Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hebei Province

　　【Overview】  Hebei provincial party committee and government attach great importance to poverty alleviation in rural areas and always take it as a strategy for enriching people and developing the province to promote poverty alleviation and development and accelerate the development of poverty-stricken areas, especially in the new century, Hebei Province has conscientiously implemented the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas", further strengthened poverty alleviation and development, implemented entire village advancement projects, "cell projects for poverty alleviation and development", labor transfer trainings and relocation-based poverty reduction projects and achieved good results. Some experiences of Hebei Province in the field of poverty alleviation and development, such as the introduction of the "Opinions on Increasing Support for Key Counties (Districts) for Poverty Alleviation and Development", the implementation of "two turnaround", "four to help one" and "cell projects for poverty alleviation and development", the establishment of "two organizations" and loan problem addressing for the poor, were affirmed by central committee leaders, relevant departments and media.

　　Hebei has 40 key countries (districts) for national poverty alleviation and development and 12 poor counties designated by the provincial government. Based on the national poverty line, in 2001, Hebei Province had a poor population of 3.27 million without adequate food and clothing and a low-income population of 2.43 million who had almost adequate food and clothing but would easily fall back into poverty, 5.7 million in total. Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Baoding City had 25 key counties for poverty alleviation and development, 2804 poverty-stricken villages and 1.54 million poor people, respectively accounting for 48.1%, 39.5% and 41.6% of the total in the province. Since 2002, the central government and Hebei province have invested a total of 3.72 billion Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to support 7,102 poverty-stricken villages in batches. By the end of 2010, Hebei Province had almost completed the task of poverty alleviation by entire village advancement and the number of poor people had been reduced to 3.7 million or so.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】　In 2010, a total of financial anti-poverty funds of 612.52 million Yuan were invested in the province, including 487.52 million Yuan from the central government, 230 million Yuan from central and provincial supporting enterprises and 1.25 billion Yuan of bank loans. In 2010, it provided assistance for 65,000 poor households, solved the drinking water problem of 410,000 people and 300,000 head of livestock, newly build basic farmland of 40,000 ha and built highroads of 610 kilometers. It lifted 200,000 people out of poverty and further promoted the economic and social development in poverty-stricken areas.

　　【Entire village advancement】　According to the requirements of “12 possessions”, the government conducted inspection and analysis on the third batch of 2155 key villages in Hebei Province and, under the principle of "filling up the gaps", it coordinated and urged the key counties to strengthen the integration of agriculture-related funds, poverty alleviation resources of various sectors and social forces for poverty reduction and accelerate project construction, which greatly promoted the entire village advancement of the third batch of key villages. According to statistics, governments at all levels all increased investment in the third batch of key villages, especially for 1242 "three guarantees" villages identified by the state, the average investment reached 1 million Yuan for each village (including more than 500,000 Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds). Through effective support, the industrial projects, infrastructure and public welfare projects all reached the required standards and Hebei has basically completed the task of entire village advancement.

　　【Relocation-based poverty alleviation】 In 2010, with financial anti-poverty funds of 31.42 million Yuan, Hebei Province completed the relocation of 130 poor villages, 2120 poor households and 6789 people, constructed a number of high-standard immigrant communities and promoted the whole relocation of poverty-stricken villages under harsh living conditions.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】With training funds of 38.46 million Yuan, Hebei Province implemented the project of "trainings and employments for 10,000 people and lifting 10,000 households out of poverty", organized trainings for 11,000 people, involving computers, clothing, electric welding, animation design, electrical work, electronics, housekeeping, etc, and held 904 practical agricultural technical trainings for 136,000 person-times.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 Hebei continued to carry out the activity of "Implementation of Cell Projects and Construction of 'Ten Possession' Families" and invested anti-poverty funds of 235 million Yuan to support 65,000 poor demonstration households to develop income-growth projects focusing on facility vegetable planting, facility breeding and effective forest and fruit business. As a result, the farmers raised a total of 22 million chickens, 410,000 ducks, 41,000 pigs and 8,100 cows, built 6,100 edible mushroom sheds and 11,000 greenhouses, and planted walnut trees of 22,000 mu and miscellaneous grains of 150,000 mu. The government issued matching funds of 87.33 million Yuan for pilot areas, built highroads of 610 kilometers, dug and maintained 171 wells and built 500 small cellars, barrages of 28,000 meters and anti-seepage channels of 187,000 meters. It continued to strengthen the contiguous poverty alleviation and development and arranged 40 million Yuan or so in 2010 to conduct pilot projects of contiguous development and large-scale development in ten counties (including four national pilot projects). It invested 25 million Yuan of central lottery public welfare funds for the implementation of pilot projects in poor old revolutionary base areas of Dongguan and Chicheng County. The provincial poverty alleviation office identified three demonstration counties for poverty alleviation by industrialization, namely Pingquan, Raoyang and Wuqiang, and identified 16 industrial cluster areas such as Shangyi County for poverty alleviation by vegetable growing. To promote the development of vegetable industry in poverty-stricken areas, on December 16, 2010, it held in Hengshui the Symposium on Cooperation in Vegetable Production and Marketing in Poor Areas of Hebei Province. Principals of relevant departments, leading enterprises for vegetable planting and professional vegetable planting cooperatives of large-sized key counties engaged in vegetable planting of Hebei Province attended the event, and a pro-poor "vegetable network" was established to further promoted the contiguous development of vegetable industry in poor areas. Relying on poverty alleviation leading enterprises, it established professional cooperatives and the pattern of "enterprise + professional cooperatives + bases + poor households" for poverty alleviation by industrialization, and the 100-li greenhouse vegetable gallery in Cangzhou District of Hengshui, the Taihang Mountains’ high-quality walnut industry zone and the edible mushroom industry cluster in Chengde City began to take shape. So far, Hebei has initially founded Raoyang, Fucheng, Xian County, Chongli and other vegetable planting counties, Zanhuang, Pingshan, Lincheng and other walnut tree planting counties, Pingquan, Weichang and other edible mushroom planting counties, Luanping, Chengde County, Mengcun, Wuqiang, Wuyi and other meat chicken and duck breeding counties as well.

