Review of the Implementation of the “Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas”

　　In 2001, the State Council promulgated and implemented the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas (2001-2010)" (hereinafter the "Outline"), an important programmatic document on the poverty alleviation and development in the first decade of the new century. Under the correct leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, with strong support from all circles of society, through the joint efforts of the National Poverty Alleviation System and the cadres and masses in poverty-stricken areas, we have successfully achieved the objectives and completed the tasks of the "Outline".

　　I. Great achievements in the decade of poverty alleviation and development

　　（I）A significant decline in rural poverty

　　The number of rural poor declined from 94.23 million at the end of 2000 to 26.88 million in 2010 and the incidence of poverty decreased from 10.2% to 2.8%. The number of poverty-stricken people in key countries for national poverty alleviation and development (hereinafter referred to as key counties) dropped from 56.77 million at the end of 2001 to 16.93 million in 2010 and the rural per capita net income increased from 1,277 Yuan to 3,273 Yuan in 2010, with an average annual real increase of 8.07 %, slightly higher than the national average.

　　（II）A significant improvement in quality of life of the farmers in poverty-stricken areas

　　From 2001 to 2010, the per capita consumption expenditure of rural residents in the key counties increased from 1,018 Yuan to 2,662 Yuan, with an average annual real growth of 8.5%. In 2010, the per capita housing area of the farmers in the key counties was 24.9 square meters, 4.8 square meters larger than that in 2002; and every hundred urban households in the key countries owned, on average, 94.8 color TV sets, double the figure in 2003; 23.8 refrigerators and freezers, four times that in 2002; 45 motorcycles and 128.4 fixed-line telephones and mobile phones, respectively 2.49 and 5.1 times the figure in 2002. In 2010, the proportion of the rural households in key counties using dry pail latrines and flush toilets reached 88.4%, 6.1 percentage points higher than that in 2002. In the new century, more than 7.7 million people have migrated in the relocation-based poverty alleviation.

　　（III）A significant improvement of infrastructure

　　From 2002 to 2010, in the key counties, the proportion of the farmers who drank tap water increased from 30.2% to 41.7% and the proportion of the villages with access to highroads, electricity, telephone line and radio and television program respectively rose from 72.2%, 92.8%, 52.6% and 83.9% to 88.1%, 98.0%, 92.9% and 95.6%.

　　（IV）Comprehensive development of social undertakings

　　In 2010, the enrolment rate of school-age children reached 97.7%, close to the national average and the school dropout rate due to poverty dropped from 9% in 2002 to 2.3%. In 2010, the average length of schooling of the young and adults reached 8 years, and the adult illiteracy rate was 7%, down 5.4% compared to 2002. In 2010, the proportion of healthy farmers among the surveyed population in the key counties was 93.1%, 1.4 percentage points higher than that in 2002. Hospitals were established in all the towns and most of the poor villages were equipped with clinics. The coverage of the new rural cooperative medical system reached 93.3% and the proportion of the farmers who received timely medical treatment was up to 91.4%, 7.6 percentage points higher than that in 2002.

　　（V）Initial establishment of a national social security system in rural areas

　　By the end of 2010, the rural minimum living security system covered a population of 52,284,000 nationwide, the rural five-guarantee system covered 5.548 million people, 5.295 million farmers received temporary relief and 8.138 million people received medical assistance. The security level was constantly improved and the coverage was further expanded. Pilot projects of new rural old-age insurance were launched and covered 24% of the counties by the end of 2010.

　　Since the implementation of the "Outline", the poverty alleviation and development has enhanced the spirit of self-reliance and self-development capacity of the masses in poor areas and basically solved the food and clothing problem of rural residents. It played an important role in promoting the sustained and healthy development of national economy, promoting political stability, social harmony and national unity and consolidating frontier and made a positive contribution to the global poverty reduction, laying a basis for building a moderately prosperous society.

　　II. China's rich experience in poverty alleviation

　　（I）Uphold the CPC's leadership and highlight the leading role of government

　　In the new century, with the change in situation of poverty alleviation caused by the reduction and dispersion of poverty-stricken people, the Chinese government formulated the "Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas (2001-2010)" and clearly put forward that we must address the food and clothing problem of the remaining poor as soon as possible and further improve the production and living conditions in poor areas to consolidate the anti-poverty results.

　　In the development of long-term economic and social development planning, the state always highlights rural poverty alleviation and development as an important part of the planning content. It determines the national poverty line based on the level of economic development and national financial situation; and timely determines and adjusts key areas for national poverty alleviation according to the distribution of poverty-stricken people to ultimately form the poverty alleviation pattern focusing on contiguous poor areas, key counties and poverty-stricken villages. It has established the management system under the overall arrangement of the central government with the provincial government taking the overall responsibility and the county government responsible for implementation; practices the poverty alleviation and development responsibility system with CPC and government leaders taking the overall responsibility and continues to increase investment. From 2001 to 2001, the central government’s special anti-poverty funds increased from 10 billion Yuan to 22.268 billion Yuan and the total investment came to 144.04 billion Yuan. Meanwhile, local government issued 59.83 billion Yuan. During the decade, anti-poverty loans of 204.38 billion Yuan were mobilized through government interest discounting. In 2011, the central government’s anti-poverty funds reached 27 billion Yuan, 4.8 billion Yuan more than that in the previous year. Government investment has become the leading force of poverty alleviation and development.

