Poverty Alleviation and Development in Hubei Province

　　【Overview】 In 2011, the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and Hubei Provincial People's Government earnestly implemented the spirit of the central poverty alleviation and development work conference and the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China's Rural Areas (2011-2020)”. Based on the actual situation of the province, Hubei introduced the “Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development in the Rural Areas of Hubei Province (2011-2020)”, issued the “Planning for Division of Labor for Major Policy Measures on the Implementation of the ‘Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development in the Rural Areas of Hubei Province (2011-2020)’” and the “12th Five-Year Plan for the Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas of Hubei Province’ and made the overall deployments for the poverty alleviation and development of the province in the next decade and the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

　　Hubei Province achieved a good start of poverty alleviation and development in the 12th Five-Year Plan period. In 2011, a total of 1.099 billion Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds (including 868 million Yuan from the central government and 231 million Yuan from the provincial government) was invested in the province, up 19.3%; and 27.597 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds was invested in industrial poverty alleviation, up 15.7%, providing a powerful guarantee for the anti-poverty work. Through hard work, the province reduced the number of registered rural poor residents by 479,000, 19.7% beyond the plan. The per capita net income of the farmers of 29 key counties for poverty alleviation and development rose from 3,654 Yuan to 4,284 Yuan, up 17.3%; entire village advancement projects were launched in 300 impoverished villages, and the province mainly supported the development of 309 old revolutionary base areas and 200 scattered poor villages; the Rain Plan completed the transfer and training of 51,411 people, 2.8% beyond the plan; and the off-site poverty-relief relocation project covered 10248 households and 40992 people, 2.4% beyond the plan. Poverty alleviation and development played an important role in boosting the economic development, social harmony, national unity and social stability of Hubei Province.

　　【Poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas with special difficulties】 In February 2011, the provincial party committee and government launched the construction of experimental zones for the economic and social development of Wuling Mountain’s minority areas and Dabie Mountain’s old revolutionary base areas in Hubei Province, provided guidance on the construction of the experimental zones, prepared the regional development and poverty alleviation planning and introduced a series of supporting policies.

　　After Wuling Mountain area, Dabie Mountain area and Qinba Mountain area were identified as national contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties, Hubei Province included Mufu Mountain area in the east part of the province into the coverage of the battlefield for the province’s anti-poverty work based on the actual situation of the province. The provincial party committee and government set up the Leading Group on the poverty alleviation and development of contiguous poor areas in Hubei Province. Secretary of Hubei Provincial Party Committee Li Hongzhong acted as the director of the leading group and Vice Secretary of Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Governor Wang Guosheng acted as the First Deputy Director. It implemented the system for the provincial leaders to conduct fixed-point contacts and provincial departments to take a lead in coordination. In December, the province officially started the preparation of planning for regional development and poverty reduction in Qinba Mountain area, Wuling Mountain area, Dabie Mountain area and Mufu Mountain area.

　　To explore the establishment of new mechanisms for the poverty alleviation and development in contiguous poor areas with special difficulties, since 2009, Hubei Province has selected seven key counties from the contiguous poor areas as the pilot counties for building a moderately prosperous society through combining regional development with poverty reduction. In accordance with the concept of large-scale poverty alleviation, in 2011, the provincial organs and departments allocated a total of 2.33 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds for seven pilot counties; the helping units issued a total of 587 million Yuan of poverty-relief funds and donations for the fixed-point poverty reduction; the 7 pilot counties put in a total of 23.097 billion Yuan in the infrastructure construction, industrial development and livelihood projects that year, achieving local GDP of 41.857 billion Yuan, up 18.7%; and the per capita net income of farmers reached 4572 Yuan, up 17.6%. The pilot counties’ diversified investment mechanisms for poverty reduction, project fund integration mechanism, fixed-point poverty alleviation mechanism and assessment mechanism provided a useful reference for the poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas of the province.

　　【Entire village advancement】 In 2011, Hubei Province completed the planning preparation for the provincial, city and county-level entire village advancement projects in the 12th Five-Year Plan period and determined to launch entire village advancement projects in 1500 impoverished villages of the key counties during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. It already launched the entire village advancement projects in the first batch of 300 poverty-stricken villages, covering 3545 projects, averagely 12 projects for each village. In 2011, it completed the construction of 2603 projects, accounting for 73.4% of the total, and 942 projects are being constructed, accounting for 26.6%.

