Poverty Alleviation and Development in Zhejiang Province

　　【Overview】  2011 is the fourth year for the implementation of income growth program for low-income population in Zhejiang Province. The governments at all levels and various departments in the province increased efforts on the work, made steady progress, comprehensively completed the scheduled annual task of income growth of low-income people and maintained a good trend of further poverty reduction and sustained income growth of low-income people. In 2011, the rural per capital net income of Zhejiang Province was 13071 Yuan, the urban-rural income ratio was reduced from 2.49:1 in 2007 to 2.37:1, and the relative development gap was narrowed; the relative difference between low-income rural households and rural residents’ per capital net income in the province was reduced from 1:2.76 in 2009 and 1:2.67 in 2010 to 1:2.47 in 2011, and the income gap was gradually narrowed; the per capita net income of the 1.11 million rural households in the province exceeded 5298 Yuan, up 25%, and the growth rate was 9.4 percentage points above the provincial average; the per capita net income of the 63.4% of the low-income farmers exceeded 4000 Yuan., the per capita net income of farmers in the province was more than 2500 Yuan, and the rural per capita net income of the 26 underdeveloped counties (cities, districts) as well as Huangyan District, Wucheng District and Lanxi City (hereinafter referred to as the 29 counties) reached 9542 Yuan, up 16.8%, and the growth rate was above the provincial average. The rural per capita net income of ten counties was even more than 10,000 Yuan, and the rural per capita net income of the 29 counties was more than 7000 Yuan.

　　【Financial investment】 In 2011, Zhejiang Province issued financial anti-poverty funds of 505.82 million Yuan (not including functional poverty-relief funds), of which 372.4 million Yuan was used as subsidies for off-site relocation projects, 104.12 million Yuan was used to support the development of low-income rural households (including 52.12 million Yuan for industrial development, 15 million Yuan of subsidies for mutual funds of the villages concentrated with low-income groups, 12 million Yuan of discount funds for microcredit and 25 million Yuan for processing with supplied materials and work-for-relief program), 20 million Yuan was for development funds for minorities and 9.3 million Yuan was other funds. In addition, the provincial government also arranged 1.68 billion Yuan of special funds for 12 key underdeveloped counties to implement poverty alleviation, industrial development and public service projects.

　　【Industrial poverty alleviation】  The province vigorously developed distinctive breeding industry, initially established the effective mechanisms for ordinary farmers' equal participation in the process of agricultural modernization and equitable sharing of the fruits of agricultural modernization; vigorously developed processing with supplied materials, which has become a major industry to promote the sustained, rapid income growth of low-income groups as a doorstep employment project, greatly promoting the employment and income growth of low-income groups and the prosperity of the processing brokers. The province also vigorously developed community services, modern circulation industry and rural tourism. Farmhouse leisure tourism industry has become a new highlight to increase income of the low-income rural households and help them become well off. By the end of 2011, the 29 counties had cultivated a total of 8852 poverty alleviation leading enterprises and professional poverty alleviation cooperatives with 458,000 members. Processing and leisure tourism have become the new highlights of the income growth of farmers. In 2011, in the 29 counties, 950,000 people engaged in processing with supplied materials, 6.8 billion Yuan of processing fee was issued, averagely 7100 Yuan per person; a total of 4845 rural households and 39,000 people engaged in farmhouse leisure tourism industry, recording an annual operating income of 2.4 billion Yuan.

　　【Rain Plan】 In accordance with the principle of "government leadership, market operation, department coordination and corporate participation", the province organized free trainings of low-income groups to effectively enhance the job skills of low-income rural households, and orderly promoted the rural labor transfer. In 2011, the 29 counties organized rural labor trainings for 322,000 person-times, transferred 72,000 labors, held trainings of low-income farmers for 102,000 person-times and transferred 44,000 low-income residents; implemented the program for cultivating one thousand talents to boost the development of one thousand villages, recruited 278 rural college students from underdeveloped areas to receive senior vocational education on agriculture free of charge, set up 51 rural practical personnel training bases; provided support for the employment of the families covered by the rural minimum living security system and the people with difficulties in finding a job. More than 50% of the villages reached the standard for full-employment villages.

