Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

　　【Overview】 In 2010, taking advantage of the preferential policy for leapfrog development, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region focused on summarizing the experience in the poverty alleviation and development over the past decade and preparing for the anti-poverty work in the next decade, made new progress and achieved good results. In 2010, the number of poor residents living above poverty line reached 26,700 in Xinjiang; entire village advancement was implemented in 324 key villages (including 38 “three guarantee” villages); trainings were organized for 180,000 person-times; the rural per capita net income of key counties for poverty alleviation and development reached 3,426 Yuan, up 15.1%, and the growth rate surpassed the average level of Xinjiang. The completion of the annual task not only ensured a smooth ending, but was a successful conclusion of the poverty alleviation and development in the first decade of the new century.

　　【Entire village advancement】 In 2010, entire village advancement was implemented in 324 poor villages of Xinjiang, including 31 minority villages and poor villages within 25 kilometers away from the border. Meanwhile, Xinjiang increased basic farmland of 201,000 mu, newly built and repaired highroads of 567 kilometers, built seepage-proofing channels of 657 kilometers, dug 324 motor-pumped wells, built 2,145 bridges, culverts and floodgates, solved the water problem of 332 poor villages, electricity problem of 35 poor villages, highroad problem of 125 impoverished villages, telephone line problem of 56 impoverished villages, broadcasting and TV program problem of 45 poor villages and the earthquake-resistant housing problem of 124 poor villages; planted economic forest of 880,000 mu, added grafting and transformation area of 320,000 mu, planted grain of 240,000 mu, increased artificially improved playground and forage land of 220,000 mu and featured economic forest of 340,000 mu, built 41,000 facility agricultural greenhouses, 5,621 horizontal silos and 19,000 livestock pens, purchased 8,524 carpet frames, 228,900 head of livestock and 1.88 million poultries; built cultural centers of 6,000 square meters and village clinics of 5,000 square meters, renovated 789 dangerous houses and solved the nearest schooling problem of 11 villages, cultural central problem of 35 villages, medical service problem of 124 villages and weak collective economic problem of 225 poor villages.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 In 2010, the poverty alleviation leading enterprises in Xinjiang got a total of loans of 2.352 billion Yuan (including discount loans and non-discount loans) from financial institutions, of which 169 million Yuan was from Agricultural Bank of China, 881 million Yuan from credit cooperatives, 582 million Yuan from the Agricultural Development Bank and 721 million Yuan from other commercial banks. In 2010, the total loans obtained by poverty alleviation leading enterprises were 1.8 times that in 2009. Financial poverty relief discount loans of 789 million Yuan and interest subsidy of 28.55 million Yuan were issued.

　　Investment of discount loans: 155 million Yuan for national key counties for poverty reduction, accounting for 19.65% of the total; 16.2 million Yuan for Xinjiang’s key counties for poverty reduction, accounting for 2.05%; and 618 million Yuan for non-key poor villages, accounting for 78.30%; Based on industries: 272 million Yuan for 42 planting projects, accounting for 34.47%, 472 million Yuan for 56 agricultural product processing, accounting for 59.82%, and 45 million Yuan for one other project, accounting for 5.7%; Based on line of credit: 65.45 million Yuan for 16 projects with credit line of or below 5 million Yuan, accounting for 8.37%; 217 million Yuan for 24 projects with credit line of 5-10 million Yuan, accounting for 27.50%; 282 million Yuan for 13 projects with credit line of 10-30 million Yuan, 35.74%; 127 million Yuan for 3 projects with credit line of 30-50 million Yuan, 16.10%; and 98 million Yuan for one project with credit line of more than 50 million Yuan, 12.42%; Based on length of maturity, mainly short-term loans: 540 million Yuan of loans with maturity less than one year, accounting for 68.44%; 139 million Yuan of 1-2-year loans, accounting for 17.62%; and 110 million Yuan of loans with maturity over two years, 13.94%. The loans that expired within the year amounted to 540 million Yuan and were all repaid. The loan recovery ratio was 100%.

　　【Training of poverty alleviation cadres】 In 2010, according to the overall training plan, based on the actual situation of poverty alleviation and development in Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region mainly implemented four poverty relief cadre training programs: First, 10 capacity building trainings for 1,400 village committee directors of key villages for poverty alleviation and development in Xinjiang with investment of 4 million Yuan; 9 poverty relief cadre trainings for 714 people with 1 million Yuan; Third, 3 trainings not completed in 2009 for 441 person-times with 1.154 million Yuan; Fourth, one pro-poor policy training for 70 people from five counties (cities) for contiguous poverty alleviation and development.

