1. The Earth Station Project of the Ministry of Environmental Protectionrestarted and large amounts of clothes were sent to poor areas. On April 22nd, theEarth Day, Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection launched the “2014 Social
Entrepreneur Project of the Earth Station” in Beijing. In 2013, 610,000 pieces ofdonated clothes were received by the project, among which 560 thousands of pieces were donated and 20 thousands of pieces were sold at charity sales to the poor people in six provinces like Sichuan, Gansu, Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan.
Source: China News 22-04-2014
2. New exploration on poverty alleviation methods in Chongqing: to “allot shares to specific poor households” and to “take targeted measures in poverty alleviation”. The poor households which have gotten rid of poverty through agricultural industrialization projects should transfer their shares to other poverty-stricken families in order to make all the poor people enjoy the benefit. The evaluation standard for poor households should be open and transparent. The standard performs dynamic management and supervision of the information of those households, which means when they overcome poverty in the following year, they will be ruled out of the poor household information system.
Source: Xinhuanet 22-04-2014
3. In 2013, the average poverty reduction rate is 17.9% in the five ethnic minority autonomous regions and three ethnic areas in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Qinghai, above average in China. According to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the poor population in rural areas of those regions decreased by 5.59 million from 25.62 million in 2013, and the poverty reduction rate is 17.9%, faster than that of the national level of 16.7% over the same period.
Source: Xinhuanet 21-04-2014
4. Shanxi Province will issue 100 million yuan of privately raised bonds to reduce poverty through industrial development. This is the first private bonds issued by Shuanghecheng Food Co., Ltd who takes part in the Bai Qi Qian Cun (meaning hundreds of enterprises and thousands of villages) Poverty Alleviation Project Through Industrial Development. The bond maturity is 24 months with a coupon rate of 7.5%, and it is planned to raise fund of about 100 million yuan.
Source: Xinhuanet 21-04-2014
5. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region invests 300 million yuan to alleviate poverty in 50 especially poor mountain villages. It will pool the poverty reduction funds and allocate them to 299 poor mountain villages in 6 batches so as to speed up and strengthen the poverty alleviation program. So far, Xinjiang has established an integrated poverty reduction pattern where special funds for poverty alleviation, social programs, support from industrial projects and aid especially dedicated to Xinjiang Province are involved.
Source: Xinhuanet 21-04-2014
6. Approved by the State Council, the Liupanshan Road Project for Poverty Alleviation was included on the 2014-2016 ABD Loan Alternative List. It is estimated that the total investment of the project amounts to 866 million yuan approximately. The project applies for 100 million dollars of ADB loan (about 606 million RMB), which equals 70% of the total investment.
Source: Sina News 23-04-2014
7. Twelve counties in Hunan Province carry out microcredit, aiming to help poor people in rural areas. China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA for short) signed a contract with Hunan Poverty Relief Office and other related cities
to carry out the CFPA Microfinance Project to reduce poverty in the 12 counties/cities. The primary input for each county is 30 million yuan, among which 20 million loan principal is collected by CFPA, the rest 10 million being raised by Hunan Poverty Relief Office and related counties.
Source: Hunan Daily 21-04-2014
8. Gansu Province reforms the appraisal mechanism of impoverished counties, shifting the assessment focus from GDP growth to poverty alleviation. The main indicators are improving the living standard of poor households and reducing the number of people living in poverty. Moreover, the fruit of poverty alleviation will be important basis for cadre selection and appointment.
Source: Lanzhou Evening 21-04-2014
Organizer: Beijing Normal University China Poverty Reduction Research Center