　　【Off-site relocation】 The province implemented the strategy of “small counties and big cities” and vigorously promoted the off-site relocation for the masses in remote and high mountain areas to go downhill, the masses in key reservoir areas to move out, the masses in the regions with hidden danger of geological disasters to move to safe areas and the masses on remote islands to move out, focusing on the relocation of whole natural villages. The main destinations included counties, central towns, small towns and central villages and the main purpose of the relocation was to speed up the agglomeration of population industry and the optimization of village layout. In such a way, it improved the living environment of the farmers, increased the income of farmers through off-site employment and protected the ecological environment. In 2011, the 29 counties and island cities and counties moved out 79,000 people and the urbanization rate of Quzhou and Lishui – the main battlefield of the provincial anti-poverty work respectively reached 44.8% and 50.5%, respectively 6 percentage points and 11.5 percentage points higher than that in 2006.

　　【Improvement of the people’s livelihood】  The province vigorously promoted the improvement of the people's livelihood in underdeveloped areas to constantly enhance the level of guarantee for basic living of low-income farmers. Children from families with per capita net income of less than 4000 Yuan can receive secondary vocational education free of charge. In 2011, the per capita funding of the new rural cooperative medical system reached 379 Yuan, ranking third in the country, and the participation rate was 97.5%; the social endowment insurance system of urban and rural residents has been gradually improved, the number of the insured reached 13.12 million and the payment rate of pension reached 100%; the average subsistence allowance for the rural poor reached 3540 Yuan in the province and the average subsistence allowance of all the counties was more than 2500 Yuan. 96.9% of the objects of the “five-guarantee” system were concentrated to receive aid and financial departments at all levels arranged medical assistance funds of 680 million Yuan to directly benefit 819,000 people.

　　【Infrastructure construction】The province accelerated the infrastructure development of underdeveloped areas, continued to improve the production and living conditions of low-income farmers, continued to implement rural drinking water safety project and solved the drinking water problem of 480,000 people in less developed areas in 2011. Meanwhile, the province speeded ​​up the construction of transportation infrastructure, invested 11 billion Yuan for the construction of ordinary national, provincial and county highways in 2011, and raised the compensation standard for key ecological forest to 19 Yuan per mu per year, directly benefiting 12,200 villages and 617,600 rural households.

　　【Financial poverty alleviation】 The province actively promoted financial innovation, expanded the issuance of the harvest microcredit cards and the Forest Right Mortgage Loan, further promoted the implementation of pilot projects of mortgage of land contract and management rights and rural housing, further promoted pro-poor microfinance, steadily issued national poverty alleviation discount loans and set up a number of city, county and town-level new rural construction investment and financing companies to expand financing sources. By the end of 2011, the province had issued a total of 905,000 harvest micro-credit cards and the loan balance was 61.22 billion Yuan; the 29 counties issued 360,000 cards with loan balance of 14.18 billion Yuan. In 2011, the 29 counties issued small loans of 440 million Yuan for 18,000 household-times, effectively boosting the development of industries with local characteristics and promoting the income growth of low-income groups. Meanwhile, the province continued to expand the pilot area for mutual aid societies for the development of low-income farmers. By the end of 2011, it had set up 412 mutual aid societies with 36,000 members and equity capital of 103 million Yuan, which issued loans of 89.132 million Yuan for 8927 household-times.

　　【Special support】 Since 2011, the provincial government has implemented the three-year special support policy for 12 key undeveloped counties with backward economy, remote location and the onerous task of ecological protection. In 2011, it started the construction of 367 special projects for poverty alleviation and development, industrial development and public services with an investment of 6.12 billion Yuan, and completed the construction of 243 projects. The per capita net income of farmers in the 12 key underdeveloped counties reached 8,006 Yuan, with an increase of 18.2%; and the per capita net income of the 61.5% of low-income rural households was more than 4000 Yuan.