　　【Labor transfer training--Rain Plan】In 2010, based on local actual situation and “three combinations” (combining with entire village advancement, combining with financial anti-poverty projects and combining with local leading industries), fully respecting the development willing of poor labors, aiming to improve the self-development capacity of the poor and foster new types of farmers and herdsmen, Xinjiang organized large-scale multi-channel, multi-layer labor transfer trainings in various forms. In 2010, Xinjiang put in financial poverty relief training funds of 30 million Yuan and organized trainings for the cadres and masses in poor areas, covering 187,100 million people, including: 2,098 cadre trainings, 146,000 practical agricultural technical trainings, 38,000 labor transfer job skills trainings, 1000 skills trainings of “two backward students” and 36,000 job transfer labor trainings. So far, there are a total of 40 poverty relief training bases at all levels in Xinjiang, of which: 1 was determined by LGOP (three teaching schools), 8 was determined by Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 4 by prefectures and 27 by counties (cities). In 2010, Xinjiang allocated training funds of 6 million Yuan for Rain Plan demonstration bases and trained 2,047 people through the bases, of which 4 million Yuan was issued for national poverty relief training base Changji Prefecture College of Agriculture to hold 10 capacity building trainings for 1,400 village committee directors of key villages for poverty alleviation and development; and 2 million Yuan was issued for local poverty relief training bases – Xinjiang Autonomous Region School of Youth League and Xinjiang Autonomous Region School of Women Cadres to hold 8 skills trainings for 647 children from needy families.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 In 2010, the central, regional, prefectural and county (city)-level aiding units for fixed-point poverty alleviation put in a total of 401 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds and materials, of which 182 million Yuan was issued in cash, 69 million Yuan in kind and 150 million Yuan was introduced. Xinjiang implemented 250 poverty relief projects, introduced 45 enterprises and 7 talents, held 7,373 training courses for 282,367 people, including 680 cadres, 89,547 technicians and 192,140 labors, exported 96,107 labors, subsidized 10,232 poor students, sent 9,156 cadres and 47,495 investigators and built 11,749 houses for local residents, 45 village-level offices, 60 technology cultural centers, 33 village clinics and 73 schools.

　　Taking advantages of the system benefits, starting from project support for poverty reduction, the central state organs designated to support Xinjiang in fixed-point poverty reduction successively sent 24 poverty relief cadres and 238 investigators to the poor areas and put in a total of 43.98 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds and materials (41.37 million Yuan in cash and 2.61 million Yuan in kind), becoming the vanguards of aiding units at all levels. China National Petroleum Corporation sent 11 poverty alleviation cadres and 119 investigators and put in 15.99 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds and materials, of which 14.59 million Yuan was invested in cash and 1.4 million Yuan in kind; Ministry of Railways sent 50 investigators, invested anti-poverty funds of 21.61 million Yuan, of which 20.56 million Yuan was issued in cash and 1.05 million Yuan in kind, and carried out industrial poverty alleviation, poverty reduction by training, poverty reduction by medical service and intellectual poverty alleviation; Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) sent 10 investigators to the poor areas and put in relief fund of 360,000 Yuan, constructed Yutian County Senior Citizen Activity Center and implemented infrastructure construction and poor household condolence activity; China National Foreign Trade Transportation (Group) Corporation sent two poverty relief cadres and three investigators, put in 180,000 Yuan of anti-poverty funds, purchased 1364 bags of fertilizers for fruit and forest for poor farmers and herdsmen of Yecheng County and issued agricultural subsidy of 180,000 Yuan for 900 rural households in Shache County; Liaoning Anshan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd sent two poverty relief cadres and two investigators and put in anti-poverty funds of 1.66 million Yuan, including 1.5 million Yuan of donation, one piano and 1000 gifts.

　　In 2010, the autonomous region, prefecture and county (city)-level aiding units for fixed-point alleviation in Xinjiang sent a total of 9,132 poverty relief cadres and 47,257 investigators to the poor areas, put in a total of 357 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds, implemented 250 poverty relief projects, introduced 45 enterprises and 7 talents, held 7,369 training courses for 279,355 people, including 656 cadres, 87,859 technicians and 190,840 labors, exported 96,086 labors, subsidized 10,232 poor students, built 45 village-level offices, 60 technology cultural centers, 33 village clinics and 73 schools, and invested 2.373 million Yuan of community support funds and 10.343 million Yuan to support collective economic development.