　　（II）Promote economic growth and strengthen the position of agriculture as the foundation of national economy

　　In the first decade of the new century, China witnessed steady and rapid economic growth, constant enhancement of comprehensive national strength and rapid development of industrialization and urbanization. With economic growth, a large number of employment opportunities were provided. Meanwhile, the position of agriculture as the foundation of national economy was continuously consolidated. By 2010, the per capita share of agricultural products in China, including grain, vegetables, meat, eggs and aquatic products was close to or exceeded the worlds’ average, creating conditions for addressing the food and clothing problem of the poor and adjusting the economic structure of poor areas, and laying a solid foundation for rural poverty alleviation.

　　（III）Encourage social participation and strengthen international cooperation

272  central government agencies, democratic parties, social groups and large state-owned enterprises were organized to participate in the fixed-point poverty alleviation in 481 key counties. From 2001 to 2010, the government issued direct investment of 9.09 billion Yuan in cash and kind, dispatched 3559 cadres to serve the key counties and organized trainings for 1.684 million people from the key counties as well. Six provinces, three municipalities and six cities with independent planning in East China were designated to support 11 western provinces and autonomous regions. From 2001 to 2010, the government at all levels of the eastern provinces and municipalities issued anti-poverty funds of 4.44 billion Yuan for the western regions, the relevant enterprises invested about 250 billion Yuan and skills trainings were organized for 226,000 person-times. The government organized non-public economy to participate in poverty reduction to fully mobilize the initiative of NGOs for participation in poverty alleviation and development. Meanwhile, it cooperated with relevant international organizations, bilateral agencies and domestic and international non-governmental organizations to jointly launch poverty alleviation projects in various forms and actively carry out exchanges in the field of poverty reduction. According to incomplete statistics, since 2000, a total of $ 560 million of foreign investment has been issued for China's poverty alleviation.

　　（IV）Adhere to self-reliance and carry out development-oriented poverty alleviation

　　Stress grass-roots organizations' role as fighting force, mobilize and rely on the masses, allow poor people to directly participate in decision making for poverty alleviation and development projects and the use of funds, and promote the enhancement of quality and capacity building of the poor to effectively improve their self-development capacity. Adhere to the development-oriented poverty reduction policy, support infrastructure construction in poor areas and help them to achieve access to highroads, electricity, postal service and radio and TV program; improve land productivity through farmland and water conservancy construction; and support poor farmers to develop farming, aquaculture and small-scale processing projects. Since 2001, entire village advancement projects have been launched in 120,000 poor villages; more than 7 million poor people living in areas with extremely harsh natural conditions have been relocated; the Rain Plan has organized trainings for more than 4 million labors from poor families to promote labor transfer; and mutual funds have been set up in 13600 poor villages to address the financial needs of farmers.

　　（V）Take effective measures to help the poor

　　The government launched the program to revitalize border areas and enrich residents' lives, implemented the "Ethnic Minority Development Plan (2005-2010)", continuously increased efforts for the poverty alleviation in minority areas and gave priority to ethnic minority regions in developing pro-poor measures. It strived to promote the equitable participation of women and formulated various pro-poor policy measures to directly benefit women. Meanwhile, it adopted special measures to help poor people with disabilities and formulated the Outline of Career Development of Persons with Disabilities during the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" and "11th Five-Year Plan" period. In addition, rehabilitation loans and other poverty alleviation funds are issued every year.

　　（VI）Promote scientific development through coordination between urban and rural areas

　　The government fully implemented the rural tax reform, abolished agricultural tax, livestock tax, specialty tax and other unreasonable taxes to reduce the burden on peasants and established the agricultural subsidy system to provide farmers with direct food subsidies, seed subsidies and subsidies for purchase of agricultural machinery and agricultural production means so as to encourage agricultural production. It clearly put forward that we must build a socialist new countryside, increase investment in rural water, electricity, roads, gas, housing and other infrastructure and actively accelerate the renovation of dilapidated buildings in rural areas. It continued to implement the strategy of western development and rise of central China, increased financial transfer payments for central and western regions, improved the ecological environment in the western regions with harsh natural conditions through returning farmland to forestland or grassland, and increased the income of local farmers as well. Meanwhile, the government comprehensively developed rural social undertakings, reformed the rural compulsory education management system, implemented the new rural cooperative medical care system, introduced relevant measures to provide medical assistance for needy people, and launched pilot projects for the new rural old-age insurance, covering 24% of the counties. Taking family planning as a basic national policy, the government established the system for rewarding and supporting the families that implemented family planning in rural areas and launched the project of "Fewer Births, Faster Affluence". In addition, it strived to effectively protect the rights and interests of migrant workers.