　　【Social poverty alleviation and industrial poverty alleviation】 Taking the "Shanhai Collaboration Project" as the carrier, the province strengthened the cooperation between developed areas and underdeveloped regions in the field of economy, technology, education, health, human resources and employment and a total of 600 contracts were signed on Shanhai Collaboration Projects in 2011 with an investment of 22.08 billion Yuan. It continued to intensify counterpart support. Giving fully play to their advantages, 295 units of 29 provincial supporting groups implemented more than 1800 support projects for 2000 villages concentrated with low-income rural households, provided anti-poverty funds of 150 million Yuan and raised funds of 220 million Yuan for the project construction. The supporting mechanism of “one planning and one department for one poor village” and “one strategy and one cadre for one poor household” was implemented to clarify the responsibility of the city and county cadres. It effectively strengthened industrial poverty alleviation. 35 provincial sectors and departments organized the implementation of 118 industrial poverty alleviation projects to provide inclusive services and special support for less developed regions.

　　【Income-generating projects for urban low-income families】 Income-generating project for urban low-income families is an urban anti-poverty measure. This program and the project for low-income farmers to become well off make up the action plan for income growth of low-income groups, of which the main contents include supporting action for employment and entrepreneurship, the action of extending the coverage of social security and the social charity action as well. In 2011, more than 80% of the province's communities reached the standards for full employment communities. Meanwhile, it vigorously developed community welfare jobs and helped 145,000 people with difficulties in employment find jobs. As for the urban “zero-employment families”, it would immediately solve their employment problem whenever such families were found, achieving the goal of “zero base and zero dynamic figure”. As for the unemployed university graduates from needy families, we would immediately provide assistance for them whenever one case was found and so far, we have provided assistance for 275 university graduates from needy families, basically solving the employment problem of all discovered needy families of zero employment in urban areas. At the same time, the action of extending the coverage of social security was orderly implemented. The number of the insured of urban medical insurance system in the province reached 21 million, with an increase of 2.14 million, and the participation rate reached 96%. The urban biennial physical examination system and subsidy policy were both implemented.

　　【Poverty alleviation meetings】 Over the years, Zhejiang paid attention to promote the anti-poverty work by holding special meetings. In 2011, the province convened the following meetings: (1) On February 12, the provincial government convened a provincial rural work conference. The meeting affirmed the achievements of the work on "three rural issues" and poverty alleviation in 2010, made deployments for the rural work and poverty alleviation in 2011, awarded the excellent units in the new rural construction of the province in 2010, the advanced units providing counterpart support for low-income farmers to become well off, the advanced units for rural instructors’ work and the excellent rural instructors, the advanced cities and counties in food production and the advanced units and individuals in the standardization construction of one million-mu ecological aquaculture. (2) From May 5 to 6, the provincial government held in Jingning County the on-site promotion meeting on special supporting projects for less developed counties in the province. The conference reviewed and summarized the work done in the pro-phase of special supporting policies, analyzed the difficulties and problems in promoting the current special supporting projects and made deployments for the support work for a certain period of time in the future. On the meeting, Deputy Governor Ge Huijun, on behalf of the provincial government, signed the letters of responsibility with the second batch of six less developed counties (cities, districts), namely Pan’an, Qujiang, Changshan, Longquan, Suichang and Yunhe. (3) On September 8, the provincial poverty alleviation office convened the meeting of communicators for industrial poverty alleviation and counterpart support. The meeting affirmed the results achieved in the industrial poverty alleviation and counterpart support in the previous year, analyzed the current situation of the “three rural issues” and made deployments for the industrial poverty alleviation and counterpart support at the next stage. (4) On October 17, The provincial poverty alleviation office and the Provincial Women's Federation jointly held in Kecheng District of Quzhou City the promotion meeting of the province’s processing industry. The meeting summed up the achievements of the development of the processing industry in recent years, analyzed the existing problems and made deployments for the work to be done in processing field at the next stage. (5) On December 14, the provincial government held the work report meeting on special support for key underdeveloped counties. The meeting affirmed the news effects of special anti-poverty work and put forward that we should well understand the new requirements for special counterpart, actively explore new initiatives for the special counterpart work, effectively form the new joint force for special anti-poverty work and constantly improve the new working mechanism for the special support. (6) On December 21, the provincial poverty alleviation office held the seminar of directors of municipal poverty alleviation offices. The meeting conveyed and implemented the spirit of the central poverty relief work conference and talked about the new poverty line and the ideas for the anti-poverty work in the future.

