor areas, the General Office of the Provincial Party Committee and the General Office of the Provincial Government issued the "Notice on Promoting Major Actions in Poverty Alleviation” (Qian Wei Ting Zi No.[2012] 10) and comprehensively implemented the following management mode in the province: The provincial party committee and government assume the overall responsibility, the provincial leading group of poverty alleviation and development is responsible for coordination, relevant provincial leaders takes charge of the anti-poverty work, the relevant departments and bureaus perform their duties, the cities and prefectures assume the specific duties, the counties and towns are responsible for the implementation, assessment is conducted on the anti-poverty work performance and the masses get involved in poverty reduction. The forced accountability mechanism of "setting targets, assigning tasks and giving a time limit and incentives" was established to accelerate the organize combination of special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation. In 2012, three deputy governors were designated to each take charge of the anti-poverty work of one contiguous poor area, 31 deputy provincial leaders were designated to contact 32 contiguous poor counties, nine provincial departments were responsible for contacting three contiguous poor areas, 66 provincial organs provided counterpart support for 66 contiguous poor counties, the provincial party-building-based poverty alleviation work team composed of 216 units visited 49 contiguous poor counties, 34 central organs carried out fixed-point poverty alleviation work in 34 contiguous poor counties, and 42 contiguous poor counties were supported by the twinned cities.

【Financial Poverty Alleviation】  The province made innovations to the mechanism for the use of financial relief funds, actively explored new ways for financial anti-poverty funds to be used as loan interest subsidy, rewards substituted by subsidies and reward support for rolling development. Approved by the head office, Guizhou Branch of China Development Bank provided credit loans of 3.3 billion yuan for the agricultural industrialization for poverty alleviation in the first batch of 16 counties involved in poverty-relief financial cooperation, including Xishui, Jiangkou, etc. Based on the name list of the industrialization poverty alleviation projects, poverty alleviation leading enterprises, small and micro agricultural enterprises, professional cooperatives and rural households recommended by the poverty alleviation departments, under the premise of complying with national industrial policies and regulatory requirements, the Provincial Rural Credit Cooperatives provided credit loan of more than 50 billion yuan to jointly boost the industrial poverty alleviation and development and promote the income growth of farmers. In 2012, it allocated interest subsidy of 50 million yuan to support the project loans of 249 eligible enterprises; arranged financial anti-poverty funds of 40 million yuan to support the petty loans of 43 counties, including Ziyun County, Yanhe County, Jiangkou County, etc.

【Poverty Reduction and Name Removal from the List of Poor Areas】  To get rid of the idea of being willing to fall behind and fall into poverty, and develop the awareness of taking off the “hat” of poverty and competing for advancement so as to build a moderately prosperous society simultaneously with other domestic areas, since 2011, the province implemented the incentive mechanism for maintaining relevant support policies for the regions out of poverty, required that all key counties and poor towns must shake poverty by 2018, maintained former support policies for the key counties and poor towns that shake off poverty ahead of schedule, and provided 10 million yuan of project funds per county per year as a reward, and 1 million yuan, 500,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan of project funds for each poor town according to the poverty categories. Meanwhile, the performance of above work is linked with the assessment of political achievements, so the counties and towns that shake off poverty ahead of schedule will get honors, important positions and economic benefits as well. If the counties and towns covered by this program cannot shake off poverty on schedule, relevant principals will be required to assume the administrative responsibilities. In 2012, a total of 5 counties (Xishui, Jiangkou, Songtao, Changshun and Zhenfeng) and 128 towns including Gaopo Town of Huaxi District shook off poverty. In the province, a total of 8 counties and 194 towns have shaken off poverty so far.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning for Contiguous Poor Areas】In 2012, according to the officially approved planning of Wuling Mountain Area, Wumeng Mountain Area and the rocky desertification areas of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou, and the “Guiding Opinions on the Preparation of Provincial Implementation Plan for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties”, the province formulated the “Guiding Opinions of Guizhou Province on the Preparation of County-level Implementation Plan for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties”, and successively completed the preparation of the “Implementation Plan of Guizhou Province for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Wuling Mountain Area (2011-2015)”, the “Implementation Plan of Guizhou Province for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Wumeng Mountain Area (2011-2015)” and the “Implementation Plan of Guizhou Province for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in the Rocky Desertification Areas of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou (2011-2015)”, and submitted to relevant higher authorities on time according to the requirements. On June 28, the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development held the kick-off meeting of regional development and poverty alleviation in the rocky desertification areas of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou in Xingyi City of Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Guizhou Province. Hui Liangyu, previous member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier and Head of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development stressed that we must earnestly organize the implementation of the regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the rocky desertification areas in Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan, and adhere to the combination of poverty alleviation and development and the comprehensive management of rocky desertification to simultaneously promote water conservancy construction, ecological construction and the management of rocky desertification, and embark on a development path characterized by the benign interaction between local economic and social development, poverty alleviation and development and ecological construction.

【Demonstration Zones for Poverty Alleviation】 The “Some Opinions of the State Council on Further Promoting the Rapid and Sound Social and Economic Development in Guizhou Province” (Guo Fa No.[2012] 2) clarified the strategic position of creating “a demonstration zone for poverty alleviation and development” in Guizhou Province. In order to implement the spirit of Guo Fa No. 2 Document, the provincial government issued the “Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of Demonstration Zones for National Poverty Alleviation and Development” (Qian Dang Fa No.[2012] 26), which proposed to vigorously promote the construction of income-generating projects of farmers as a model in boosting the development of agriculture, farmers and rural areas by accelerating urbanization, industrialization and modernization; vigorously promote industrial poverty alleviation as a model in the transformation of economic development mode; vigorously promote the "trinity" comprehensive governance as a model in strengthening the construction of ecological civilization; vigorously promote the infrastructure construction in counties and towns as a model in improving basic production and living conditions of the poor; vigorously promote the poverty-relief ecological relocation as a model in improving the living environment, and vigorously promote the social development in poor areas as a model in building a strong network for the livelihoods of people.

               (Li Weibing, Guizhou Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Yunnan Province

 

【Overview】  The 14 contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties identified by the state, and the four contiguous poor areas – Wumeng Mountain Area in Yunnan, the Rocky Desertification Area in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi, Border Mountain Area in West Yunnan and the Tibetan Area (Diqing) in four provinces involve 91 counties (cities, districts), including 85 contiguous poor counties, four embedded counties and two skylight counties. In 2012, a total of 4.211 billion yuan of central and provincial financial anti-poverty funds was issued to Yunnan. As a result, the province’s poverty-stricken population was reduced by 2.1 million and the rural per  capita net income of poor areas reached 4365 yuan, with an increase of 618 yuan and a growth rate above the provincial average. Based on the new national poverty line of 2300 yuan of rural per capita net income, Yunnan still has a poverty-stricken population of 8.04 million. Among them, 1.6 million people still live in deep poverty with per capita net income of less than 785 yuan, mainly scattered in 1,075 towns of the remote ethnic minority areas. In addition, 116 towns still have a poverty-stricken population of more than 3000. In 2012, the main battlefield of special poverty alleviation gradually changed from key counties to contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties; the pro-poor measures gradually changed from “one body and two wings” – entire village advancement, industrial poverty alleviation and labor transfer training to promoting infrastructure construction, environmental protection, development of featured industries, protection and improvement of people’s livelihoods and the development of human resources; the industrial poverty alleviation policies, measures, projects and funds were given priority; and social poverty alleviation changed from blood-transfusion poverty alleviation to blood-making poverty alleviation. A "trinity" grand pattern was established for the poverty alleviation and development in Yunnan Province, integrating special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation. The Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program of Yunnan Province introduced on February 19, 2012 gave guidance on the anti-poverty work from 2011 to 2020.

【Entire Village / Township Advancement】  In 2012, The province invested 1.013 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty finances for the implementation of entire village advancement projects in 6,753 poor natural villages, including 5306 villages in 80 key counties for poverty alleviation and development, 4988 villages in 73 national key counties, 5520 in 85 contiguous poor counties with particular difficulties and 1382 in the border counties.

In 2012, 30 entire town advancement projects were increased and 300 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued by the provincial and central government. As of the end of November 2012, the province completed 86% of the total investment for 25 entire township advancement projects launched in 2011.

      【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, a total of 1.0508 billion yuan was invested in industrial poverty alleviation projects, of which 189.91 million yuan was from the central government and 290,000 yuan was provincial matching funds, involving 304 projects in 104 counties (districts) of 16 prefectures (cities). A total of 898.76 million yuan was invested in 204 planting projects, including financial subsidy of 132.3 million yuan; and 207.15253.07 million yuan was invested in 100 breeding projects, including 57.9 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds. The industrial projects were launched in two batches: The first batch was launched on August 30, 2012 and the second on December 13, 2012. Some industrial projects could not be completed until the next year, so the industrial projects launched in 2011 had not been basically completed and most of the projects had not been accepted until the end of 2012.

【Poverty Alleviation by Credit】 In 2012, 3.7 billion yuan of household loan interest subsidy funds was allocated for 124 counties (cities, districts) of 16 prefectures, including 185 million yuan of financial interest subsidy funds, accounting for 100% of the annual plan. The province identified 163 poverty-relief loan projects, recommended a loan of 1.482 billion yuan and arranged special financial anti-poverty loan interest subsidy funds of 44.45 million yuan, of which: 16.7 million yuan was allocated to encourage the issuance of loans of 557 million yuan for 27 provincial poverty relief loan projects. Meanwhile, 5.14 million yuan was allocated to encourage the issuance of loans of 171.37 million yuan for 11 national poverty alleviation leading enterprises.

   【Rain Plan】 In 2012, 184,258 people in poor areas received labor transfer training, including 16,701 people for non-local transfer training and 167,557 for local transfer training. The government continued to implement pilot reform of the Rain Plan implementation mode and directly issued the subsidy funds to the poor. In the spring semester of 2012, according to the standard of 800 yuan per person, the government issued subsidies of 9.216 million yuan to 8 pilot counties (districts). In the autumn semester of 2012, according to the standard of 700 yuan per person, the government issued subsidies of18.4289 million yuan to 14 pilot counties (districts).

   【Ex-situ Anti-poverty Relocation】 In 2012, the province issued 180 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for the relocation of 36,000 people, covering 87 counties. 8031 safe houses of 685,000 square meters were built for the immigrants. Subsidies of 5000 yuan per person were provided mainly to support the construction of safe housing with a built-up area of no less than 60 square meters for the immigrants, meeting the local requirements for earthquake fortification.

In 2012, 280 million yuan of central and provincial financial anti-poverty funds was issued for the construction of safe housing projects for 28,000 households, involving 687 towns, 2777 village committees and 6564 villagers’ teams. A total of 1.57 billion yuan is planned to be put in, including 280 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds, 186 million yuan of integrated funds of various sectors and 1.1 billion yuan of funds raised by the masses, averagely 56,000 yuan per household. The total building area was 2.455 million square meters, averagely 87.7 square meters for each household.