　　【Use of anti-poverty funds】　Pilot areas of village-level mutual funds have been expanded. In 2010, it had 308 additional pilot projects of mutual funds and a total of 1045 villages covered by the pilot projects. While expanding the scale of pilot areas, Hebei strengthened training of principals of county/city poverty alleviation offices and conducted pilot project rating and professional personnel contact and supervision system to promote the standardized operation of the pilot projects of mutual funds. It held in Julu County an on-the-spot meeting to summarize and publicize Julu’s experience in leading the masses to found self-discipline organizations and the organizations of volunteers for anti-poverty credit guarantee to help people obtain loans, selected some counties for the implementation of pilot projects and achieved initial results in addressing the difficulties of the masses in getting loans. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu twice affirmed this practice. While making equitable distribution of anti-poverty funds, the innovative mechanism for allocation of funds actively introduced the system of substituting subsidies with rewards and strengthened the practice of substituting subsidies with rewards. In accordance with the requirements of LGOP on announcement of anti-poverty funds for villages and households, Hebei established the system of "household project fund registration card" in 52 key counties, and the counties made records of all the anti-poverty funds for households and received the supervision of the poor and all circles of society.

　　【Convergence of two systems】  In order to accurately identify the rural poor, in name of the provincial leading group for poverty alleviation and development, it issued the "Notice on Earnestly Implementing the Spirit of〔2010〕No. 2 Document of the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development". For the objects of poverty alleviation with the ability to work (including those receiving minimum living allowances with the ability to work), it provided project support to enhance their self-development capacity and lift them out of poverty; for the poor who have no or lost the ability to work, the government guaranteed their basic living through providing minimum living allowances. Meanwhile, to effectively link the “two systems", the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, Provincial Civil Affairs Department, Department of Finance, Provincial Bureau of Statistics and Provincial Federation of the Disabled Persons jointly developed the implementation opinions and program for the expansion of pilot projects and issued the document in name of the General Office of the Provincial Government. The pilot projects for expansion of the effective convergence of "two systems" were then launched in 52 key counties of Hebei Province and the government issued projects funds for some pilot areas in the involved cities and counties. Through the implementation of pilot projects, it identified the poor and made records one by one to provide a reference for the dynamic monitoring of the poor.

　　【Entire village advancement and contiguous development】    It continued to expand pilot area of contiguous development. The number of pilot counties for the projects "with county as the unit through integration of resources, entire village advancement and contiguous development" in Hebei rose from 8 to 10. Through open competition, Luanping, Pingshan, Julu and Qinglong were identified as national pilot counties for contiguous development; Fucheng, Chongli, Wei County, Yanshan, Shunping and Huaian were identified as provincial pilot counties for contiguous development. Among them, Fucheng and Chongli were A Grade pilot counties, for each of which the government issued anti-poverty funds of 4 million Yuan; and other four counties were B Grade pilot counties, for each of which the government issued anti-poverty funds of 3 million Yuan. (The project implementation period for the four national pilot counties is three years and the funds shall be issued in three years: 5 million Yuan for the first year, 5 million Yuan for the second year and 2 million Yuan for the third year based on performance evaluation).

　　【Microfinance projects of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation】　The provincial poverty alleviation office, key counties for poverty alleviation and development and China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) jointly set up farmers’ self-service agency to promote the micro-credit projects in the key counties. As of the end of December 2010, a total of 94.83 million Yuan had been issued to five pilot counties to support 18,700 poor rural households, and 100% of the loans were repaid. It achieved the sustainable development of operating agencies and effectively alleviated the difficulties of poor households in applying for loans.