　　【Poverty alleviation research】 From May 23 to 25, LGOP Deputy Director-General Zheng Wenkai paid a visit to Zhejiang for field research on local poverty alleviation work. The delegation headed by Zheng Wenkai successively visited Jindi Group Co., Ltd in Wenzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Xinya Group Co., Ltd., Songyang Zhenan Tea Market, Shengli Garment Processing Center, Xinxing Ecological Tea Base, the communities of Fapu, Gushi involved in the relocation, Zaosheng Queshanji Poverty Alleviation Cooperatives, the Datian Village Farmhouse Happiness Project of Dazhe Town, Suichang County, the Processed Product Presentation and Service Center, Tenglong Community in Relocation, Chendong Community in Relocation in Longyou County, the pilot project of mutual aid society and entrepreneurship demonstration base of Shangxiangxu Village in Hengshan Town, etc. The delegation listened to the work report on Zhejiang’s poverty alleviation work delivered by the provincial office of agricultural issues (poverty alleviation). Zheng Wenkai pointed out that the anti-poverty work in recent years was targeted, innovative, forward-looking and coordinated, making a contribution to achieving the goal of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”.

　　From March 12 to 14, a delegation headed by Li Chunguang, Director-General of Department of International Cooperation and Social Poverty Alleviation of LGOP paid a visit to Zhejiang and conducted a field research on the anti-poverty work of the province. The delegation visited the resettlement areas for the off-site relocation of “three villages driven by one town” in Taishun County, the processing center, poverty alleviation leading enterprise Lizhong Bamboo Ltd, Jingning Tiantanghu (Tea) Industrial Poverty Alleviation Zone, Shuanghoujiang Farmers’ Apartments for Resettlement, Shuoyuan Love Ganoderma Cooperatives, Yunhe County Puguang Farmers’ Apartments and Lishui City Founder Electric Co., Ltd., and listened to the anti-poverty work reports delivered by the provincial poverty alleviation office and Lishui city government. In the field research, Li Chunguang fully affirmed the exploration and efforts made by Zhejiang Province in the anti-poverty work and said that the remarkable results made by Zhejiang Province in poverty reduction is a good example for the whole country and its rich experience is a valuable reference for the anti-poverty work in the future.

　　From July 17 to 19, a delegation headed by Hong Yuntian, Director-General of Department of Policy, Law and Regulations of LGOP visited Zhejiang for field research on local anti-poverty work. The delegation listened to the work reports of Zhejiang Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the report on the implementation of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)”, and fully affirmed the anti-poverty work in Zhejiang Province.

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(Cx�# the poor has been improved, the consciousness and initiatives of the poor for learning and using science and technology have been significantly enhanced, and a large number of farmer agents and leaders of breeding industry and labor transfer appeared. Third, through the implementation of security policy for poverty alleviation, we gave priority to impoverished regions in issuing social security policies and took the poor as the key targets of the social security to ensure that all elderly people can be supported, all the sick can get medical treatment, assistance will be provided for all the persons with difficulties and people’s basic living can be guaranteed. All the rural households meeting the conditions for receiving subsistence allowance in the poor villages covered by entire village advancement were covered by the minimum living security system. When the poor farmers who participated in the new rural cooperative medical system and the new rural social old-age insurance system could not afford the individual payments of the insurance, we would solve the problem with the anti-poverty funds, achieving full coverage of impoverished regions of the new rural cooperative medical system, the new rural social pension insurance and the rural minimum living security system.