【Support for the Poor with Particular Difficulties】Support for all Dulong people and the entire township advancement in Dulongjiang Town of Gongshan County. In accordance with the “Implementation Opinions of the General Office of CPC Yunnan Party Committee and the General Office of Yunnan Provincial Government on the Three-year Action Plan on Support for All Dulong People and the Entire Township Advancement in Dulongjiang Town”, the province mainly launched six projects to support Dulongjiang Town, namely housing project, industrial development, social development, quality improvement and the  protection and construction of ecological environment. A total of 861.896 million yuan was planned to be put in. After the investment adjustment for the improvement of Dulongjiang Road, the total investment was adjusted to 965.63 million yuan. As of the end of 2012, project funds of 1.083 billion yuan were used, 942.98 million yuan was actually allocated, and a total of 713.964 million yuan was invested. Shanghai City planned to put in 50 million yuan and actually issued 66 million yuan for the construction of five house building and entire village advancement projects with local characteristics, overfulfilling the task by 32%.

Support for Lahu people in Lancang County. In 2012, the provincial government arranged 10 million yuan of relief funds and actually put in 34.7531 million yuan to support the development of income-generating industries, infrastructure construction, social undertakings, ecological protection and environmental management. The projects covered five towns, 12 village committees and 20 Lahu villager teams, directly benefiting 905 households and 3261 people.

【Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas】 At the end of 2012, 30 million yuan of special funds for old revolutionary bases and 15 million yuan of central special lottery funds were issued to support old revolutionary base areas and boost the construction of core areas in these regions. From April 8 to 11, the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office held in Weixin of Zhaotong the “Third Provincial Meeting on Exchange of Experience in the Development and Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas in Yunnan”, which summarized the situation of the implementation of the “Opinions on Accelerating the Development and Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas in Yunnan” over the past five years.

【File Archiving for Poverty-stricken People】 Yunnan Province has a poverty-stricken population of 10.14 million. As of the end of 2012, we had completed the file archiving and data entry work for 2.9014 million impoverished households and 10.1474 million poor people, of which 1.8205 million households and 6.4238 million people were objects of poverty reduction; 13,200 households and 18,000 people were covered by the “five-guarantee” system, 195,000 households and 533,500 people received subsistence allowances, and 872,700 households and 3.1721 million people were covered by the minimum living security system.

   【Poverty Alleviation Planning】 The regional development and poverty alleviation planning for contiguous poor areas was officially implemented in December 2011. As of October 2012, the regional development and poverty alleviation plans for Wumeng Mountain Area, Rocky Desertification Area and Border Contiguous Poor Area in West Yunnan were all approved by the State Council (the planning for economic and social development project construction in the Tibetan areas of four provinces during the “12^th Five-Year Plan” period was already approved by the State Council). So far, the provincial implementation plans of Yunnan for the 15 prefectures (cities) in the four contiguous areas – Wumeng Mountain Area, Rocky Desertification Area, Border Contiguous Poor Area in West Yunnan and the Tibetan Area have been approved by the provincial expert panel, and the implementation plans of 91 contiguous poor counties have been approved by local government and are now waiting for the confirmation and approval of the relevant provincial department.

     【Demonstration of Comprehensive Poverty Alleviation and Development in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】 In 2012, Yunnan Provincial Department of Finance and Yunnan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office issued the "Notice on the Allocation of Demonstration Project Funds for Comprehensive Poverty Alleviation and Development in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties" (Yun Cai Nong No. [2012] 207) and allocated 150 million yuan to implement demonstration projects of comprehensive poverty alleviation and development in contiguous poor areas of 15 counties. The implementation plan has been approved by the relevant experts.

   【Comprehensive Development of Extremely Poor Villages in the Poverty Alleviation and Development of Ninglang County】 On November 6, 2012, the project was officially launched. 77.0552 million yuan was planned to be invested for the comprehensive poverty alleviation and development in 27 extremely poor natural villages, including 23 local projects and four ex-situ relocation projects, covering 1726 households and 6467 people in deep poverty.

   【Pilot Projects of Village-level Mutual Funds】 In 2012, 143.55 million yuan of central financial anti-poverty funds and 11.4 million yuan of provincial matching funds were issued for this program. The project covered 555 administrative villages in 98 counties and 944 mutual aid societies were set up. Pilot projects of software management were launched in six counties, and we took the lead in the country to introduce the “Guiding Opinions on the Registration of Rural Poverty-relief Mutual aid Societies”.

     【Social Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, the central organs sent a total of 22 poverty-relief cadres to poor areas and 420 people to carry out field survey in the designated counties. The relevant units involved in fixed-point poverty alleviation directly put in 93.1447 million yuan, of which 89.9663 million yuan was invested in cash and 3.8484 million yuan in kind; introduced capital of 18.8909 million yuan for the construction of a total of 136 projects; held 118 trainings for 10888 people and transferred 1,786 labors. 217 provincial state organs and enterprises sent a total of 1364 cadres to 1,556 impoverished villages in 295 poor towns and sent 6,532 people to carry out field survey in the poor areas. The designated aiding units for fixed-point poverty alleviation directly invested 1.362246 billion yuan for the anti-poverty work, of which 1.3268328 billion yuan was issued in cash and 35.4132 million yuan in kind; introduced capital of 2.2572549 billion yuan to support the implementation of 1,962 projects, subsidized 71,108 poor students; held 935 trainings for 128,946 person-times and transferred 238,094 labors.

   【Shanghai-Yunnan Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, Shanghai planned to allocate relief funds of 247.28 million yuan for Yunnan and actually put in 281.746 million yuan. 364 aid projects were implemented, covering 15857 rural households and 66732 farmers in 32 towns of 28 counties in the border areas of West Yunnan, the rocky desertification area and the Tibetan area of Diqing in Yunnan Province. 133 economic cooperation projects with a total investment of 74.05 billion yuan were constructed. The pairing-off poverty alleviation work showed a new trend of sustained growth of investment, improvement of the cooperation mechanism, demonstration of poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas and deepened economic cooperation.

   【International Exchange and Cooperation】 In 2012, through going global and capital introduction, learning from other regions’ experience in poverty reduction, the province made innovations to the poverty alleviation mechanism, broadened the assistance channels and carried out international exchange and cooperation. It continued to promote its cooperation with international financial organizations and completed the early-stage preparations for the rural development project of Yunnan funded by International Fund for Agricultural Development  (IFAD), laying a foundation the negotiation on project loan and the project approval by IFAD executive board. Total investment to this project was 590 million yuan and the project covered 9 counties in four prefectures (cities). We continued the cooperation with three overseas NGOs and one domestic NGO, implemented a large number of projects for regional development, comprehensive poverty alleviation, livelihood of farmers, drought resisting and earthquake relief; invested project funds of 48.8734 million yuan, of which 3.98 million yuan was provincial matching funds, including 4.8054 million yuan for the cooperation project with Oxfam Hong Kong, 5.016 million yuan for the cooperation project with Humana People to People, 27.5 million yuan for the cooperation project with World Vision Hong Kong, and 6.542 million yuan for the cooperation project with Amity Foundation. The projects covered 28 counties in ten prefectures and cities and benefited nearly one million poverty-stricken people.

   【Field Research on Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, we completed the writing of ten research reports, including “Study of Poverty Alleviation and Development Idea for Yunnan Province in the New Stage”, “Study of the Demonstration Role of the Pilot Mutual Funds of Impoverished Villages in Yunnan Province”, the “Research on the Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties of Yunnan Province” and the “Study of the Poverty Alleviation in Wumeng Mountain Area of Yunnan Province”, etc. Among them, the “Study of the Demonstration Role of the Pilot Mutual Funds of Impoverished Villages in Yunnan Province” won the third prize in the research of development of Yunnan Province. We also wrote 32 research reports on key poverty alleviation and 11 reports on casa study. The “Research Report on Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties of Yunnan Province” and the “Research Report on Strengthening the Supervision of Anti-poverty Funds” respectively won the first and third prize in the Research Report Appraisal Activity organized by LGOP in 2011.

   【Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Work】  In 2012, the province formulated the "Interim Measures on Financial Poverty Alleviation Incentive and Assessment in Yunnan Province" and the "Interim Measures on the Management of Solar Water Heater Projects in the Entire Village Advancement for Poverty Alleviation in Yunnan Province", organized 16 prefectural and municipal poverty alleviation offices to carry out self-inspection of financial anti-poverty funds of 2011 from seven aspects, including institutional improvement, the implementation of relevant systems, the allocation of relief funds, etc.; won the Excellence Award in the assessment of poverty alleviation and development work organized by the state; and cooperated with the Audit Commission Kunming Office to audit and investigate the central and provincial anti-poverty funds arranged by the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office.

   【Human Resources Development for Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, we held three trainings on the construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas, contiguous development and fixed-point poverty alleviation for 452 person-times; organized four rural cooperative organizations’ training courses for 340 person-times; cooperated with agriculture-related industry associations and rural cooperative organizations to complete vocational training of 3000 people; held four training of cadres of poor areas and poverty alleviation cadres for 179 person-times; and organized the cadres of Huize County Poverty Alleviation and Laochang Town of Huize County to participate in the capacity-building training for disaster mitigation and poverty alleviation in rural China.

                          (Xiao Yigui, Yunnan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Tibet Autonomous Region

 

【Overview】 On January 14, 2012, the Tibet Autonomous Region party committee and government held the work conference on poverty alleviation and development in Tibet Autonomous Region and made deployments on the anti-poverty work in Tibet. According to the conference, top leaders of various prefectures and cities must concentrate on and attach great importance to poverty alleviation and development and spare no pains to reduce poverty. The government formulated and issued the "Methods for Tibet Autonomous Region to Implement the ‘“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011 - 2020)’ " and the "Circular of the General Office of CPC Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee and the General Office of Tibet Autonomous Regional Government on the Issuance of the Plan for Division of Labor to Implement the ‘Methods for Tibet Autonomous Region to Implement the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011 - 2020)’" (Zhang Dang Ting No.[2012] 15). These initiatives quickly set off the climax of a new round of poverty alleviation in Tibet Autonomous Region.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, according to the requirements of an annual growth rate of 30% of regional financial anti-poverty budget and no less than 2% of local fiscal revenue in the previous year for poverty alleviation and development by the governments of various prefectures (cities) and counties (cities, districts) put forward by the work conference on poverty alleviation and development in Tibet Autonomous Region, the autonomous regional government arranged 200 million yuan of financial funds, up 34%; the prefectures (cities) and counties (cities, districts) allocated a total of 83.76 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds, with an increase of 9.06 million yuan. A total of 1.335 billion yuan was invested for the poverty alleviation and development in the autonomous region, of which 770 million yuan was from the central government, 91 million yuan was work-for-relief funds, 2 million yuan was post-disaster reconstruction funds, 150,000 yuan was poverty alleviation statistics monitoring funds, 15.79 million yuan was project management funds, 200 million yuan was the matching funds of the autonomous region and 20 million yuan was labor transfer funds.

