Poverty Alleviation and Development in Sichuan Province

　　【Overview】 2010 is the last year for the implementation of the national and provincial "11th Five-Year Plan" and the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of Rural Areas in Shandong Province (2001-2010)" and is the year of decisive battle for completing the "three-year task" within two years in the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction. In 2010, 2.009 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds were issued and 984 pilot villages for poverty reduction were increased. The government supported 814,100 poor people, improved the production and living conditions, trained and transferred 60,900 labors of poverty-stricken areas, covered 2.06 million poor households in industrial poverty reduction and overfulfiled the annual task.

　　Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Government decided, from 2010 onwards, to spend three years carrying out “Guabaobang” activity in the province mainly for key counties for national poverty alleviation and development and earthquake-hit rural areas. Relevant department or unit and relevant cadre and people will be designated to support each of the impoverished and disaster-hit villages. Since the implementation of the activity, the provincial government leaders set a good example, more than 6,500 leaders at all levels were involved in and 12,800 cadres were dispatched to support 16,900 villages and help 178,100 poor families. In 2010, the province newly built and repaired village roads of 27,800 kilometers, 194,300 rural houses, 476,800 biogas digesters, 4,029 hospitals and primary schools of 1.58 million square meters, which greatly improved the production and living conditions of the masses.

　　【Poverty relief projects in new villages】 The province actively promoted participatory poverty alleviation, increased resource integration efforts, gave priority to the new villages involved in entire village advancement that year in the allocation of anti-poverty funds for industrial, labor service, village road and biogas digester projects and other agriculture-related funds, and increased investment for the villages. Meanwhile, it increased 984 new villages for poverty reduction, 105.69% of the scheduled task, basically launched and implemented poverty relief projects in the villages and achieved good results in 2010. Nanchong, Bazhong, Liangshan and Luzhou vigorously promoted the poverty reduction in the villages, improved the construction standard and achieved good results.

　　【Anti-poverty project by labor input】 In 2010, the government invested a total of 53.45 million Yuan and, relying on more than 80 vocational schools, strengthened trainings for poverty reduction by labor input to promote the transfer of employment of poor labors. In the whole year, it organized trainings for 60,900 labors, completing 101.50% of the scheduled task. Mianyang City, through intellectual poverty reduction and skills trainings, transferred 3285 labors, completing 105% of the scheduled task. Dazhou and Yibin also completed the annual labor transfer task ahead of time.

　　【Industrial poverty alleviation projects】  In 2010, 110 million Yuan was invested to promote industrial poverty alleviation, covering 206000 poor families, 103% of the scheduled tasks, which increased the income of poor households, poverty-stricken villages and impoverished regions. In addition, 31 million Yuan was invested for the pilot projects of industrial poverty alleviation in 31 disaster-hit counties and good results were achieved. Dazhou City increased efforts on industrial poverty alleviation and achieved good results. There was an increase of more than 500 Yuan in the per capita income of the poor households in the industrial poverty reduction bases.

　　【Pilot projects of poverty alleviation and development and comprehensive prevention and control of Kashin-Beck disease in Aba Prefecture】In 2010, 872 million Yuan was invested. 334 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued by the central government, 100% of the scheduled task; and 107 million Yuan of provincial matching funds was provided, 129% of the annual task. Investment for off-site relocation and education projects within central budget was 300 million Yuan, 98% of the annual task, and the provincial matching funds were 131 million Yuan, 210% of the scheduled task. The above mentioned investment accounted for 94% of the three-year task and the government put in the largest amount of investment in 2010, mainly for the implementation of off-site educating, off-site relocation, grain change, safe drinking water, social security, resettlement of immigrants, adjustment of industrial structure, health care and disease control as well as key problem tackling by science and technology.

　　【Pilot projects of county-based contiguous poverty alleviation and development】 The government increased efforts on poverty alleviation and development and invested 322 million Yuan to implement contiguous development projects in 35 new pilot areas in Daliangshan, Xiaoliangshan, old revolutionary base areas, earthquake-affected areas, Ertan Reservoir areas and poverty-stricken regions. 347 million Yuan was invested in the pilot project construction in four counties of Bazhong City, there was an increase of 1989 Yuan in the rural per capita income of project areas and the backward appearance of the pilot areas was significantly improved. The pilot areas in Sichuan Province expanded from three cities and one prefecture to 18 cities and two prefectures, covering 52 contiguous areas.

　　【Pilot projects of anti-poverty mutual aid society】 According to the requirement of “expanding pilot area for mutual funds” put forward by No. 1 Document of Central Government and the instruction of Provincial Party Standing Committee Member and Vice Governor Zhong Mian that "we must focus on strengthening management this year and continue to summarize experience to avoid problems in the management and any impact on the pilot work", Sichuan Province expanded the pilot area, enhanced the capacity, improved relevant system, strengthened supervision and made steady progress in promoting pilot work of mutual funds in poverty-stricken villages. A total of 37.25 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued and good results were achieved in the implementation of pilot projects.