　　In accordance with the requirements of resource integration and centralizing the investment, the province integrated a total of 1.001 billion Yuan of project funds for the 300 villages involved in entire village advancement projects launched in 2011, averagely 3.339 million Yuan for each village, of which: 397.91 million Yuan was financial anti-poverty funds, averagely 1.326 million Yuan for each village; and 603.85 million Yuan was integrated industrial and credit funds, averagely 20.13 million Yuan for each village. Through the implementation of entire village advancement projects, the province built village roads of 2150 km for the 300 villages, addressed the drinking water problem of 326,000 people, developed bases of 395,000 mu for the industries with local characteristics and raised 789,000 pigs and 93,000 sheep, promoting the income growth of poor farmers.

　　【Industrial poverty alleviation】 Hubei Province always gives priority to the development of the industries with local characteristics of poor areas and impoverished rural households and the income growth of farmers in the poverty alleviation and development, and puts a lot of effort on developing backbone industries with local characteristics through providing financial and credit support. It has set up featured agricultural bases of more than 18 million mu in the impoverished areas of the province and established the industrial layout with local characteristics: Dabie Mountain area focused on the development of tea, chestnuts, peanuts, herbal medicines and beef cattle industry, Wuling Mountain area focused on the development of citrus, tea and tobacco planting, livestock breeding, mountain vegetable planting, Qinba Mountain area focused on the development of konjac, citrus, edible mushrooms, walnuts and gallnut industry, and Mufu Mountain area focused on the development of bamboo shoots, livestock breeding and fast growing forest industry.

　　In 2011, Hubei Province further reformed the working mechanism for poverty alleviation loan discount funds and decentralized the rights of approving discount funds to the key counties for poverty alleviation and development. The counties might determine the enterprises and projects for the discount funds according to the discount fund amount determined by the provincial government. The province allocated a total of 66.58 million Yuan of discount funds to encourage the issuance of 2.219 billion Yuan of project loans, which supported 368 industrialization leading enterprises, 146 agricultural product processing projects, 28 farming base projects and 168 professional cooperatives and other projects, covering 2,768 impoverished villages, increasing the income of about 950,000 objects of poverty reduction. the province arranged small loan interest subsidy funds of 11,250,000 Yuan to support the poor get loans of 225 million Yuan, effectively addressing the shortage of funds for the poor to develop production.

　　【Ex-situ anti-poverty relocation】 For eight consecutive years, taking the off-site poverty-relief relocation as one of the ten practical things to improve people's livelihood, Hubei Provincial People's Government adheres to take anti-poverty relocation an important measure to reduce household poverty. In 2011, the province completed the relocation of 10,248 households and 40,992 people, 2.4% beyond the plan. The provincial government issued relocation subsidy funds of 80 million Yuan and provided subsidies for the immigrants according to the standard of 2000 Yuan per person or 8000 Yuan per household. According to the basic requirements of "affordable relocation, steady progress, sustained development and poverty reduction", the province explored the establishment of the poverty alleviation pattern of focusing on centralized relocation, combined with gradient relocation and scattered relocation. It implemented three combinations in the centralized relocation, i.e. the combination between relocation planning and the entire village advancement, the combination between relocation site selection and small town or new rural construction and the combination between the expansion of living space and protection of ecological environment.

　　In order to enhance the management level of the anti-poverty relocation work, the province implemented real-name system for the management of objects of immigration and targeted at the registered poor in relocation to really resolve the production and living problems of the poor living in places with harsh conditions. It implemented the “one card through” system in some key counties and provided relocation subsidies directly to the poor involved to ensure the security of funds and the pertinence of targets.

　　【Rain Plan】 In 2011, Hubei Province fully implemented the Rain Plan implementation planning reform, transferred the training subsidies directly to farmers to make the project management more standardized, simple and effective. It implemented the “One Card Through” system to directly provide subsidies to the poor, not only targeting at the poor, but also standardizing the management of training funds. A total of 50 million Yuan was invested as subsidies for the Rain Plan, 1000 Yuan per person, and the project transferred and trained 51,411 labors of impoverished regions, 2.8% beyond the plan.