 

　　Make innovations to mechanisms for standardized development. In 2011, according to changes in the situation of poverty alleviation and development, the province revised the “Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Ordinance of Heilongjiang Province”. Based on changes in the connotations of poverty alleviation and development in the new era, it further improved the planning, fund and project management measures and increased the contents of planning formulation and implementation for contiguous poor areas with special difficulties and the system for withdrawal of key counties for poverty reduction. WE re-enacted the "Procedures for Entire Village Advancement for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Heilongjiang" and the "Methods for Acceptance of Entire Village Advancement for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Heilongjiang", raised the standards for entire village advancement and established the mechanism for poverty reduction of impoverished villages. In addition, we further improved Heilongjiang Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Information Network and announced the village-level poverty alleviation and development planning, fund investment fields, project implementation and the name list of the poor on the website to receive public supervision for “Operations under Sunshine”, enhancing the transparency of our work.

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(Cx�#ly: "Times New Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman"'>【Pilot area of central special lottery ticket public welfare fund】  In August, Damao Banner of Baotou City got, as the first in Inner Mongolia, the qualification of implementation unit of the entire village advancement project in impoverished old revolutionary base areas with central special lottery ticket public welfare fund. The contiguous development project implemented in the old revolutionary base areas of Wuke Town in Damao Banner with lottery ticket public welfare funds involved 6180 households and 20384 people from ten administrative villages and 108 natural villages, covering the development of irrigable land, planting industry, aquaculture and infrastructure construction. The total project investment was 35.1 million Yuan. After the project implementation, there will be an annual increase of 10.75 million Yuan in the net revenue, including 9.53 million Yuan in the revenue of planting industry and 1.22 million Yuan in aquaculture, and an increase of 530 Yuan in per capita income.

 

　　【Poverty alleviation publicity】  Combined with the Exhibition on China’s Poverty Reduction Achievements in the New Century, the promulgation and implementation of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)” and the holding of central poverty relief work and Inner Mongolia’s work conference on poverty alleviation and development, making full use of the main media, web portals, poverty relief briefings and bulletin boards, Inner Mongolia vigorously publicized the main achievements and basic experience of the autonomous region in poverty alleviation and development and the state’s major decisions and deployments on the national and Inner Mongolia’s anti-poverty work and timely announced the progress made in anti-poverty work, creating a good atmosphere for the all society to concern about the cause of poverty alleviation and laying a good basis for social forces to participate in the anti-poverty work.

　　【Information monitoring center of poverty-stricken areas】 On April 30, the Organization Committee of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region approved (Nei Ji Bian Fa [2011] No. 70) the Poverty Alleviation and Development Training Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was renamed the Information Monitoring Center of Impoverished Areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Its main functions: To bear the responsibility of monitoring the region's poverty and anti-poverty work, relevant statistical data survey, acquisition and analysis; support relevant organs of the Poverty Alleviation Office of Inner Mongolia to carry out poverty-relief network and information construction and management in the autonomous region; organize trainings of cadres for poverty alleviation system and poor areas; and provide consulting services for poverty-relief projects, etc.                            

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(Cx�#t-kerning:0pt'>Through the implementation of the “bringing in and going out” policy, the state will renovate mechanisms and expand channels to enhance international anti-poverty communication. It will also learn international anti-poverty theory and practices, conduct cooperation on anti-poverty projects and share experience with other counties in a common effort to promote poverty reduction.

 

　　VIII. Policy Guarantee

32. Policy system

　　The state will improve its anti-poverty strategy and policy system, making it more effective in poor areas and for poor populations. The policy system will give play to the comprehensive benefits of special, industrial and social poverty alleviation efforts; integrate development-oriented poverty reduction projects with the social security system, and carry out impact assessment before initiating important policies and projects that might affect poverty reduction work.

33. Fiscal support

　　The central and local governments will increase their financial inputs to help impoverished people. The lion’s share of additional poverty reduction funding from the central budget will be used in contiguous areas with special difficulties. General transfer payments of central and provincial budget toward the poverty-stricken areas will be increased, as will the use of lottery proceeds for the purpose of poverty reduction. No tariff will be levied for state-approved domestic and foreign investment projects; foreign-funded competitive industry projects in Eastern and Central China; self-use equipment unable to be produced domestically; or technologies, accessories and spare parts imported alongside such equipment. If eligible, corporate donations to poor people can be deducted according to relevant tax regulations.