【Project Construction】 In 2012, 910.34 million yuan of poverty relief funds was allocated, of which: 783 million yuan was from the central government and 127 million yuan was financial funds of Tibet Autonomous Region (including labor transfer funds of 20 million yuan), and 1419 anti-poverty projects were implemented. In the project management process of the anti-poverty work, we made innovations to the relevant mechanisms and achieved early inspection of project, early allocation of funds and early launch of project to benefit the masses as soon as possible. In accordance with the requirement of 60% of the funds issued directly to rural households, we implemented household poverty reduction and implemented 788 household projects with an investment of 580.4 million yuan for 78,800 households and 375,000 people, achieving a household reaching rate of 63%; arranged two batches of 358 entire township advancement projects with government investment of 194.87 million yuan and 898 industrial poverty alleviation projects with government investment of 465.84 million yuan, benefiting 108,000 households and 584,500 people. As a result, the per capita net income of the masses in the project areas increased by 1030 yuan, the growth rate of the rural per capita net income of 80 towns covered by the Entire Township Advancement Program was three percentage points above the regional average; and the low-income population with annual per capita net income of less than 2300 yuan was reduced by 135,000. In 2012, the poverty alleviation and development projects implemented by Tibet Autonomous Region Poverty Alleviation Office won Grade B in the performance evaluation organized by LGOP and obtained rewarded capital of 12 million yuan.

【Effective Convergence of Two Systems】According to the new poverty alleviation standard of 2300 yuan of annual rural per capita net income, we carried out the effective convergence of two systems in the autonomous region. In accordance with the requirements of “first inspection, then assessment and finally publicity”, we carefully identified the low-income residents of the autonomous region and classified them into four categories: households for poverty reduction, households for poverty reduction and subsistence allowances, objects of the minimum living security system and objects of the “five-guarantee” system based on their actual situations of labors and annual family income. To meet the development needs of the poor, under the principle of “making up for whatever we lack”, we actively implemented household poverty reduction and issued relief funds of 10,000 yuan per household.

【Housing Projects for Poor Households】 In 2012, 218.075 million yuan of financial funds was allocated to implement safe housing projects for 8723 registered poor households, of which 140 million yuan was from the central government and 78.075 million yuan was the matching funds of the autonomous region. As a result, more than 50,000 poverty-stricken people moved into new affordable houses.

【Entire Township Advancement】 358 entire township advancement projects were launched in 80 towns of 66 counties in 7 prefectures and cities of the autonomous region with government investment of 194.87 million yuan and integrated funds of 661.02 million yuan. Meanwhile, we completed the examination and approval of 170 entire township advancement-based poverty alleviation programs for 2013.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 A total of five batches of 1006 industrial poverty alleviation projects were implemented with government investment of 530.56 million yuan (including 8 million yuan training funds). As for the industrial poverty alleviation and development projects, we mainly developed some short-term projects with quick effects relying on local advantageous resources, such as dairy farming, flower planting, agricultural and livestock products processing, etc., achieving immediate results.

【Contiguous Development】 Two million yuan of incentive capital was issued to support the pilot projects of “county-based entire village advancement and contiguous development by integrating fund” and six projects were implemented. 2 million yuan was issued to reward the mutual funds projects in six villages of Lasa City and three villages in Shannan Region.

【Transformation of overhead cable】  It transformed 84 overhead cables into bridges for 20 counties of four prefectures and cities in Tibet. Except that Motuo and Chayu County could not complete the task on schedule due to inconvenient traffic, all other counties and cities further intensified the transformation of overhead cables into bridges and are expected to complete the task by 2013.

 

【labor Transfer Project】 Under the principle of “consolidation, expansion and improvement”, a total of 20 million yuan was allocated and 38 projects were launched to support the labor transfer in the autonomous region. The projects include mining for quality stone and glass-quality sand and the cultivation of featured industries, benefiting the masses a lot, and were hotly welcomed by local farmers and herdsmen.

【Poverty Alleviation Performance Evaluation】 Based on a comprehensive analysis and an overall appraisal of the assessment results, we titled 17 advanced central units, 18 Grade A prefecture (city) and county units and 18 Grade B prefecture (city) and county units, and rewarded three prefectures (cities) and 15 counties that won the title of Grade A and B. 31 million yuan of project reward funds was issued for 56 projects.

【Poverty Alleviation by Science and Technology】We declared three pilot projects of poverty alleviation by science and technology to the state and the black highland barley production base construction project in Longzi County of Shannan Region passed LGOP’s appraisal. The state invested 2.5 million yuan and the autonomous regional government put in 500,000 yuan of matching funds.

【Post-disaster Reconstruction】 Tibet is prone to natural disasters and natural disasters hit this area alternately. After the Poverty Alleviation Office of the Autonomous Region actively reported to LGOP and strove for support funds, combined with multi-party coordination, a total of 2 million yuan of funds was allocated for the post-disaster reconstruction and four post-disaster reconstruction projects were implemented in 2012.

【"Through-train" Action Program for Poverty Alleviation】  To actively respond to the call of the regional party committee and the action of doing practical things for the masses organized by the work team designated to stay in poor villages, the autonomous regional poverty alleviation office and discipline inspecting commission implemented the "Through-train Action Program for Poverty Alleviation and Development by Excelling in Competition to Improve Infrastructure and People’s Livelihoods". In 2012, the work team designated to stay in poor villages declared 476 projects to relevant higher authorities and actually implemented 834 projects.

【Poverty Alleviation Publicity】 In order to implement the spirit of the central and regional work conference on poverty alleviation and development, the autonomous regional poverty alleviation office further increased efforts on poverty alleviation and development and had 83 articles successively printed or reported in "People’s Daily", CCTV, Tibet TV, "Tibet Daily" and "Poverty Alleviation and Development", of which an article on the transformation of overhead cables into bridges was reported by the CCTV News. Meanwhile, through holding press conferences, we presented the great achievements made by Tibet in poverty alleviation and development to encourage the masses and condense the common consensus.

【Field Research on Poverty Alleviation】 Taking poverty alleviation and development as an important part of its supervision and research work, the Autonomous Regional People’s Congress carried out field survey on poverty alleviation and development, listened to the reports on local anti-poverty work and increased efforts for institution setting and personnel allocation. The relevant departments of the autonomous region arranged a few joint working teams to carry out extensive and in-depth field survey in more than 60 counties of 7 prefectures and cities in Tibet Autonomous Region, seek opinions of from grassroots cadres and the masses and master first-hand materials to provide a basis for scientific decision-making. In October 2012, the Autonomous Regional Poverty Alleviation Office fully cooperated with LGOP to complete the assessment of pilot projects of poverty alleviation by science and technology and the relevant research work. Based on the research outcomes, we introduced the "Guidelines for Household Poverty Reduction in the Anti-poverty Work of Tibet Autonomous Region During the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period" and started the preparation of the "Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Tibet Autonomous Region (2011-2020) ", etc.

(Tibet Autonomous Regional Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shaanxi Province

 

【Overview】 2012 is an important year for the implementation of the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and the poverty alleviation and development program for the next decade. In accordance with the requirements of the provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development, Shaanxi Province earnestly implemented the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development. Under the guidance of the scientific outlook on development, to learn and implement the spirit of the Eighteenth National Congress of the CPC, in accordance with the requirement of balancing the development of urban and rural areas, adhering to synchronously boosting regional development and poverty alleviation and the effective convergence between poverty alleviation and development and social security, focusing on increasing the income of the poor, taking the ordinances on rural poverty alleviation and development in Shaanxi Province as the criterion and taking contiguous poor areas as the main battlefield, the province vigorously implemented key-problem tackling, relocation, and village/household poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas, and coordinated and accelerated the special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation. As a result, the rural poor areas witnessed rapid and sound economic and social development, the living standard of the poor was constantly improved, and we comprehensively completed the annual task of 2012. According to the new poverty alleviation standard of 2500 yuan, Shaanxi Province lifted 858,000 rural poor residents out of poverty.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, 9.4 billion yuan of anti-poverty funds was issued, of which 2.45 billion yuan was special financial funds, up 22.5% over 2011; 2.1 billion yuan was city and county financial funds, up 24.3%, and 2.6 billion yuan was credit funds. The total amount of the mutual funds reached 403 million yuan and a total of 636 million yuan of mutual funds was issued as loans to farmers. 70.766 million yuan was invested in the fifth World Bank poverty relief project and 606 million yuan was put in the “two linkages and one contract” and the village poverty reduction by enterprises. The investment of relief funds was a new record in history and more than 90% of the special poverty relief funds were delivered to specific villages and households.

【Management of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, Shaanxi Province comprehensively implemented the poverty-relief fund project management announcement, publicity and reimbursement system and issued the “Measures on the Management of Financial Anti-poverty funds of Shaanxi Province” to strengthen the dynamic supervision and management of the financial anti-poverty funds. In cooperation with the Provincial Department of Supervision, Provincial Department of Finance and Provincial Department of Audit, we conducted a special examination on the management and use of 2011’s financial anti-poverty funds in the province to ensure the safe operation and efficient use of the financial funds. In the national performance assessment of financial anti-poverty funds, Shanxi was graded B and won financial incentives of 12 million yuan.

 

【Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties】 In 2012, the provincial government set up the leading group of regional development and poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas, established the system for leader contact and department leadership in the poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas, introduced relevant policies to support the development of contiguous impoverished areas, developed the plan for division of labors, completed the preparation of the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Qinba Mountain Area of Shaanxi Province (2011-2020)” and the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Lvliang Mountain Area of Shaanxi Province (2011-2020)”, and launched the formulation of the “Implementation Plan” for three national contiguous impoverished areas and two provincial contiguous poor areas, namely Baiyu Mountain Area and Tushi Mountain Area along the Yellow River.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】In accordance with the "trinity" idea - "construction of small towns, industry support and escape poverty-relief relocation", Shaanxi Province coordinated the development, made innovations to the mechanisms and improved the planning, funding and assessment methods for resettlement of relocated people so as to vigorously promote the poverty-relief relocation work. In 2012, 1.087 billion yuan of financial poverty-relief relocation funds was issued, accounting for 44% of the total, a total of 69,000 households and 264,000 people were relocated in the province, of which 22,400 households and 88,000 people were from Shaanbei, 37,000 households and 136,000 people were from Shaannan, and 9,600 households and 40,000 people were from Hanyuan of Weibei and the northern foot of Qinling.