　　To support the poverty alleviation and development, in 2011, Hubei Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office organized 14 cadre trainings for poor areas, covering 1691 poverty relief cadres. For seven consecutive years, it organized the “training of secretaries of one thousand villages” for key impoverished villages involved in the entire village advancement that year and the training was mainly about the pro-poor policies, preparation of village-level poverty alleviation planning, integration of resources, project management and the construction of grassroots organizations. In the whole year, the province organized trainings for 878 party secretaries of key poor villages and 133 cadres of grassroots organizations, providing personnel support and organizational guarantee for the implementation of a new round of entire village advancement.

　　【Construction of old revolutionary base areas】 In 2011, Hubei Province allocated 98.78 million Yuan of township support funds in key old revolutionary base areas and 60 million Yuan of funds to support the scattered poor towns, and select one poor village from each of the 309 provincial key towns with old revolutionary base areas and 200 key scattered poor towns in the province to receive key support. 1192 anti-poverty projects were constructed in 209 poor villages in old revolutionary base areas. It increased 20 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for old revolutionary base areas and scattered poverty-stricken regions, determined four key towns with old revolutionary base areas and four scattered poor towns for entire village advancement and contiguous development through competition, and allocated 2.5 million Yuan of funds for each contiguous area.

　　【Pilot poverty alleviation projects】 Seven key counties (cities) of Hubei Province, namely Dawu, Jianshi, Zhushan, Enshi, Yun County, Luotian and Zigui were successively designated as the pilot counties for the "county-based entire village advancement and contiguous development through integration of funds". A total of 869.47 million Yuan was invested in the seven for the implementation of nearly 1000 projects including industrial development, infrastructure construction, village renovation, development of social undertakings, etc, increasing the per capita net income of farmers in the project areas by more than 800 Yuan. 2011 is the last year for Macheng and Yangxin, two key old revolutionary base counties (cities) of Hubei Province, to implement the pilot project for central lottery welfare fund to support the entire village advancement project construction in old revolutionary base areas. The pilot projects of the two counties (cities) covered 34 villages and the implementation of the planned entire village advancement projects in pilot area has been completed. At the same time, the province launched the pilot project of central lottery public welfare fund in three old revolutionary base counties and cities, namely Danjiangkou, Jichun and Lichuan.

　　Hubei Province launched the pilot projects of mutual funds for impoverished villages in 2007. Over the past four years, the pilot work covered 201 villages of 29 key counties for poverty alleviation and development. A total of 46,697 rural households joined in the mutual funds in pilot villages and the mutual funds amounted to 56.21 million Yuan, of which 19.25 million Yuan was from the central government, 30 million Yuan was from the provincial government, 6.15 million Yuan was individual contributions of the members and 810,000 Yuan was other funds. The pilot villages issued a total of 53.81 million Yuan of loans, of which 27.2 million Yuan was for poor households, accounting for 50.6%. The mutual funds were mainly invested in planting, breeding and small-sized processing and played an important role in easing the shortage of funds for production of pilot villages, especially for poor rural households and promoting the income growth of the poor.

　　【Industry poverty alleviation】 In 2011, Hubei Province continued to increase efforts on industrial poverty alleviation. The provincial organs and departments invested a total of 27.597 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the contiguous poor areas and key counties for poverty alleviation and development, up 15.7% over 2010, providing a powerful guarantee for strengthening the infrastructure construction in poor areas and promoting the equal access to basic public services.

　　In 2011, the Transportation Department of Hubei Province invested 1.563 billion Yuan of highway construction funds for poor rural areas to solve the highroad problem of 254 administrative villages, making the highway patency rate of the administrative villages in poor areas reach 89.4% and addressing the highroad problem of 1865 natural villages. The water conservancy departments allocated 20236 billion Yuan of special funds to solve the drinking water problem of 395,000 people in impoverished regions, making the safe drinking water coverage rate in poor areas reach 67.87%. The housing construction department invested 399 million Yuan for the renovation of dilapidated houses of 30,600 households in rural poor areas, reducing the rate of dilapidated houses in rural areas to 6.7%. The education department gave priority to impoverished areas in the allocation of educational resources. The grass enrollment rate of kindergarten reached 61.8%, 4.4 percentage points higher than that of the previous year; the dropout rate of students receiving compulsory education decreased to 0.24% and the gross enrollment rate of high schools reached 65%. The health sector invested 2.92 billion Yuan to improve the health conditions of poor areas, enhance the participation rate of the new rural cooperative medical system and improve the level of medical care of the poor. In 2011, the province invested 2.73 billion Yuan of funds as subsistence allowances for the rural poor, with an increase of 80% over the previous year; and included 2.2951 million people into the minimum living security system, with an increase 200,000 over the previous year.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 In 2011, the central organs were designated to provide counterpart support for 9 key counties in Hubei Province and directly put in 25.55 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds and introduced 176.3 million Yuan of various types of funds and 48 projects for the key counties. The provincial organs and departments put in a total of 944.94 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds for the fixed-point poverty alleviation and introduced 482 million Yuan of funds and 574 projects for the key counties.