34. Favorable investment policies

　　The government will intensify input in terms of infrastructure construction, ecological environment improvement and welfare project development. It will build more village-level roads and develop agriculture comprehensively. It will also protect land resources and small river basins, control water and soil erosion, and develop hydropower in rural areas. The state-arranged projects for the consolidation of dangerous reservoirs, ecological construction, drinking water safety, supporting transformation in large irrigated areas and other public benefits projects will not receive supporting funds from government at or below county level nor government of contiguous areas with special difficulties in Western China. Governments at all levels should intensify investment support for contiguous areas with special difficulties.

35. Financial services

　　The state will continue to improve national anti-poverty discounted-interest loan policies in the following ways: actively promoting innovation of financial products and service modes in poverty-stricken areas, encouraging development of small-sum credit loans, and satisfying poor peoples’ need for funds to develop production. It will carry out anti-poverty loan projects for rehabilitation of the handicapped, enable coverage of poor areas by financial institutions and financial services, and guide civil loans to develop normally. It will also widen financing channels of poor areas and encourage financial institutions incorporated at county level in poor areas to make over 70% of their additional loans locally. The state will energetically develop insurance services in rural areas by urging insurance institutions to establish grass-roots service networks in poverty-stricken areas. It will also improve existing agriculture premium subsidy policies, inspire local communities to develop specialty agriculture insurance targeting specialty and leading industries of poor areas and strengthen the rural credit system.

36. Industrial support

　　The government will implement various industrial policies under the Western Development Project. Large-scale national projects, key projects and emerging industries should be arranged in favor of qualified poverty-stricken areas. Labor-intensive industries should be guided toward poor areas as well. Market development in poor areas should be reinforced. The state supports reasonable development and utilization of resources in poverty-stricken areas and will improve policies to support the development of specialty and competitive industries.

37. Land use

　　According to farmland protection and rural land utilization regulations, new land for construction should first be used to satisfy house-building requirements for those who are relocated from poor areas. The state will reasonably arrange land for construction in small towns and concentrated industrial parks, reclaim more land, favor eligible key counties in terms of project arrangement, and support poverty-stricken areas to exploit and utilize mineral resources in an eco-friendly and orderly way.

38. Ecological preservation

　　The state will continue to launch grain-to-green, pastureland-to-grassland, water and soil conservation, natural forest protection, and shelter forest construction projects as well as controlling desertification in Karst areas and other areas. An ecological compensation mechanism favoring poverty-stricken areas will be created and ecological compensation for key ecological function areas will be intensified. Protection of biodiversity in poor areas will be put high on the agenda.

39. Guarantee of talents

　　The government will organize personnel from the education, science, culture and health sectors and volunteers to work in poverty-stricken areas. It will also formulate policy encouraging institutions of higher learning, research institutions and medical institutions to nurture talents for poor areas. Government will guide college students to work or start business in poor areas, design incentive policies for officials who hold long-term posts in poor areas, and favor technicians of all sectors in terms of posts and job titles. It will show more care to officials who hold temporary posts in poor areas under targeted poverty reduction programs or the East-Help-West Program, making proper arrangements for their work and life so as to give full play to their advantages, engage with talents who start their own business in poverty reduction effort and give more training to officials and practical talents in poor areas.

40. Key groups on the development-oriented poverty reduction list

　　Having incorporated development-oriented poverty reduction program schemes for ethic minorities, women, children and the handicapped into its planning, the state will make unified arrangements for their implementation, give priority to their implementation when all conditions are equal and strengthen support for these groups. It will organize the implementation of a special program to revitalize border areas and enrich the local people and help smaller ethnic groups shake off poverty. It will promote women of poor households to participate in the activity of learning culture and technology, comparing performance and contribution, and will pay attention to those women and children who are left home in the countryside. The state will formulate and implement the Development-oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Disabled People in Rural Areas (2011-2020) to enhance their subsistence and development ability.