　　【Foreign-funded poverty alleviation】 Xinjiang did a good job of poverty alleviation with foreign investment, established the concept of low-carbon poverty reduction, organized "China International Forum on Green Development" and set a precedent for the combination of poverty alleviation and development and low-carbon green sustainable development, laying a foundation for establishing a platform for international exchanges and cooperation; focused on sustainable development projects through foreign-funded poverty alleviation and launched UNDP Xinjiang Green Development Program. $ 1.2 million was invested in UNDP follow-up project - Xinjiang Tamarisk Chinensis Planting and Ecological Restoration Project with implementation period from 2010-2011, of which $ 300,000 was UNDP grants and $ 900,000 was issued to support the two project counties. In 2010, Xinjiang completed the inspection and identification of project districts and counties, construction of leading agencies, issuance of matching funds and application and procurement of office equipment. The government guided enterprises to pay attention to the problem of poverty, introduced water-saving irrigation projects and planned to invest $ 80,000 (500,000 Yuan) for the projects. Now, relevant project documents have been prepared. Meanwhile, it advocated the concept of green development and introduced green clean energy trade projects. On the green development forum held in June 2010, China Petroleum Bio-Energy Company Limited announced the procurement of rural household biogas carbon assets of 50,000 Yuan in Changji Prefecture and the implementation of tamarisk planting carbon emission right trading program. The Foreign Capital Project Management Centre entrusted Carbon Gold (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd to sell 50,000 tons of carbon assets of 7000 mu of tamarisk chinensis in Moyu County, Hetian Region. In August 2010, 20,000 tons of carbon emission right was sold and 160,000 Yuan of carbon assets was paid. The remaining 30,000 tons of carbon assets will be traded by the end of 2010. IFAD’s rural development project in poverty-stricken areas of Xinjiang met relevant requirements and passed the mid-term evaluation in 2010.

　　【Pilot poverty relief projects in border area of Aheqi County】 Based on the prophase three-year pilot work, Aheqi County strived to make innovations to the pilot project and continued to guide the expansion of pilot area for poverty alleviation in border areas of Xinjiang.

1. Remarkable results in poverty reduction and development. In 2010, two key villages in Aheqi County passed the examination and acceptance for entire village advancement and 320 households and 1300 people steadily shook off poverty.

2. Rapid economic development in the county. In 2010, Aheqi County achieved GDP of 343.32 million Yuan, up 17% over the previous year; total fixed asset investment reached 920 million Yuan, up 99.5%; consumable retail revenue amounted to 62.45 million Yuan, up 12%; and the fiscal revenue reached 40.2 million Yuan, with an increase of 66.3%.

3. Constantly improved Infrastructure. First, launched housing projects for 300 households, established 5 residential areas equipped with plumbing facilities, electricity, heating equipment and highroads; Secondly, set up 650 Gobi facility agricultural sheds, developed forage base of 15,000 mu, newly built three diversion canals and water channels of 54 kilometers; Thirdly, launched solar hot water projects. As of the end of 2010, a total of 487 solar water heaters had been installed.

4. Higher income of farmers and herdsmen. As export of labor service and Gobi industries such as modern animal husbandry, facility agriculture and featured forestry and fruit industry have gradually become the leading industries, the farmers and herdsmen in Aheqi County have got stable channels for income growth. In 2010, the rural per capita net income reached 1697 Yuan, 215 Yuan more than that of the previous year, up 15%.

5. Sound development of social undertakings. Further optimized the management mechanism with "primary schools built for all towns and junior middle schools for all counties", improved the county, town and village-level health care network and family planning service network, consolidated and improved the new rural cooperative medical system and medical assistance system and comprehensively launched the new rural social endowment insurance.

6. Stronger sense of national identity of border residents. Based on the poverty reduction in border areas, a 44-member propaganda team was organized to conduct in-depth education activity themed "building a beautiful home with great love for the motherland". As a result, the border residents have a stronger sense of national identity and love for the motherland.

　　【Convergence of two systems】 In 2010, 100% of the 35 key counties (cities) in Xinjiang completed the data filing of low-income rural residents and established the platform for sharing the information of low-income rural population.

1. Set the poverty line and make clear the number of low-income rural residents. Based on the incidence of poverty and relevant economic indicators of Xinjiang, combined with the poverty line in 2006, the government set the new poverty line of 1500 Yuan of per capita net income for low-income rural population in 2009 and identified 487,000 poor households and 2.14 million poor people in 35 key counties (cities), accounting for 40% of the total.