【Entire Village Advancement】  Focusing on the development of regional competitive industries and the improvement of infrastructure and public facilities of impoverished villages and communities, in 2012, the province invested 360 million yuan of special funds to newly build 386 project villages for entire village advance, strove for the pilot projects of poverty alleviation and development in old revolutionary base areas with central special lottery welfare funds in 10 counties including Zhen’an, etc., pilot projects of entire village advancement in old revolutionary base areas with central special lottery welfare funds in Dingbian County and Zhenba County, and pilot projects of entire village advancement characterized by “one strategy for one village and one method for one household” in six counties including Yanchuan and Mizhi; newly built village roads of 897 km, solved the safe drinking water problem of 1.512 million people and 898,000 heads of livestock, and constantly improved the infrastructure in impoverished areas. As a result, profound changes are taking place to the appearance of the project villages.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】  In 2012, targeting at the poor living below the provincial poverty line of 2,500 yuan, Shaanxi Province vigorously implemented the policy of “one strategy for one village and one method for one household” to comprehensive support the impoverished regions and people. To develop competitive industries with local characteristics in poor areas and to increase the income of the poor, the government implemented the credit projects to reduce poverty, issued 46.2 million yuan of household loan interest subsidy funds and 1.001 billion yuan of petty loans for rural households. Meanwhile, it further expanded the coverage of mutual funds. The total number of project villages reached 1,769, the total amount of the mutual funds came to 403 million yuan and a total of 636 million yuan of loans was issued to support more than 500,000 rural poor households to develop income-generating industries. The government also supported the construction of 27 modern agricultural poverty alleviation zones and the establishment of 286 professional cooperative organizations; integrated 843 million yuan of funds from various sectors, invited social investment of 2.489 billion yuan and supported or encouraged 24,000 poor households to increase property, operating and wage income by land transfer, working in industrial zones and base construction.

【Rain Plan】In 2012, in order to enhance the employment and entrepreneurial ability of the poor, Shaanxi Province arranged financial anti-poverty funds of 77.94 million yuan to hold technical trainings for 50,000 poor labors, achieving the goal of “lifting one family out of poverty through organizing training and finding a job for one family member”. In accordance with the deployment of LGOP, the province carried out the pilot reform of Rain Plan implementation mode in eight counties including Jingbian, etc., increased efforts on subsidizing university students from needy families in rural areas, arranged 104 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to subsidize 26,200 university students from needy families, carried out agricultural practical technical trainings in various forms for one million person-times in poor areas according to the principle of “being practical and feasible with effectiveness”.

【Foreign-funded Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, 70.766 million yuan was put in the fifth World Bank poverty alleviation project in Shaanxi Province, CDD (community infrastructure and public services) projects were launched in 257 villages, CDF (community development fund) projects were implemented in 59 villages and GEF (global environment fund) projects were constructed in 50 villages. The project construction was comprehensively accelerated according to the schedule and the projects covered 205,000 poor people from 471 impoverished villages of 10 counties in three cities, namely Yulin, Yan’an and Baoji, benefiting 21,800 households and 88,100 people.

【Identification of Poverty-stricken People】 Shaanxi Province took the lead to raise the poverty line from 2300 yuan to 2500 yuan in the western regions. Since the beginning of 2012, through “top-down household investigation and top-down spot test and inspection”, we carried out a survey on the income of all registered rural residents, identified the objects of poverty reduction in the new stage, completed file archiving for poor villages and households and implemented informatization management.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, Shaanxi Province further promoted the implementation of the activity for one thousand enterprises to support one thousand villages. A total of 2,955 enterprises conducted anti-poverty work in 3328 low-income villages and implemented more than 2,000 anti-poverty projects with investment of 219 million yuan. 34 central commissions, ministries, enterprises and institutions carried out fixed-point poverty alleviation in 50 counties and more than 28 million yuan of various poverty-relief funds were invested that year. The government adjusted and organized 554 provincial organs to carry out the poverty alleviation work of “two linkages and one contract” in 554 impoverished villages. The aiding units invested and introduced about 387 million yuan to implement more than 1,100 poverty relief projects. The provincial leaders took the lead to provide counterpart support for the poor counties, one county for each leader. Meanwhile, the province promoted the activity for wealthy counties to support impoverished counties, and the pairing-off poverty alleviation work of Yulin, Yan’an and Xianyang was further accelerated. In addition, we organized the activity of “Care Package Project - Dream Realization in 2012” to deliver warmth and show love to the poor.

 

【Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development】 On January 6, 2012, the “Ordinances on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shaanxi Province” (hereinafter referred to as the “Ordinances”) was approved by the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Shaanxi Province and put into force on March 1, 2012. The “Ordinances” established the legal status of poverty alleviation and development, clarified the poverty alleviation responsibilities of government at all levels and the relevant departments in Shaanxi Province, made clear and institutionalized the government and department responsibilities, poverty alleviation systems and mechanisms, the assessment of poverty alleviation and development, the assessment of the impact of poverty and the management of project funds, and included the poverty alleviation and development work in Shaanxi Province into the legal system.

【Pro-poor Policy Measures】 Develop comprehensive planning to improve the policy system. Shaanxi provincial government attached great importance to poverty alleviation and development, took the eradication of poverty as one of the ten major livelihood projects to enrich the province and people, successively held the meeting of the Provincial Standing Committee, the conference of the leading group for poverty alleviation and development and the provincial work conference on anti-poverty work to make deployments for a new round of poverty alleviation and development, introduced the plan for division of labors to implement the poverty alleviation and development program in the next decade and the “Some Policies to Support the Development of Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties”, formulated the “Opinions on In-depth Implementation of the Policy of ‘One Strategy for One Village and One Method for One Household’ to Promote the Sustained and Rapid Growth of Income of Poor Households in Impoverished Villages” and the financing plan for house building to support poverty-relief relocation, promulgated the "Ordinances on rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Shaanxi Province", issued the "Circular Concerning Further Promoting the Poverty Alleviation of ‘Two Linkages and One Contract’ by Provincial Organs and Institutions", drafted the "Opinions on the Establishment of An Incentive Mechanism to Accelerate the Pace of Poverty Alleviation" and the "Plan on Division of Labor for Support Policies of Contiguous Poor Areas", and further improved the poverty alleviation and development e policy system.

Develop innovative ideas and explore poverty alleviation mode. Taking innovation as an intrinsic motivation to promote poverty alleviation and development, the province developed innovative ideas and actively explored effective poverty alleviation mode. First, developed innovative ideas for poverty reduction. At the beginning of this year, the directors of poverty alleviation offices in the province put forward innovative ideas for changes in six aspects, including guidance for anti-poverty work, institution building , poverty alleviation mode, poverty alleviation mechanism, division of labor, etc. to further unify their thinking and increase their awareness, promoting the fundamental change in poverty alleviation and development. Second, explored a new model for industrial poverty alleviation. Developed the province's industrial poverty alleviation project management approach, combined the assistance for poor households with the support for cooperative organizations and the guidance in land transfer, issued financial subsidies and loan interest subsidies, and increase the income of poverty-stricken households through directly supporting the poor and leading enterprises (professional cooperatives) to help poor households and developing modern agricultural parks to cover the poor. Third, explored new ways of poverty alleviation and development. Launched the pilot project of “one strategy for one village, one method for one household” for poverty alleviation and development, pilot project of poverty reduction by science and technology and pilot reform of the “Rain Plan” implementation mode, actively summarized the experience and explored new modes for poverty alleviation, laying a foundation for comprehensively promoting the anti-poverty work.

Adopt various measures to improve the effectiveness of poverty alleviation. First, increased efforts on the assessment work. In accordance with the "Methods for the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work (Trial)" of LGOP and the "Methods for the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work" issued by Shaanxi Provincial Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, the province conducted an assessment of the anti-poverty work of the cities. The Leading Group for the Relocation of Residents in Shaanbei printed the "Methods for the Assessment of the Relocation in Shaanbei", organized an assessment on the work and rewarded the cities and counties with outstanding performance. Second, strengthened the supervision and inspection. Sent supervisors to conduct supervision and inspection of the relocation work in some districts and counties of Shaanbei, organized a special force to carry out inspection on the key industrial poverty alleviation projects supported by financial anti-poverty funds of more than one million yuan and promptly corrected the problems. Third, comprehensively promoted the industrial poverty alleviation. The provincial government successively issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting Poverty Alleviation and Development of Rural People with Disabilities", "Implementation Opinions on Further Promoting the Combination of Family Planning and Poverty Alleviation and Development" and the traffic poverty alleviation program. The relevant industry sectors gave priorities to impoverished areas in the allocation of project funds and provided comprehensive assistance for the poor.

               (Chen Qingke, Shaanxi Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

              

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Gansu Province

【Overview】 In 2012, Gansu Province earnestly implemented the "Measures for the Implementation of ‘“Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’ in Gansu Province", the Planning for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Gansu Province during the "12^th Five-Year Plan" period and the spirit of the "village and household linkage" and "action of poverty alleviation" and, according to the requirements for anti-poverty work in 2012 and the targets of poverty alleviation and development, achieved the two objectives of making rural per capita net income growth rate two percentage points above the provincial average and reducing the poverty-stricken people by 1.5 million.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, the province invested a total of 2.761 billion yuan of special anti-poverty funds, up 25.8%, of which 2.521 billion yuan was from the central government (including 30 million yuan of central lottery funds), up 24.6%, and 240 million yuan was from the provincial government, up 39.5%. 2.308 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was mainly managed by the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the Provincial Department of Finance, up 30%, of which 2.118 billion yuan was central anti-poverty funds (including 30 million yuan of central lottery funds), up 27.8%) and 190 million yuan was provincial matching funds, up 59.7%.

【Infrastructure Construction】In 2012, a number of infrastructure construction projects were implemented in impoverished villages, including terrace building of 142,000 mu, rainwater harvesting area of 23.9 million mu for water-saving irrigation, renovation of dilapidated houses for 15,147 poor households and village road broadening and hardening of 4,183 kilometers. As a result, there was an increase of 80,000 mu in water-saving irrigation area, an increase of 6000 mu in rainwater-saving irrigation area and an increase of 8500 households in the targets of the project of “one renovation and three construction”. Meanwhile, in cooperation with the relevant parties, we vigorously carried out returning farmland to forest and grassland, grazing prohibition and soil conservation on grassland, protection of natural forests, afforestation of barren hills and slopes, small watershed management and the prevention and control of geological disasters, and supported the relevant cities and prefectures to continuously implement the pastoralist's settlement project and the program for the residents in old revolutionary base areas to say farewell to "earth caves".

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas】In 2012, the province continued to take the implementation of the entire village advancement as one of the key projects for the provincial party committee and government to do practical things for the people. In accordance with the requirements of the new program, the province organized the preparation of planning for the regional development and poverty alleviation in Qinba Mountain Area, Liupan Mountain Area and Tibetan Area (hereinafter referred to as the "Three Contiguous Poor Areas"). Governments of various regions are now carefully organizing the implementation of the regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the "Three Contiguous Poor Areas", proposed to guide the development of impoverished regions with the regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the "Three Contiguous Poor Areas", increased efforts to strive for relevant projects according to the plan to promote policy transformation and project implementation and boost the poverty alleviation in poor areas. In 2012, we planned to implement 500 entire village advancement projects and actually launched 598 projects with a total of 3.621 billion yuan, accounting for 120% of the national plan, significantly improving the production and living conditions of poor rural households. Relevant cities and prefectures intensified the integration of project funds to improve the quality of project implementation.
    【Rain Plan】  In the labor trainings in 2012, we earnestly implemented the requirements of the provincial government: "The financial, poverty alleviation, human resources and social security departments must earnestly obey the regulation on the use of 10% of the poverty relief funds in vocational training and practical skills training and strive to provide policy and financial guarantee for the improvement of quality of the poor", and spared no pains to implement pilot reform of the “Rain Plan” implementation modes in ten key counties for national and provincial poverty alleviation and development, including Qin’an County, etc., and pilot reform and innovation of the methods for training of junior and senior middle school graduates. The province transferred 20,270 labors of Yongjing, Dongxiang, Tianzhu, Guliang, Lixian, Zhangjiachuan and Qingshui County to work in other provinces, organized trainings for 35,000 junior and senior middle school graduates and implemented the "Rain Plan" for 70,000 people, achieving "lifting one family out of poverty by training one family member". Meanwhile, the government provided microcredit for low-income people to help solve fund shortage for industry development. In 2012, the province completed the work skills training of 400,000 people, including 30,000 junior and senior middle school graduates, and held trainings for 3300 college student village cadres to achieve the goal of “one rural college student for one village”. The number of junior and senior middle school students reached 60,000.