　　【Convergence of two systems】 At the end of March, the province set up the Leading Group for the pilot work of effective convergence of two systems in Sichuan Province. At the end of May, the work and training conference on the effective convergence of two systems was convened and pilot projects were launched in 108 villages of 36 key counties. The city (prefecture) government attached great importance to the work and the implementation of pilot projects was promoted smoothly. Bazhong City conducted in-depth survey on the situation of rural poor in the new era, providing an important scientific reference for the smooth implementation of poverty alleviation and development in the next decade.

　　【Poverty alleviation in disaster-hit areas】  In 2010, the poverty alleviation for disaster areas participated by relevant poverty relief departments was launched in 1224 disaster-affected poor villages and completed in 882 villages with investment of 2.784 billion Yuan. Sichuan Province actively carried out investigations on the situation of poverty, developed the “Overall Planning for Post-disaster Poverty Alleviation in Impoverished Villages of Sichuan Province Affected by Wenchuan Earthquake (2010-2015)” and drafted the “Opinions on Promoting the Poverty Reduction in the Areas Affected by Wenchuan Earthquake”. Guangyuan City actively promoted the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction of impoverished villages and Guangyuan’s experience represented by the post-disaster reconstruction in Makou was further recognized and promoted.

　　【Poverty alleviation and development in Tibetan areas】 The province comprehensively launched poverty alleviation and development in Tibetan areas in 2010, strived for special anti-poverty funds of 40 million Yuan from LGOP, started the overall poverty alleviation and development in 32 counties of Tibetan areas, focusing on the implementation of six poverty relief projects, including poverty reduction in new villages, industrial poverty alleviation, poverty reduction by labor service, etc.

　　【Poverty alleviation and development in Yi areas】 In accordance with the general idea of “one opinion and two planning” (“Opinions on the Development and Implementation of Planning for Promoting the Leapfrog Development of Liangshan”, “Overall Planning for the Comprehensive Development in Anning River Valley Area” and “Overall Planning for the Comprehensive Poverty Alleviation and Development in Yi Area of Liangshan”) for promoting the leapfrog development of Liangshan, in September 2010, the provincial government held the launching meeting of comprehensive poverty alleviation and development in Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan and made overall arrangements for the work. The integrated poverty reduction based on building “new Yi villages” in Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan was launched. In early 2010, LGOP Director-General Fan Xiaojian personally went to Liangshan for field research and gave instruction on the work. 20 million Yuan of special funds were issued for the renovation of “three kinds of houses” (tile-roofed house, slate house and thatched cottage) in Liangshan. Zhuhai City of Guangdong was designated to support the development of Liangshan Prefecture and provided strong support for the poverty alleviation and development in Yi area. In 2010, the renovation of “three kinds of houses” was completed for 36,400 households and the pilot projects for rural construction through renovation of “three kinds of houses” were implemented in 34 villages.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】 During his visit in Sichuan Province, He Guoqiang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission conducted field research in the poor areas covered by poverty reduction and promoted the fixed-point poverty alleviation participated by central state organs in Sichuan. In 2010, the organs directly under the central or provincial government directly put in 465 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds and introduced 436 million Yuan.

　　【East-west counterpart support in poverty reduction】Zhejiang was formerly designated to support 12 counties in Nanchong and Guangyuan City of Sichuan and is now responsible for supporting 32 counties in Tibetan areas of Sichuan. In 2010, the government at all levels of Zhejiang Province issued 310.8 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds to Sichuan and relevant enterprises invested 3.777 billion Yuan. In addition, Zhuhai City of Guangdong Province was also designated to provide counterpart support for Liangshan Prefecture of Sichuan Province.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee Huang Mengfu headed a delegation to Bazhong City for survey on the situation of local poverty alleviation and “village-enterprise cooperative construction” work and provided strong support for Bazhong. Domestic famous entrepreneurs and philanthropists Cao Dewang and Cao Hui donated 20 million Yuan to support the poverty reduction in old revolutionary base areas and minority areas of Sichuan Province. The Promotion Council for Construction of Old Revolutionary Base Areas, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development all played a positive role and the “Project Pillars” raised anti-poverty funds of 41.55 million Yuan in 2010 to support 12,600 poor students.

　　【Development of special poverty reduction plans】 While making preparations for the development of the planning for poverty alleviation and development in the next decade, Sichuan Province conducted and basically completed the development of “Overall Planning for Post-disaster Poverty Alleviation in Impoverished Villages of Sichuan Province Affected by Wenchuan Earthquake (2010-2015)”, “General Idea of the Planning for Integrated Poverty Alleviation and Development in Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan and Ten Special Work Plans”, “Outline of the Planning for the Poverty Alleviation and Development of Qinling-Daba Mountain Areas (in Sichuan) (2011-2015)”, “Planning for the Restoration (Poverty Alleviation and Development) of Disaster-hit Areas in Wenchuan”, “Planning for the Development (Poverty Alleviation and Development) of Old Revolutionary Base Areas in Sichuan Province in the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period”, “Planning for the Poverty Alleviation and Development in Tibatan Areas of Sichuan Province” and other programs for the poverty alleviation and development in poverty-stricken contiguous areas with special difficulties.