 

2. Complete the data filing of low-income rural population. In 2010, 35 key counties (cities) for poverty alleviation in Xinjiang filled in the “County Registration Form” and 4,580 administrative villages filled in the “Registration Form for Administrative Villages”. 555,000 low-income rural households and 2.29 million low-income rural residents were registered in the “Registration Form of Poor Farmers”, accounting for 42% of the total rural residents in the key counties (cities).

3. Establish a platform to share network information for poverty alleviation. In 2010, the county (city)-based system input work was fully completed and 534,000 low-income rural households and 2.19 million low-income rural residents in 35 key counties (cities) were registered in the system, accounting for 38% of the total.

4. New progress in implementation of pro-poor policy. In 2010, 636 million Yuan of household poverty relief funds was issued and 1.28 million people benefited from pro-poor policy.

　　【County-based pilot projects of contiguous development】 In 2010, based on the central financial anti-poverty funds of 30 million Yuan, the pilot counties in Xinjiang integrated various funds of 489.56 million Yuan, including department funds of 143.21 million Yuan, accounting for 29% of the total; counterpart poverty relief funds of 156.45 million Yuan, accounting for 32%; self-raised funds of the masses of 8.79 million Yuan, 2%; and bank loans of 94.23 million Yuan, 19%. Through the implementation of contiguous development, pilot areas witnessed rapid economic development, the total output value grew by 20%, rural per capita net income increased by 605 Yuan, up 15%, the infrastructure and living standards were significantly improved, a large number of small irrigation projects, highroads, basic farmland, yard renovation, living environment improvement, pen and toilet renovation projects and biogas digesters were successively constructed, public welfare was booming, service function was strengthened, the teaching condition and environment in pilot areas were improved, the basic education witnessed rapid development, more children from needy families received high-quality basic education resources; the new rural cooperative medical system covered all farming and pasturing area and soled the medical service difficulty and experience health care problem of the poor. Meanwhile, the government built technology cultural centers for 16 pilot villages and village-level clinics for 15 villages.

　　【Relocation-based poverty alleviation】 In 2010, 78.75 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was issued for relocation-based poverty alleviation and a total of 789 households and 3235 people were relocated. Xinjiang increased basic farmland of 6,000 mu, improved middle/low-yield farmland of 5,000 mu, completed grass plantation of 86700 mu and forest plantation of 1,000 mu; solved the poor’s difficulties in water, electricity, broadcasting and TV program, children’s schooling and medical service, helped the poor to obtain stable income and develop production projects for stable source of income and built quake-proof houses for them. At the same time, in the relocation, the highroads and irrigation facilities in the settlements were improved, great changed took place to the ideas of poor farmers and herdsmen and the ecological environment of the former residences of the farmers and herdsmen were recovered and improved.

　　【Mutual funds】 In 2010, Xinjiang put in a total of 37.65 million Yuan (of which: 13.5 million Yuan was central financial anti-poverty funds, 10 million Yuan was the autonomous regions’ matching funds and 14.15 million Yuan was mutual funds paid by farmers) for the implementation of pilot projects in 157 impoverished villages. It set up 157 mutual aid groups, covering 26,274 rural households, including 17,348 poor households; 17,776 rural households joined in the mutual aid society, including 14,853 poor households, accounting for 84% of the total. With the further implementation of pilot mutual funds, the project’s effect of "owned by the people, used by the people, managed by the people and enjoyed by the people" became more prominent, warmly welcomed by the poor. A total of 15,233 people applied for loans that year, of which 13,753 were poor farmers, accounting for 90% of the total; a total of 33.5 million Yuan of loans was issued, the turnover rate of mutual funds reached 89% and the timely repayment rate reached 100%.

　　【Poverty relief discount loans】 In 2010, Xinjiang actually issued discount loans of 1.61 billion Yuan for poverty reduction, 300 million Yuan more than that of the previous year. Through various financial institutions, 68 counties (cities) issued household loans of 820 million Yuan and poverty alleviation leading enterprises actually issued loans of 789 million Yuan.

　　【Management of anti-poverty fund projects】 In 2010, the central government issued 720 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to Xinjiang and the autonomous region provided matching funds of 203 million Yuan. In 210, a total of 923 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds were issued by the central and autonomous region government and Xinjiang arranged 1092 financial poverty relief fund projects. 553.8 million Yuan was used to support industrial development, accounting for 60% of the total; 184.6 million Yuan was for infrastructure construction, 20%; 138.5 million Yuan for improvement of production and living conditions, 15%, and 46.1 million Yuan for other purposes, 5%. 748 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds were issued to 27 national key counties (cities) for poverty alleviation and development, accounting for 81% of the total, and 812 million Yuan was directly put in impoverished villages, accounting for 88% of the total.