Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

　　【Overview】 In 2010, aiming to strengthen the “blood-making” capacity of poor areas, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps strived to improve the agricultural production conditions. Despite the snow, low temperature, wind, drought, floods and other natural disasters, the GDP in poor farms increased by 16%, the per capita net income of farmers and herdsmen grew by 13.5%, the comprehensive production capacity of poor farms was further enhanced, the production and living conditions were further improved and substantive results were achieved in poverty alleviation and development.

　　【Poverty reduction program】 The “12th Five-Year Plan for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps” is a key special planning of the  “12th Five-Year Plan” of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. In 2010, in accordance with the deployment of the “Planning for the Development of the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps”, under the guidance of the leading group for development of the “12th Five-Year Plan” of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps conducted in-depth investigations into the southern and northern poor regions and wrote the draft planning. After it was reviewed and revised by relevant experts, the final planning and work plan were formulated. The planning and work plan both paid attention to the convergence of poverty relief and other relevant planning and implemented the spirit of the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas (2011-2020)" and the national poverty reduction work conference jointly held by LGOP and Xinjiang Autonomous Region People’s Government in September 2010. As a result, the feasible “12th Five-Year Plan for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps” was developed. The planning also analyzed the opportunities and challenges for poverty alleviation and development at this stage and put forward the guiding ideology, basic principle, objectives, tasks and priorities of the poverty alleviation and development in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period and the guarantee measures for the implementation of the planning, laying a basis for the poverty alleviation and development of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

 

　　【Pro-poor measures】 In 2010, while implementing the spirit of the Central work Conference in Xinjiang, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps promoted the development of poverty alleviation and development. Taking advantage of the counterpart support by 19 provinces (autonomous regions) for Xinjiang and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, more than 20 poor farms were selected as project area for pilot program of counterpart poverty alleviation and great efforts were put on the improvement of people’s livelihood. The 5th Plenary Session (Enlarged Meeting) of the 6th Party Committee of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps decided to give priority to the poor farms in border areas and southern regions to promote the development of poverty-stricken farms; The 6th Plenary Session (Enlarged Meeting) of the 6th Party Committee of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps put forward that we must concentrate resources to support ten poor farms and lift 104,000 people out of poverty. The “Outline of the 12th Five Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps” proposed to innovate the pattern of poverty alleviation and development, improve the mechanism for poverty alleviation and development and strengthen the self-development capacity of poor farms.

　　Promote the development of competitive industries in poor farms through industrial adjustment. In 2010, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps also focused on the development of high-quality agricultural bases of poor farms and the planting area of dates, tomatoes, seeds, cantaloupe, grapes and other featured cash crops reached 800,000 mu. In addition, the industrial layout of the dates in southern poverty-stricken farms and fresh grapes in the northern and eastern areas of Xinjiang was further optimized, laying a foundation for the development of agricultural industrialization. Giving play to the geological advantage of suburb poor farms, it vigorously promoted the construction of vegetable greenhouses.

　　【Issuance of anti-poverty funds】 In 2010, through the Poverty Alleviation Office of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, in accordance with the principle of "highlighting key points, classified implementation, taking into account the balance", focusing on improving agricultural production conditions, 36.5 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds and corps’ poverty relief funds was issued to poor farms. The farms raised 7.79 million Yuan by themselves and arranged 20 poverty relief projects mainly for the construction of spray and drip irrigation-based water-saving irrigation area of 26,300 mu, orchard of 6,300 mu, seepage channels of 12.42 kilometers, standardized agricultural reservoir area of 33,000 square meters and 20 greenhouses.

　　【Poverty alleviation by infrastructure construction】Starting from urbanization construction, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps strengthened infrastructure construction of poor farms. To meet the requirements of "doing 10 practical things for people", it continued to construct affordable housing and improve the water supply, central heating and gas supply equipment, waste disposal and other supporting facilities for new houses to enhance the living quality of the workers and masses. Through safe primary and secondary school building and infrastructure construction for medical services in regiments and companies as well as communities, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps renovated the dilapidated education and medical service houses. In 2010, the per capita house area of poor farms reached 22 square meters, per student teaching area reached 8 square meters and per capita medical service area reached 0.42 square meters,.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 In 2010, based on the practical activities of "building a beautiful home with love for the great motherland", "excelling in performance to strengthen the construction of grassroots organizations" and "emancipating the mind, seizing the opportunity for leapfrog development and recreating glory" in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the government integrated the counterpart poverty reduction for poverty-stricken farms by various departments of relevant organs, research institutions and enterprises into a series of activities so that the aiding units were more clear about the direction and tasks and had a stronger sense of responsibility for counterpart poverty reduction. The aiding units conscientiously implemented the anti-poverty responsibility and established a long-term mechanism for poverty relief. The counterpart poverty reduction was carried out in flexible forms, including poverty relief by science and technology, poverty relief by working at a selected sport for investigation and study, poverty relief by donation, etc. Based on their actual situations and strength, the aiding units actively helped poor farms determine the development idea, explore approaches to poverty reduction and provided information, technical, financial and material support for poor farms. The pairing-off poverty reduction has not only made aiding units and grassroots organizations trust and understand each other better, but created a good atmosphere for the whole society to attach importance to the cause of poverty reduction.

　　【Management of anti-poverty fund projects】 In accordance with the requirements for the inspection of the use of agriculture-benefiting funds in China, the Poverty Alleviation and Development Office of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps completed the inspection on 2007 - 2009 financial anti-poverty fund projects in September 2010. Over the past three years, 54 financial anti-poverty projects were arranged with total investment of 128 million Yuan, of which 98.9 million Yuan was financial anti-poverty funds and 29.55 million Yuan was local matching funds. According to the investigation, the corps and divisions could all allocate funds in full according to project plan and special persons and special accounts were arranged for project farms; the poverty alleviation supervision departments and various sectors at all levels could conduct joint inspection on the whole process of project construction. After project construction, they organized timely examination, acceptance and audit activity and made records of all data. At the same time, the government timely solved many problems occurred in self-examination, such as "attaching importance to project declaration but ignoring anaphase data compilation" and slow progress in project construction due to delayed allocation of project funds. The inspection on the use of anti-poverty funds enhanced the level of management on poverty relief projects and funds and guaranteed the smooth construction, good management and certain economic benefits of poverty reduction projects.

　　【Poverty alleviation by science and technology】 In 2010, 16 science and technology correspondent service groups and 150 science and technology correspondents conducted field research in 32 poverty-stricken farms of 13 divisions. With projects as the carrier, through teaching by personal example as well as verbal instruction, model demonstration and interactive cooperation, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps carried out comprehensive, multi-level poverty alleviation by science and technology, implemented 54 pilot science and technology correspondent projects with investment of 28.86 million Yuan and organized technical trainings and the trainings for leaders to help people get rich by science and technology for 1000 people. Through the vocational skills trainings, it strengthened the workers’ capacity for using new varieties and new technologies and continuously enhanced the level of productivity.