We organized labor transfer for 3 million people from impoverished regions, achieving labor service income of 3.6 billion yuan. Labor service income accounted for 30-40% of the rural per capita net income.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, the province arranged discount funds of more than 100 million yuan to guide the issuance of loans of 2.61 billion yuan, continued to boost the development of competitive industries with local characteristics in impoverished regions, such as herbivorous livestock, potatoes, fruit, herbal medicines and vegetables, and further promoted the introduction and application of new species and new technologies. Income of poverty alleviation industries accounted for more than 40% of the rural per capita net income of impoverished regions. Focusing on the products with local characteristics, the province encouraged and supported large-scale development and the cultivation of income-generating leading industries and supported leading enterprises through the operating modes of “base association + company”, “base + rural households”, joint stock partnership and equity participation with land use rights to encourage and guide thousands of rural households to develop competitive income-generating industries with local characteristics.

【Pilot Projects of Village-level Mutual Funds】  Vigorously implemented pilot projects of mutual funds for impoverished villages and created a number of income-generating industries with local characteristics relying on mutual funds and financial credit. In 2012, the province promoted the development of virus-free potatoes of 180,000 mu, Chinese herbs of 120,000 mu, fruits and vegetables of 450,000 mu and high-quality forage area of 50,000 mu; built 15,000 greenhouses and 30,000 breeding and fattening brooders; and developed the breeding of 40,000 beef cattle, 100,000 mutton sheep, 30,000 pigs and 300,000 chickens. While further summarizing experience, improving the systems, strengthening management and guiding the standardized operation of 684 village mutual funds, the province vigorously implemented the pilot projects of mutual funds and established a mechanism for the long-term industrial development.

【"Double-linkage" Action】"Linking of village and households to serve and enrich the people" is a major decision made by Guansu Provincial Party Committee and Government to promote leapfrog development, address livelihood problems and achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society. The Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office took and timely completed the docking and two-linkage between ten thousand cadres, provincial organs, enterprises and institutions and 8790 impoverished villages. Actually, 430,000 provincial, city, county and township cadres and 16547 units were assigned the task to contact 14435 poor villages, including 8790 key villages for poverty reduction, and 578,000 poverty-stricken households, achieving "three full coverage" in poor areas: full coverage of key counties in contiguous poor areas in the linkage work of provincial leaders, full coverage of extremely poor households in the linkage work of cadres and full coverage of key villages in the linkage work of relevant units. In the "Double-linkage" Action, starting from the most direct, most urgent and most realistic problems of the masses, the village-linkage units at all levels raised funds of 2.567 billion yuan by themselves to do more than 250,000 practical things for the grassroots and the masses, including infrastructure construction, the improvement of public service conditions, construction of grassroots organizations and the development of social undertakings, provided trainings of farmers for 290,000 person-times, provided free medical treatment and counseling services for more than 500,000 person-times, completed the renovation of dilapidated houses for 200,000 rural households and donated a total of 126 million yuan in kind and cash.

【Trainings and Exchanges】  Combining local training with non-local training and linking self-organization with LGOP organization participation, the province strengthened the trainings of party and government leaders and poverty-relief cadres for key counties, the trainings of cadres and agricultural technological leaders for key towns (villages), trainings of the management personnel of poverty alleviation leading enterprises, and trainings of leaders of industrial development and demonstration households for agricultural science and technology in impoverished villages. In 2012, we held trainings for a total of 400,000 person-times, convened different types and sizes of site meetings on the provincial anti-poverty work for seven times, and summarized and promoted the experience in entire village advancement, contiguous development, relocation-based poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and the reform of Rain Plan implementation mode, etc.

  【Poverty Alleviation Publicity】In 2012, we created a column in Gansu Economic Daily and at the Website on Poverty Alleviation in Guansu Province for "county party secretaries and directors of poverty alleviation offices to talk about poverty alleviation". In cooperation with Xinhua News Agency and other central news media, we reported the entire county advancement and contiguous industrial development of Pingliang County and the entire village advancement by fund integration in Linxia County; giving full play to the propaganda role of the "Website on Poverty Alleviation in Guansu Province" and the "Poverty Alleviation in Gansu Province", based on the actual situation of poverty reduction, we mainly reported the "China Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development (2011-2020)", the field research of the state working team on poverty alleviation in Liupan Mountain Area, the field survey on poverty reduction in Gansu Province conducted by deputies to the NPC, the relevant major poverty alleviation events of the provincial party committee and government, the special action of “linkage of village and households to serve and enrich people”, the 18^th National Congress of the CPC, the 12^th National Congress of the CPC, LGOP Director-General Fan Xiaojian's field research in Gansu Province and agreement signing, Tianjin-Gansu pairing-off poverty alleviation activities, the formulation of the "Ordinances on Poverty Alleviation in Guansu Province" and the field survey on anti-poverty work carried out by Lao delegation in Gansu Province, aiming to present to the public the new results achieved in the poverty alleviation and development work in Gansu Province.

(Li Xiangjun, Gansu Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Qinghai Province

 

【Overview】 In 2012, under the correct leadership of Qinghai Provincial Party Committee and Government, with strong support from LGOP, the poverty alleviation departments of the province earnestly implemented the spirit of the 18^th National Congress of the CPC, the 12^th Congress of the Provincial Party Committee and the central and provincial work conferences on poverty alleviation and development, focused on party building to strengthen leadership, concentrated on the completion of key task to benefit the people, took a new step in the process of poverty alleviation and made ​​new achievements. The rural per capita net income of impoverished regions reached 5364 yuan, up 16.4%, 4.4 percentage points above the planned task; the province’s poor population was reduced by 242,000, 42,000 beyond the plan. In April 2012, the provincial bureau of poverty alleviation and development won the May 1^st Labor Medal; in December 2012, Qinghai Province won Grade B in the performance evaluation of 2011’s financial anti-poverty funds by LGOP and got financial anti-poverty funds of 12 million yuan as a reward; in June 2012, it won the Award of Excellence in the cross check of poverty alleviation statistics monitoring in contiguous poor counties and key counties organized by LGOP.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, a total of 1.392 billion yuan of central and provincial financial anti-poverty funds was issued to the province, with an increase of 464 million yuan over 2011, up 45%, of which: 1.133 billion yuan was central financial funds, with an increase of 236 million yuan over 2011; 20 million yuan was counterpart support funds from Liaoning; and 239 million yuan was provincial matching funds, with an increase of 216 million yuan. In 2012, Qinghai put in the largest amount of annual financial anti-poverty funds. The prefectures, cities and counties invested special poverty alleviation funds of 37.56 million yuan.

【Special Types of Poverty Alleviation】 In accordance with the requirements of the provincial party committee, under the leadership of the provincial poverty alleviation and development bureau, in cooperation with 11 provincial departments, we carried out field research on the causes of poverty of poverty situation of the farmers and herdsmen in Tongde County, prepared and submitted the “Research Report on the Poverty Problem of Herdsmen in Tongde County” to the provincial government; drafted the “Work Program on Addressing Special Poverty Problems in Tongde County of Hainan Prefecture”, which was then forwarded by the General Office of the Provincial Party Committee; held in Tongde County the kick-off meeting of the “Three-year Special Poverty Alleviation Planning for Tongde County”, implemented the first regional poverty alleviation planning of Qinghai Province, and launched 60 construction projects with an investment of 430 million yuan.

【Entire Village Advancement】  In 2012, the province invested 967 million yuan to promote the implementation of entire village advancement projects in368 impoverished villages, and industrial projects accounted for more than 90% of the total. Meanwhile, the province set up 208 industrial bases to directly benefit 73,200 households and 299,400 poor people.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】In 2012, the province invested 455 million yuan for the implementation of 112 off-site relocation-based poverty alleviation projects in 148 poor villages (communities) of 31 counties (cities) in eight prefectures (cities), covering 14,150 poverty-stricken households and 60,146 poor people. 79.63 million yuan was put in to support the construction of 34 follow-up industry development projects and the relocation of 9,120 households and 40,300 people.

【Rain Plan】11 million yuan was put in to hold short-term skills trainings for 6860 poor labors, subsidize impoverished students and organize trainings on business launching, and the employment rate reached 85%. 18.805 million yuan was issued to carry out pilot reform of the Rain Plan implementation mode, subsidies were provided for 25,583 children of needy families who received skills training for at least one year, and 2.5 million yuan of special funds for poverty alleviation by science and technology was issued to construct the demonstration base projects for yak and Tibetan sheep breeding and fattening industry.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 15.4 million yuan of funds (including 10.9 million yuan of counterpart support funds from Liaoning Province and 4.5 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds) was issued to provide loan interest subsidy and free support for 122 industrialization poverty alleviation leading enterprises and the professional cooperatives involved in entire village advancement, ex-situ relocation and other anti-poverty projects, including 7.5 million yuan of interest subsidy for 47 enterprises or cooperative economic organizations, directly encouraging the issuance of bank loans of 253 million yuan; 191.04 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was allocated to implement industrialization poverty alleviation projects in the eastern contiguous poor areas and the two contiguous poor areas in six prefectures of Tibet region; 4.5 million yuan  (including 90 million yuan planned for anti-poverty discount loans) of household poverty-relief loan interest subsidy was issued to 16 counties of six prefectures (cities, regions), namely Xining, Haidong, Huangnan, Haibei, Hainan and Guoluo.

【Pilot Projects of Village-level Mutual Funds】The province allocated 3 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for the implementation of pilot mutual funds projects in 20 poor villages that  have launched or are now implementing entire village advancement projects in Tongren County of Huangnan Prefecture and Yilian County of Haibei Prefecture; allocated 500,000 yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to reward 10 pilot villages of mutual funds in three counties with excellent performance and good effects in pilot work of mutual funds, namely Guinan County of Hainan Prefecture, Dulan County of Haixi Prefecture and Nangqian County of Yushu Prefecture; and organized working teams to carry out assessment on the operation situations of 188 mutual aid societies that launched pilot projects of mutual funds in poor villages of 16 counties by the end of 2011.

【Planning Formulation】 In accordance with the arrangements and deployments of LGOP and the National Development and Reform Commission, Qinghai coordinated 37 departments to prepare the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for the Eastern Arid Mountain Areas in Liupan Mountain Area” and the “Implementation Plan for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Liupan Mountain Area of Qinghai Province”; completed the preparation of the “Implementation Plan for Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in the Tibetan Areas of Qinghai Province”, and formulated the “Three-year Special Poverty Planning for Tongde County (2013-2015)”.