　　Hubei Provincial Military Area successively coordinated funding of 10 million Yuan to support the construction of the project in Songshuling of Zhushan County and Pankou Power Station. Enshi Military Sub-district actively implemented the "131" anti-poverty project, supported local area to establish more than 100 industrial bases with local characteristics, and helped 106 villages shake off poverty. 7 army units in Hubei Province were designated to provide counterpart support for 7 pilot counties and cities for building a moderately prosperous society, making a contribution to boosting local economic and social development.

　　In accordance with the principle of "market operation and cooperation for a win-win situation", in 2011, a total of more than 1,200 state-owned and private enterprises in the province participated in the poverty alleviation. China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation launched in Hubei the New Great Wall Project for Self-Improvement of the Poor, provided subsidy of 1.2788 million Yuan to the poor university students and implemented the care package projects with investment of 1.1307 million Yuan. Hubei Province Poverty Alleviation Association printed 70,000 copies of technical books named "Bridge to Prosperity" and issued the books to the key counties for provincial poverty alleviation and development. The Provincial Youth Foundation supported the construction of 46 Hope Primary Schools and subsidized 12,000 poverty-stricken students.

　　【Management of anti-poverty funds】 According to relevant regulations on the management of financial anti-poverty funds, based on the actual situation of Hubei Province, we improved the “Methods on the Management of Financial Anti-poverty funds of Hubei Province” and revised the factors for allocation of financial anti-poverty funds as: poverty-stricken population, per capita net income of farmers, per capita fiscal income, per capita GDP, and performance evaluation, of which the capital allocation weight was 4:3:1:1:1.

　　In accordance with the poverty alleviation and development planning, Hubei province strengthened the construction of poverty alleviation project library and set up a series of mechanisms for project proposal and involvement. While selecting financial anti-poverty projects, various regions implemented the method of public participation and democratic decision-making. The province fully implemented the publicity system for anti-poverty fund projects and announced the funding planning for financial anti-poverty projects and the assessment results of poverty reduction effects on the poverty alleviation website of Hubei Province. At the same time, the city and county-level poverty alleviation offices announced the poverty relief fund projects in local media and the town and village administrative affair bulletins in a variety of forms, and conducted regular or occasional inspection on the use of financial anti-poverty funds through public and private investigations to find problems, improve the systems and prevent and control risks. Meanwhile, it carried out the performance assessment of financial anti-poverty funds. In the national performance assessment of financial anti-poverty funds organized in 2011, Hubei Province received a B grade of overall evaluation.

　　【Poverty alleviation research】 Since 2009, for three consecutive years, Hubei Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office organized the poverty alleviation system to carry out the “Field Research Activity Characterized by the Linkage of Provincial, Municipal and County Government” and nearly one thousand people went to conduct field research in impoverished villages and carry out investigations into poverty-stricken households and completed the writing of more than 300 research reports, providing a reference for the scientific decision-making of party committees and governments at all levels and the preparation of the Outline for Hubei’s Poverty Alleviation and Development in the Next Decade and the “12th Five-Year Plan”. In 2011, based on the results of the activity for ten thousand cadres to conduct field research in ten thousand villages and ten thousand households” in the province, the provincial poverty alleviation office conducted a comprehensive analysis of the questionnaire survey data of the activity in four contiguous poor areas namely Wuling Mountain area, Dabie Mountain area, Qinba Mountain area and Mufu Mountain area of Hubei Province, and wrote a research report entitled “We Should not Forget the Poor While Boosting Development – See the Poverty Situation of Hubei Province from the Questionnaire Survey Data of the ‘Sanwan’ Activity”, arousing high attention of the provincial leaders. This research report won the First Prize for outstanding research report by LGOP. The research results of the “Study of Household Poverty Reduction”, the “Study of the Integration of Poverty-relief Resources to Maximize the Benefits” and the “Study of Rain Plan Implementation Method Reform” of the provincial poverty alleviation office have all been transformed into the anti-poverty decision-making of the provincial party committee and government.