　　【Poverty alleviation project management】Hebei strengthened the implementation management of poverty alleviation projects. First, combine household projects with the appropriate scale and contiguous development. Organize and guide the masses to build, relying on poverty alleviation leading enterprises, professional poverty alleviation cooperatives, develop planting and breeding communities, improve the promotion rate of poverty alleviation leading enterprises, expand the coverage of cooperatives, enhance the outputs of professional communities and explore the development mode integrating household projects and standardized large-scale production. Secondly, reform the register system for poverty alleviation projects. Relevant person of the provincial poverty alleviation office is responsible for contacting the subcontracting cities and counties, giving instructions in formulating project plans, submitting the registered projects reported by various cities to the project registration evaluation team for review timely and reporting the feedback after the review comments are made. It has greatly improved the effectiveness of registration of poverty alleviation projects. Thirdly, provide open convenience for poverty alleviation projects. As for the village-level financial anti-poverty fund project implementation plan registered in the provincial government, the city poverty alleviation offices notify the key villages for poverty alleviation and development in various forms the project content, amount of funds and beneficiaries, and the village-level poverty alleviation project supervision teams will conduct supervisions on this basis. It expanded people's right to information and supervision and helped deliver anti-poverty funds to villages and households. Fourthly, establish the system for "registration cards of household project funds". Registration cards are made for all the poor receiving anti-poverty funds, printed by the city poverty alleviation offices with unified style and county-based unified codes, and kept by poor households. Villages’ "two committee" cadres make records of the anti-poverty funds for each household and accept public supervision to ensure fair, equitable, open and standardized use of funds and project arrangements and really benefit the poor. LGOP Director-General Fan Xiaojian fully affirmed the practice.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】　The province continued to implement the poverty alleviation projects through "four helping one" and urged the helping units to increase efforts and accelerate the project construction to lift the poor villages out of poverty as scheduled. The meeting for heads of "four helping one" team was held in different regions to give instructions on the poverty reduction through "four helping one". It continued to practice the reward and punishment mechanism for poverty alleviation and included the effectiveness of "helping the poor" in the annual assessment of construction of spiritual civilization of the helping units as important part of the content. Irresponsible helping units that are not active in poverty alleviation or do not have significant effect are not suggested to be titled as civilized units. Meanwhile, the province further coordinated the central organs and issued the "Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Services for Fixed-point Poverty Reduction of Central State Organs, Democratic Parties, NGOs, Large Enterprises and Armies in Hebei" to further mobilize the enthusiasm of helping units of the central government; relying on the "Glorious Cause activities" organized by the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, it actively coordinated private enterprises to participate in poverty alleviation and development, which enriched the content of "helping the poor" and created a good atmosphere for the whole society to participate in poverty alleviation. In 2010, the units involved in "four helping one" invested a total of 120 million of anti-poverty funds to support the construction of 421 poverty reduction projects and the central organs invested and raised anti-poverty funds of 110 million Yuan to effectively improve the infrastructure in poor villages and the production and living conditions of poor people, and promoted the rapid economic and social development of poverty-stricken areas.

　　【Pro-poor measures】 First, the party committee and government attach importance to it and the leadership is strong. Provincial government leaders and department leaders went to the poor areas for survey many times to address the difficult problems. They have successively held the provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development, work conference of the leading group for poverty alleviation and development and provincial poverty alleviation and development forum to make arrangements for the poverty alleviation and development, which has further strengthened the organization and leadership of poverty alleviation work. Secondly, improve the system to enhance the construction ability. Based on the excelling in performance and the work-style construction activity of provincial party committee leaders, he provincial poverty alleviation office formulated the “Opinions on further Standardizing Meetings, Grassroots Survey and Research, Inspection and Training”, improved organ finance, official vehicles, veteran work system and reception system to further standardize the government offices administration; carried out the activity of cadres’ work style construction year, further improved the long-term work mechanism and further strengthened team building. Thirdly, start poverty alleviation work of the new decade and increase efforts on poverty reduction advocacy. It determined the poverty line of Hebei Province. Approved by the provincial party committee and government, the poverty line was set as 1500 Yuan. Approved by the provincial leaders, the "Notice on Conscientiously Meeting the Requirements of Advance Planning and Construction of Poverty Alleviation and Development Projects in Some Villages" was formulated and the counties and cities made propaganda in advance, identified the objects of poverty reduction and developed poverty alleviation projects. 2200 key villages were identified this time for poverty alleviation in Hebei, covering about 300,000 households. On November 26, 2010, the provincial poverty alleviation office held in Chongli County of Zhangjiakou the on-the-spot work conference on the poverty alleviation and development of the first batch of key villages in the new decade, marking the beginning of the poverty alleviation and development work in the new decade. To develop the planning for poverty alleviation in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the government organized relevant cities, counties and departments to carry out poverty reduction survey and completed the drafting work of the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of Rural Areas in Hebei Province (2011-2020)" (draft) and the planning for poverty reduction relocation in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. Meanwhile, it strengthened the poverty alleviation and development advocacy. Based on the practice of the scientific concept of development and the Activity of Excelling in Performance, the poverty alleviation achievement publicity at the 60th anniversary, “cell project for poverty alleviation and development” and the construction of industrial zones, “four helping one” and poverty alleviation by organs directly under the CPC Central Committee, Hebei has had a series of influential reports printed in national and provincial media, which has aroused the concern from the whole society and expanded the influence of Hebei’s poverty alleviation and development work.