【Statistics Monitoring】 According to the national poverty standard of 2300 yuan, we organized an investigation among the low-income poor people of the province and estimated the number of low-income poverty-stricken people in the province after the implementation of the new national poverty standard; organized the base-period survey on poverty statistics 2011 and the poverty monitoring work, completed the collection, reporting and verification of 527 groups of 495,495 survey data for 1,200 households in 1,158 villages of 39 counties; and organized a cross check on the poverty alleviation statistics monitoring in the contiguous poor counties and key counties in 2011.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 The province formulated and issued the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Industrial Poverty Alleviation in the New Stage”. The relevant industrial sectors put in matching funds of 1.274 billion yuan to launch a number of construction projects in impoverished regions, covering infrastructure construction, education, health, culture and social security.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 11 central state organs, enterprises and institutions put in counterpart support funds of 6.54 million yuan for 15 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development; the provincial organs and units provided a total of 305 million yuan of relief funds, up 18%; and Liaoning Province issued 42.95 million yuan in kind and cash for Qinghai Province, up 44%. In the activity of “demonstration village building jointly by party, government and military enterprises”, 679 party, government and military enterprises were designated to support 306 poor villages and put in 4.487 billion yuan for the pairing-off poverty reduction, covering 72,300 households and 306,500 farmers and herdsmen. In the activity of “village-enterprise cooperation in construction”, 278 enterprises in the province were designated to support 361 impoverished villages and invested a total of 47.182 million yuan in kind and cash for the poor villages. In the activity of “One for One and Household for Household”, 45,300 cadres and people in the province were twinned with 34,000 poor households and provided relief funds of 25.622 million yuan in kind and cash for the poor households. 1.096 billion yuan of aid funds was provided for the implementation of 198 projects. The Medical Technology Building of Guoluo Prefecture People’s Hospital, Haibei Prefecture Kindergarten and some other projects have been completed and put into operation.

【Post-disaster Reconstruction】 The market project of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to support the post-disaster construction of Yushu after the “April 14” Earthquake was launched on July 6, and the main body construction of five split buildings was completed. The industrial reconstruction project in Changu Village supported by China Association of Poverty Alleviation & Development (CAPAD) achieved first dividend. 1.5 million yuan of the project rent of 4.5 million yuan in 2011 was given to the villagers as dividend, 2112.7 yuan per person for the 710 people of 206 households in the village, and the remaining 1.221 million yuan was retained as collective economy development fund of the village.

【Advocacy on Poverty Alleviation and Development】We held propaganda cadres trainings for the poverty alleviation system of the province, established and improved the poverty alleviation and development publicity and assessment system, compiled and issued nearly 1,000 pieces of information, and had more than 100 publicity articles printed in various media and periodicals, including over 50 in the central media and periodicals.

(Sun Shicheng, Qinghai Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

 

【Overview】 2012 is a landmark year in the history of poverty alleviation and development in Ningxia. Party committees and governments at all levels of the Ningxia seriously implemented the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development and unified their ideas and actions according to the policies and arrangements of the central government. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region held two conferences on poverty alleviation and development to make arrangements for the anti-poverty work in the next decade. In particular, the Eleventh Party Congress of the Autonomous Region established "two strategies" for the development of the economic zone along the Yellow River and the poverty reduction among one million poor people. It is the first time for Ningxia to give top priority to poverty alleviation and development work and regard it as an important strategy related to the overall situation and people’s livelihoods. The infrastructure in poor areas was constantly improved, social undertakings developed rapidly, and cadres and the masses had a stronger desire for shaking off poverty and becoming rich and higher enthusiasm for improving the backwardness and accelerating the pace of development, forming a stronger atmosphere for the whole society to concern about and support the cause of poverty alleviation and development. In 2012, the rural per capita net income of the poverty-stricken areas in Ningxia reached 4,598.37 yuan, up 16% compared to the figure of 3,964 yuan in 2011, above the regional average.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning】 On July 27, 2012, the State Council approved the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning of Liupan Mountain Area (2011-2020) ”. Seven counties (districts) of Ningxia were listed in the contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties in Liupanshan Mountain Area, namely Yuanzhou District, Xiji County, Longde County, Jingyuan County and Tongxin County (Hongsipu District), Haiyuan County (Hanjiaoshui Town, Xutao Town, Xingren Town, Songchuan Town). In accordance with the basic idea of “promoting poverty alleviation and development by regional development and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation and development”, Ningxia Poverty Alleviation Office and Ningxia Development and Reform Commission jointly formulated the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning of Liupan Mountain Area in Ningxia (2011-2020) ”. Meanwhile, we organized Guyuan City and 12 counties (districts) to prepare the regional development and poverty alleviation planning. According to the deployments of LGOP and National Development and Reform Commission, Ningxia Poverty Alleviation Office and Ningxia Development and Reform Commission jointly formulated the “Implementation Plan of Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in Liupan Mountain Area (Ningxia) (2011-2015)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Implementation Plan”) and submitted to LGOP and the National Development and Reform Commission for the record. The “Implementation Plan” developed six categories of 427 projects with a total planned investment of 182.037 billion yuan, covering infrastructure construction, industrial poverty alleviation, special poverty alleviation, urban construction, development of social undertakings, public services, ecological construction and environmental protection, and has become a scientific planning and policy support to guide the regional development and poverty reduction in Liupan Mountain Area of Ningxia.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】 In 2012, the central government arranged 918.65 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for Ningxia, of which 592.49 million yuan was development funds, 100 million yuan was work-for-relief funds, 48.47 million yuan was minority development funds, 100 million yuan was “Three West” funds and 77.69 million yuan was other funds, with an increase of 79.735 million yuan over 2011, up 9.5%. The Autonomous Region budget for anti-poverty funds was 77 million yuan, 17 million yuan more than that in 2011 (60 million yuan), up 28.3%.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】With strong support of the state, in 2011, Ningxia launched the ecological relocation of 350,000 people in extreme poverty living in uninhabitable environment with poor conditions for development. As of the end of 2012, 121,000 people had been relocated. As a kind of innovative work in the ecological relocation of 350,000 people during the "12^th Five-Year Plan" period, labor migration refers to the relocated residents who were transferred to work in the city, industrial zones and agricultural industrialization bases with identification changing from farmers to citizens who enjoy housing, medical care and social security in the resettlement place. Labor migration accounts for 25% of the ecological relocation and cover 201,000 households and 86,500 people in five years. As of the end of 2012, 10,454 relocation houses had been built for labor migration, and a total of 2439 households and 10,132 people had been resettled. Meanwhile, Ningxia introduced the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Relocation Houses for Labor Migration", and "Opinions on Supporting the Development of Labor Migrants Resettlement Enterprises" and the "Policy Suggestions on Guaranteeing the Housing and Promoting the Employment of Relocated Labors" to further standardize the management and promote the smooth implementation of the labor migration.

【"Sidao" Poverty Alleviation Program】 To tackle the key problems in poverty reduction among 650,000 poverty-stricken people for local development, Ningxia made innovations to the poverty alleviation mode, integrated various resources and adopted the "Sidao" measures to help the poor shake off poverty and become rich as soon as possible, including infrastructure construction for the villages, industrial project support for poor households, trainings and labor transfer for poor people and counterpart support responsibilities for the relevant units.

Infrastructure construction for poor villages: Taking entire village advancement for poverty alleviation and development as a platform, we vigorously promoted the infrastructure construction for poor villages. As of the end of 2012, a total of 1.4 billion yuan had been invested in 248 villages covered by the Entire Village Advancement Program, 5.65 million yuan per village (not including the funds raised by the masses), and we overfulfilled the task of the first round of entire village advancement during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. Meanwhile, the autonomous region launched a new round of entire village advancement for poverty alleviation and finished the preparation of village development planning for 500 key poor villages.

Industrial project support for poor households: Select income-generating industrial projects based on the self-development conditions of the poor and provide personalized, differentiated support for the poor households. From 2011 to 2012, a total of 110 million yuan of special poverty alleviation funds was issued and 19.1147 million yuan of funds was integrated to support 69,000 poverty-stricken households, accounting for 43.7% of the poverty reduction objects, 1870 yuan per household. While providing household support, the autonomous region implemented demonstration projects for industrial poverty alleviation to guide contiguous development of poverty alleviation industries and select a number of model villages and households for industrial poverty alleviation every other year to receive per village project funds of 300,000 yuan and per household project funds of 2000 yuan every year. We’ve comprehensively started the construction of 115 model villages and 10,000 model households for industrial poverty alleviation.

Trainings and labor transfer for poor people: Ningxia strengthened sectoral collaboration, integrated training resources, increased trainings for grassroots leaders in poverty reduction. In 2012, we held trainings for 1765 village cadres, industrial leaders, village instructors for poverty alleviation and development and college student village cadres; vigorously implemented the medium- and long-term training and employment project for rural labors of poverty-stricken areas and held skills trainings for 15,000 people. In the pilot reform of Rain Plan implementation mode, we issued subsidies of 9.822 million yuan to 6548 poor students of secondary and senior vocational schools.

Counterpart support responsibilities for the relevant units: In 2012, a total of 1118 aiding units participated in Ningxia’s fixed-point poverty alleviation, 474 village working teams were set up, 674 working team members were sent to the poor villages. The aiding units held 164 training courses for 14791 cadres, technicians and labors, organized labor transfer for 12721 person-times and subsidized 2154 poor students. Meanwhile, 200 instructors were sent to guide the poverty alleviation and development in impoverished villages.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, the central fixed-point poverty alleviation units invested a total of 11.36 million yuan for poverty reduction. Among them, the former Ministry of Railways invested 5 million yuan to support the economic and social development in Yuanzhou District, China Construction Corp mobilized more than 100,000 staff members to donate 4.86 million yuan for the poverty alleviation in Yanchi County and Tongxin County and the Soong Ching Ling Foundation invested 1.5 million yuan for the poverty reduction in Pengyang County. With concern and support of LGOP, the former Ministry of Railways, the Soong Ching Ling Foundation, China National Nuclear Corporation, China Resources Group Ltd., China Commercial Aircraft Co., Ltd., China National Building Material Group Corp., China Aviation Oil Holding Company and Xiamen University were designated to provide counterpart support for Ningxia, achieving full coverage of the eight key counties for national poverty alleviation and development in Ningxia for the first time.

Ningxia’s regional aiding units (including Ningxia Military Region, Ningxia Armed Police Corps, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Fire Corps) put in relief funds of 38.686 million yuan in kind and cash and coordinated project funds of 67.3319 million yuan; the city aiding units put in relief funds of 3.2662 million yuan in kind and cash and coordinated project funds of 19.9652 million yuan; and the county aiding units invested relief funds of 21.5128 million yuan in kind and cash and coordinated project funds of 28.9764 million yuan.