　　IX. Organizational Leadership

41. Reinforcing development-oriented poverty reduction responsibility

　　Adhering to the management system whereby the central government plans the project as a whole, provinces take overall responsibility and counties shoulder responsibility of implementation, the state will attach great importance to communities, villages and households in poverty alleviation and hold the leading officials of Party and government responsible for development-oriented poverty reduction endeavors. Party committees and governments at all levels should enhance awareness, intensify coordination functions of development-oriented leading groups, strengthen leadership and make unified arrangements. They should increase integration of province-county projects and resource arrangements to promote the accomplishment of various tasks. The government will further improve evaluation incentive mechanisms for Party and government officials as well as departments and key counties. Organizational departments at all levels should actively coordinate work in this regard. Provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) in Eastern areas will give intensified support to their poverty-stricken areas and poverty reduction project beneficiaries. The government will also encourage and support eligible areas to explore ways to settle poverty-related problems emerging during urbanization.

42. Strengthening construction of rural grass-roots organizations

　　The government will give full play to the impregnable role played by grass-roots Party organizations in poor areas and integrate development-oriented poverty reduction programing with grass-roots level organizational development. It will appoint strong leaders to villages and actively explore effective channels to develop collective economy and collective capital accumulation and find more ways to enrich rural residents. The state will encourage and select ideologically and morally advanced young officials, ex-servicemen, university graduates who are extremely capable and are willing to serve the people, to build leader teams, guide work groups and foster development in poor villages. Village officials who have done a great job in lifting poor villagers out of poverty will be given preference when applying for the civil service in accordance with relevant regulations and conditions.

43. Enhancing team building of poverty reduction institutions

　　Development-oriented leading groups at all levels should improve guidance for poverty reduction activities, study and design policy measures and coordinate the implementation of all tasks. Leading groups in provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) should report their work to the development-oriented poverty reduction program leading group of the State Council. The state will further strengthen anti-poverty institutions at all levels and their respective functions, enhance team building, improve working conditions and the quality of management. Deeply impoverished townships should have a special official responsible for development-oriented poverty alleviation. The training of county-level officials and above-county-level officials who work in anti-poverty departments should be included in the overall training plan of Party and government officials at all levels. Poverty reduction departments should enhance their ideological and moral standards, fight against corruption and improve efficiency and ability to execute.

44. Improving management of poverty reduction fund

　　Fiscal funds will be mainly earmarked to contiguous areas with special difficulties, key counties and poverty-stricken villages, to foster specialty and competitive industries, improve development capacity of poor people and their basic production and living condition, and to increase direct funding for households. Mechanism of direct funding for households will be innovated and multiple ways will be used to ensure effective support for the needy. Infrastructure construction projects that use poverty reduction funding should make sure that poor people benefit first. Anti-poverty projects by industries should be directed to lift poor households out of poverty. A public announcement system for poverty reduction funding will be promulgated, audit and monitoring functions will be strengthened, and monitoring channels will be widened to crack down embezzlement and corruption.

45. Enhancing anti-poverty research and publicity

　　The state will earnestly improve theory and policy research on anti-poverty issues, summarize anti-poverty practices systematically, and gradually develop increasingly sophisticated theory and policy with Chinese characteristics. It will conduct surveys to improve decision-making and implementation ability, include poverty reduction in basic education for civilians about national conditions, in official training and civil servants education and in school education. The government will continue publicizing poverty alleviation projects and informing people of policies, achievements, experiences and typical examples in this regard so as to create a favorable environment for anti-poverty activities. Meanwhile, it will also showcase to the international community our efforts and accomplishments in guaranteeing people’s right to live and develop.

46. Reinforcing statistics collection and monitoring of poverty reduction work

　　The state will establish a development-oriented poverty reduction program information system and monitor contiguous areas with special difficulties. It will improve its statistics and monitoring system; regularize data collection, collation, feedback and announcement; and make information on the current poverty  situation and trends known in a timely and objective way, so as to provide basis for scientific decision-making.

47. Enhancing building of the legal system

　　The government will accelerate lawmaking processes in order to provide a legal basis for poverty reduction.

48. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities that directly under the central government) shall design their respective implementation approaches in accordance with this outline.

49. The Leading Group Office of Poverty Reduction and Development of the State Council is responsible for coordinating and organizing implementation of this outline.