In 2012, Ningxia began to send instructors to poor villages for poverty alleviation and development. It selected instructors from the old cadres and technology personnel of party and government organs at all levels and the relevant research institutes who are going to retire to help determine the dominant industry of poor villages, help introduce capital, technology, information and leading companies, assist in agricultural product marketing and circulation and help develop professional cooperative organizations. In 2012, Ningxia sent 200 instructors to the poor villages for poverty reduction in order to help the poor villages make clear the actual situation, find out the development path and formulate the planning, and help the poor households implement relevant projects, praised and welcomed by local cadres and the masses.

【Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation】Fujian province allocated 30 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to Ningxia, and the twinned cities, counties (districts) and all circles of society provided aid funds of 79 million yuan to support the implementation of ecological relocation, "Yellow River Charity Valley", competitive industries with local characteristics, juncao, education health care and cultural projects. The 16^th joint meeting on Fujian-Ningxia Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation was successfully held. During the meeting period, the introduction and marketing event on the trade and economic cooperation between Ningxia and Fujian (Fuzhou) and the project signing ceremony was convened. 53 projects were signed with a total investment of 32.615 billion yuan; the introduction and marketing event on the trade and economic cooperation in Guyuan City of Ningxia and the project signing ceremony was convened. 14 projects were signed with a total investment of 3.8 billion yuan.

【Pilot Projects of Village-level Mutual Funds】 In 2012, the mutual fund projects in impoverished villages witnessed steady development and standardized operation, involving 1098 project villages, accounting for 70.4% of the total poor villages in Ningxia, and the funds amounted to 472 million yuan. The projects were scattered in 145 towns and farms of 23 counties (cities, districts) in Ningxia, benefiting 130,000 households and 580,000 people. 60% of the poor villages participated in the mutual aid societies. In 2012, Ningxia Autonomous Region Office of Poverty Alleviation and Ningxia Yellow River Rural Commercial Bank launched the financial innovation-based poverty alleviation project of “Credit for One Thousand Villages • Mutual Funds”, covering 125 projects. 145.52 million yuan of credit loans was issued by financing institutions to 4845 members of the mutual aid societies, 30,000 yuan per households, effectively addressing the fund shortage of poor households for development.

【Fund Supervision】In 2012, Ningxia developed the "Measures for the Assessment of Poverty Alleviation and Development Work", the "Methods for Performance Evaluation of Financial Anti-poverty Funds", etc. According to the requirements for division of labor in the construction of the "punishment and prevention system" of Ningxia, under the leadership of the autonomous regional poverty alleviation office, Ningxia established the (joint) conference system for the supervision and coordination of poverty relief funds composed of the Autonomous Regional Department of Supervision, Development and Reform Commission, Financial Department, Audit Department, Ethnic Affairs Commission and Office for Rectifying, and set up h a sound system for fund supervision notification system and interview system to ensure the safe and efficient use of relief funds.

【Propaganda of Poverty Alleviation】In 2012, we compiled and published the "Xihaigu Declare War to Poverty" and "Key-problem Tackling for Poverty Reduction in Xihaigu", which systematically summarized the effectiveness and experience of Ningxia in the field of poverty alleviation and development; published the "Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xihaigu - Memorial Stamp Album of the 30th anniversary of ‘Three West’ Construction"; organized photographic activities and an essay contest on the "Three West" agricultural construction and the  30th anniversary of poverty alleviation and development in Ningxia; carried out academic research on poverty alleviation jointly with Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences; and created the drama of "Chronicle on the Migration of Goudi Village" jointly with Ningxia Department of Culture. In 2012, we more than 50 articles on poverty reduction in Ningxia printed in central and Ningxia’s main media.

      (Zhang Xiaolong, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Poverty Alleviation Office)

  

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

 

【Overview】In 2012, taking the three prefectures in south Xinjiang, border areas and impoverished mountain areas as the main battlefields for poverty reduction, Xinjiang completed the preparation of the overall planning of the "Program for Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region During the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period", the "Program for Poverty Alleviation and Development by Entire Village Advancement in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region During the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period", the "Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for Contiguous Poor Areas with Particular Difficulties in the Three Prefectures of south Xinjiang", the "Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Planning for Border Areas of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region", the "Poverty Alleviation and Development Planning for 299 Extremely Poor Mountain Villages in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region" and the "Poverty Alleviation Training Plan for Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region During the ‘12^th Five-Year Plan’ Period", and extended the coverage of poverty alleviation and development from 30 key counties to the contiguous poor areas and all key counties. In 2012, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region allocated financial anti-poverty funds of 2.153 billion yuan, up 26.6%; reduced poverty reduction objects by 76,500 households and 318,000 people, overfulfilling the poverty reduction plan by 6%. According to the new standard of "nine accesses, nine possessions and nine capabilities" for entire village advancement, 450 impoverished villages implemented the entire village advancement project, overfulfilling the year-beginning plan by 21%; 217,700 people received various types of poverty alleviation trainings, 6.2% beyond the plan; 35 key counties (cities) in the autonomous region made a breakthrough in increasing the income of farmers and herdsmen and recorded a rural per capita net income of 4893 yuan in 2012, exceeding the income growth target of 600 yuan set by the autonomous regional government, 805 yuan more than that of 2011, up 19.7%. In 2012, the rural per capita net income in the three prefectures of Southern Xinjiang reached 4571 yuan, with an increase of 725 over 2011, up 18.9%; the GDP and local general budget revenue respectively amounted to 88.101 billion yuan and 7.69 billion yuan, up 19.5% and 23.3%. Impoverished regions witnessed sustained economic and social development, the infrastructure was further improved, and the public service conditions and living standards were significantly enhanced.

【Investment of Anti-poverty Funds】In 2012, actually 2.35546 billion yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued, of which: 1.92546 billion yuan was from the central government (including 1.2969 billion yuan of production funds, 221 million yuan of work-for-relief funds and 407.56 million yuan of minority development funds, respectively up 29.7%, 15.1% and 48.7%,) and 430 million yuan was matching funds of the autonomous region, with an increase of 132 million yuan, up 44%. Among the 1.2969 billion yuan of production funds provided by the central government, 856.64 million yuan was used for contiguous poor areas, 183.9 million yuan was used for the key counties outside the contiguous poor areas and 1.2969 billion yuan was used for impoverished villages.

【Poverty Alleviation Projects】In 2012, Xinjiang launched 2423 financial anti-poverty funds, including 450 conventional projects, 136 pilot poverty alleviation projects in border areas, 814 mountain village projects, 345 training projects, 65 pilot projects of contiguous development, 55 housing projects to enrich people, 52 household poverty relief loan projects, four Rain Plan projects, 15 projects of poverty alleviation by science and technology, 15 projects of replacing compensation by reward, 25 pilot mutual funds projects and 447 newly increased capital projects. The government provided subsidies for the construction of safe housing projects for 22,631 poor households, the development of yard economy for 21,754 poor households, the construction of livestock pens for 26,773 poor households, the livestock breeding of 38,034 impoverished households, the poultry breeding of 20,752 impoverished households and the development of forest and fruit industry of 31,472 poor households, and held trainings for 210,000 person-times.

【Anti-poverty Discount Loans】In 2012, 5.5225 billion yuan of anti-poverty discount loans was issued, of which 998.5 million yuan was issued to specific households, and 2.524 billion yuan issued by poverty alleviation leading enterprises through various kinds of financial agencies. The projects of poverty alleviation leading enterprises covered 4,824 villages (including 1761 key villages) and 625,700 households, of which 228,200 were poverty-stricken households. 48,000 farmers were arranged jobs, including 28,700 poor people.

【Village-level Investment in Poor Areas】In 2012, a total of 11.19 billion yuan of village-level investment was provided for 35 key counties (cities) for poverty alleviation, 2.279 billion yuan more than that of 2011, up 52%, of which 1.165 billion yuan was financial anti-poverty funds, up 31%; 253 million yuan was social poverty alleviation funds, at the same level of 2011; 4.951 billion yuan was integrated funds of industrial sectors, with an increase of 2.248 billion yuan, up 83%, and 3.229 billion yuan was aid funds for Xinjiang, with an increase of 687 million yuan, up 27%.

【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2012, Xinjiang implemented the entire village advancement projects in 552 poor villages, including 280 covered by the national entire village advancement program. A total of 2.33,082 billion yuan was invested in the poor villages covered by the entire village advancement program, 4.22 million yuan per village; including 1.22214 billion yuan for the 280 poor villages covered by the national entire village advancement program, 4.36 million yuan per village. Through poverty alleviation by entire village advancement, the level of income, capabilities and quality of life of the poor were significantly enhanced.

【Industrial Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, taking the development of modern agriculture and animal husbandry industry as a breakthrough for industrial poverty alleviation, based on the construction of featured industry bases, Xinjiang adjusted the farming structure, supported the growth of leading enterprises, cultivated cooperative organizations, introduced more new species and technologies, actively promoted industrial poverty alleviation and achieved substantial results. First, a growing role of poverty alleviation leading enterprises in helping farmers increase income. Through procurement of raw materials and the mode of company + rural household, leading enterprises actively promoted the industrial development in poor areas and the income growth of farmers. 76 poverty alleviation leading enterprises obtained anti-poverty discount loans of 2.7 billion yuan and poverty-relief loan interest subsidy of 36.66 million yuan from the Agricultural Bank of China, urban credit cooperatives and other financial institutions. With the support of financial anti-poverty loan interest subsidy policy, the enterprises witnessed rapid growth and promoted the development of the poor living in surrounding areas. Second, the industry development pattern of key villages was initially formed. The industrial projects in poor areas covered 2534 key villages and helped 235,600 poor households increase income. In accordance with the guiding ideology of "adjusting structure to increase income, highlighting characteristics to hold the market and increasing efficiency relying on science and technology", the autonomous region vigorously adjusted the industrial structure of agriculture, developed featured agriculture with competitiveness in local market and promoted the transformation of traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. Third, strengthen the construction of agricultural bases. The autonomous regions built bases for leading enterprises to highlight local characteristics and promote contiguous development, and closely combined the construction of bases and the formation of leading industries with the development of leading enterprises so make the construction of industrial bases develop towards socialization and standardization.

【Rain Plan】In 2012, Xinjiang invested 50 million yuan of financial funds for poverty alleviation trainings, with an increase of 10 million Yuan over 2011, up 25%, and organized trainings of cadres and poor farmers and herdsmen for 21,700 person-times, completing 105.9% of the annual training plan, including agricultural practical technical trainings for 159,000 person-times, employment transfer trainings for 48,000 people, poverty alleviation cadres training for 3,415 people. It launched the pilot reform of the Rain Plan implementation mode in four counties to subsidized 5460 junior and senior middle school graduates from needy families. In 2012, 4.45 million yuan of subsidies was issued to the students, Xinjiang subsidized 1000 junior and senior middle school graduates from needy families to receive a three-year academic education in the transfer training bases of 7 poor areas. The autonomous regional government implemented seven training programs, including trainings of grassroots cadres of poor regions, trainings of village cadres of impoverished villages, trainings of leaders in becoming rich of poor villages, labor transfer and employment training and the skills training for women labor transfer of poor families, held 34 trainings on policy implementation, and issued 12 million yuan for the training program, covering 3,298 people.

【Social Poverty Alleviation】 In 2012, a total of 8253 units of the central, regional, prefecture and county (city) governments were involved in the fixed-point poverty alleviation in Xinjiang, of which: 7 were central units, 285 were regional units, 1472 were prefectural units and 6489 were county (city)-level units. A total of 10,698 poverty relief cadres were sent to the poor villages, 67,434 people carried out field research and a total of 937 million yuan of anti-poverty funds was issued in kind and cash, including 263 million Yuan in cash, 86 million yuan in kind, 573 million yuan of invited funds and 15.19 million yuan of development funds for village-level collective economy. It invited 772 poverty relief projects, 22 enterprises and 54 talents for the region, subsidized 20,122 poor students, built 20,416 houses, 203 village-level offices, 144 science and technology culture chambers, 63 village clinics and 165 schools, and held 2,991 trainings for 356,028 people.

【Pilot Poverty Alleviation Projects in Border Areas】In 2012, the central government and Xinjiang allocated 170 million yuan of pilot project funds for poverty reduction in border areas and arranged 136 projects, including 63 livestock breeding projects, 21 agricultural projects, four water conservancy projects, two family handwork projects, one traffic project and 45 housing and other projects. The projects covered 125 border impoverished villages, including 55 poor villages covered by the entire village advancement in 2012 and 70 poor villages covered by the consolidation of entire village advancement projects, directly benefiting 19,500 impoverished households and 82,000 people in border areas and indirectly benefiting 31,000 poor households and 131,000 people. In 2012, 7.55 billion yuan of other funds was integrated for the pilot project of poverty reduction in border areas, of which 610 million yuan was special poverty relief funds, 4.71 billion yuan was industrial poverty alleviation funds, 130 million yuan was social poverty alleviation funds and 2.1 billion yuan was aid funds for Xinjiang, the amplification coefficient (total capital/pilot project funds) of the relief funds for border areas was 44.4 and the amplification effect was significant. With the implementation and completion of various kinds of capital projects, the poverty alleviation process in border areas of Xinjiang was accelerated, 17 key counties (cities) in the border areas witnessed rapid economic growth, the livelihood of border residents was significantly improved the degree of poverty was obviously alleviated.

【Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas】 The three prefectures in South Xinjiang are among the 14 contiguous poor areas and the key areas for national poverty alleviation in the new stage. In 2012, Xinjiang comprehensively started the preparation of the regional development and poverty alleviation planning for the contiguous poor areas in the three prefectures in South Xinjiang as well as the formulation of the implementation plans, including the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for the Contiguous Poor Areas of Three Prefectures in Southern Xinjiang” and the “Implementation Plan of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for the Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation in the Contiguous Poor Areas of Three Prefectures in Southern Xinjiang”, forming the basic idea of “promoting poverty alleviation and development by regional development, and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation and development” and the guideline of “regional promotion, industry support, basis strengthening, openness and innovation”. In 2012, 1020 poverty relief projects were implemented in the three prefectures of Southern Xinjiang with an investment of 807.65 million yuan, and Xinjiang completed the poverty alleviation task on schedule.

【Poverty Alleviation in Extremely Poor Villages of Mountain Areas】2012 is the second year for key-problem tackling in the poverty reduction of 299 poverty-stricken villages in mountain areas of Xinjiang. In this year, Xinjiang completed the preparation of “Poverty Alleviation Planning for Impoverished Villages in Mountain Areas (2011-2020)”, issued the “Guidance on Poverty Alleviation in 299 Impoverished Villages of Mountain Areas”, started the monitoring of poor villages in mountain areas and established the monitoring and evaluation system for poverty alleviation in mountain areas. In the whole year, Xinjiang issued 299 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to support the implementation of 814 poverty relief projects in the impoverished villages of mountain areas. In 2012, a total of financial relief funds of 299 million yuan was allocated, of which 16.45 million yuan was issued to support planting projects, accounting for 6%; 47.77 million yuan for pen building, accounting for 16%; 4.08 million yuan for poultry house building, accounting for 1%; 3.07 million yuan for poultry breeding, accounting for 1%; 64.84 million yuan for livestock breeding, accounting for 22%; and 9.7 million yuan was for grassland construction, 22.37 million yuan for anti-seepage canal building, 4.62 million yuan for water-saving irrigation, 12.44 million yuan for land consolidation, 61.13 million yuan for house building, 26.64 million yuan for yard economy, and 25.89 million yuan for other projects, respectively accounting for 3%, 7%, 2%, 4%, 20%, 9% and 9% of the total. To provide comfortable houses for people, improve people’s livelihoods and steadily shake off poverty by focusing on animal husbandry for sustainable development, various regions actively explored the mechanism and path for the poverty reduction in mountain areas, increased investment to strengthen industrial support, accelerated infrastructure construction and attached importance to the benign ecological development to vigorously promote the poverty alleviation in mountain areas.

【Poverty Alleviation by Relocation】 In 2012, Xinjiang allocated 211 million yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for ex-situ anti-poverty relocation, of which 61.75 million yuan was from the central government and 149 million yuan was integrated department funds, covering 1109 households and 4547 people. In 2012, a total of 456 million yuan was invested in the poverty-relief relocation of Xinjiang, 5397 houses of 386,100 square meters were built for the immigrants, 71.55 square meters per house, covering 5400 households and 22,500 people. The centralized relocation covered 3,300 households and 13,700 people, scattered relocation covered 1,600 households and 7,400 people, and other kinds of relocation covered 400 households and 1,400 people. 35 key counties (cities) for poverty alleviation invested 211 million yuan of funds for the ex-situ relocation program and built 2076 houses of 168400 square meters for the immigrants, 81.1 square meters per house, covering 2100 households and 7900 people. The centralized relocation covered 1800 households and 6800 people while other kinds of relocation covered 300 households and 1100 people.

In 2012, we newly reclaimed farmland of 83,000 mu in the migration zones, transformed middle- and low-yield farmland of 61,500 mu, planted grass of 223,500 mu by simulated aerial seeding, built forest area of 53,000 mu, solved the local schooling problem of the children from 865 households and solved the medical service problem of 745 households. As a result, 1109 relocated households can participate in scientific and cultural events, 985 households have production projects for stable income sources and 1109 households have got affordable housing. The water problem of 998 households and the electricity problem of 1102 households were addressed, and the infrastructures such as underground way and water conservancy facilities have been improved.

【Pilot Projects of Mutual Funds】In 2012, when the central government did not allocate any pilot mutual funds, Xinjiang issued 10 million yuan of matching funds to carry out pilot work of mutual funds in 67 impoverished villages and set up 67 mutual aid societies. The central government gave it a reward of 3 million yuan for Xinjiang to carry out pilot work of mutual funds in 20 poor villages. At present, the pilot mutual funds projects have covered a total of 500 poor villages in Xinjiang. With the deepening of the pilot work of mutual funds, its effect of "being owned, used, managed and enjoyed by the people" became prominent and the project was welcomed by the poor. Loans have been issued for 116988 person-times, including 103813 person-times for the poor, accounting for 88.74% of the total. A total of 265.8 million yuan of loans was issued, of which 231.84 million yuan was issued to the poor, and the repayment rate reached 100%.

【Effective Convergence of Two Systems】In 2012, to "consolidate the results, expand the scope and extend the coverage of poverty reduction and honor the policy", Xinjiang included poverty alleviation statistics monitoring into the overall layout for the effective convergence of “two systems”. Taking the information system of poor rural households as a basic platform, we collected the relevant data and standardized the business, established and improved the management mechanism to improve the quality of information and serve the main work and the business so as to combine and promote the effective convergence of “two systems” and poverty statistics monitoring. In mid-May, in the cross-check organized by LGOP, Xinjiang won the annual Grand Prize for its outstanding performance in poverty alleviation monitoring for the contiguous poor counties and key counties.

(Ning Gang, Poverty Alleviation t Office of Xinjiang Urgur Autonomous Region)

 

Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

 

【Overview】 In 2012, according to the requirements of LGOP, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps continued to promote its poverty alleviation and development work. In the whole year, it increased poverty relief and development funds of 45 million yuan to support the construction of impoverished regimental farms of No.3 and No.14 Division of the Corps in the contiguous poor areas of three prefectures in Southern Xinjiang. The Corps Development and Reform Commission provided a one-time subsidy of 400,000 yuan for 30 impoverished minority farms in the Corps and held trainings for the women of the minority farms, giving priority to the farms in 8 minority areas.

【Conference on Poverty Alleviation and Development】 In March, the Party Committee of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps held the work conference on agricultural modernization and anti-poverty work and proposed to speed up the poverty alleviation in the contiguous poor farms of the three prefectures in Southern Xinjiang, actively accelerate project construction to enrich the people and vitalize border areas by talents, strengthen the poverty alleviation and development in minority farms and make constant innovations to and improve the working mechanism for poverty alleviation and development.

【Implementation Measures for the New Outline】 Issued the “Measures of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps for the Implementation of the ‘Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’”, determined the poverty line of 3500 yuan of rural per capita net income for the Corps in the period from 2011 to 2015, took the Corps’ farms in the three prefectures of Southern Xinjiang, the farms on frontline of the border areas and the farmers concentrated with minority people as the main battlefield for poverty alleviation and development of the Corps, put forward to achieve a rural per capita net income of 14500 yuan in the impoverished farms, lift over 60% of the impoverished farms out of poverty, help all the poor farms shake off poverty by 2020; implement dynamic management on the poor farms and classified the poor farms into three types for key support so as to achieve poverty reduction by stage; implemented the “quaternity” grand pattern of poverty alleviation, integrating special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation, social poverty alleviation and pairing-off poverty alleviation for Xinjiang; strengthened the mechanism, system and function construction for poverty alleviation and development, and intensified the poverty alleviation publicity and statistics monitoring work.

【Special Poverty Alleviation】 The State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development assigned the special poverty alleviation fund plan to the Corps for the first time. The newly increased development funds of 45 million yuan was mainly used as subsidies for the construction of the impoverished regimental farms of No.3 and No.14 Division of the Corps in the contiguous poor areas of three prefectures in Southern Xinjiang.

【Training of Minority Women】 The Corps Development and Reform Commission and the Corps Women’s Federation held trainings of women in the regimental farms concentrated with minority people. The Corps Development and Reform Commission provided a one-time subsidy of 400,000 yuan for 30 impoverished minority farms in the Corps, giving priority to the farms in 8 minority areas.

【Poverty Alleviation Planning】Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Development and Reform Commission (Poverty Alleviation Office) formulated the “Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation Planning for the Corps’ Contiguous Poor Areas in the Three Prefectures of Southern Xinjiang (2011-2020)”, which was divided into five chapters, respectively on the development foundation and environment, the guiding ideology, basic principles and development goals, key tasks, key project investment estimate and financing, as well as policy support and protection. According to the basic idea of "promoting poverty alleviation and development by regional development, and accelerating regional development by poverty alleviation and development", the planning is an important basis for guiding the poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas and arranging national and corps investment.

(Li Xincheng, Poverty Alleviation Office of

Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Development and Reform Commission)