Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regions

　　【Overview】In 2011, taking poverty alleviation and development as a major political task to solve the livelihood problems of the poverty-stricken areas, Guangxi developed scientific planning, effectively implemented the plan and made smooth progress in poverty alleviation. It introduced a series of policy documents. Based on the preparation of the special programs such as the “12th Five-Year Plan for the Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas of Guangxi”, it formulated the “Methods for Guangxi to Implement the ‘Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction in China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)’”, the “Decision on the Implementation of A New Round of Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guangxi” and 28 supporting documents. As for the comprehensive management of poor areas with particular difficulties, Guangxi formulated the planning for regional development and poverty reduction in the rocky desertification areas in Guangxi; developed the implementation plan to further improve the production and living conditions of the masses in border areas of Guangxi and to boost the regional development of border areas; and launched a new round of poverty reduction by entire village advancement in poor villages. As for the industrialization poverty alleviation and development, Guangxi implemented the demonstrative projects of “Ten, Hundred and Thousand”. In other words, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, it will set up ten demonstration bases for contiguous farming in poor counties, support one hundred or more poverty alleviation leading enterprises and help one thousand poor villages develop into model villages for industrialization poverty alleviation. Poverty alleviation training in poor areas: It organized practical technical trainings for 140,000 farmers in poor villages; supported 9958 children from needy families in mountain areas and 15128 children from needy families of non-mountain areas to receive vocational training, organized short-term job skills trainings for 8030 poor labors, launched the pilot project of stepped training of labors from poor villages and secondary vocational education of poverty alleviation women; and organized trainings for 1400 cadres of the “two committees” of poor villages. Social poverty alleviation and development: Developed the “Opinions of Guangxi Zhuang Region Party Committee and People's Government on Strengthening Social Poverty Alleviation in the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period”, further improved the working system of “Leader Responsibility, Village Poverty Reduction by Units and Household Poverty Reduction by Cadres”; signed with Guangdong Province the “Outline on Guangdong-Guangxi Cooperation in Poverty Alleviation During the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period”; strengthened the cooperation with international organizations such as the World Bank, DFID, World Vision, Oxfam Hong Kong and the ActionAid International, implemented pilot projects of community-led anti-poverty work and innovation of poverty relief mechanisms in impoverished villages, infrastructure construction, education, industrial development, capacity building and disaster relief projects, successfully held two seminars on the exchange of experience of international organizations in the field of poverty reduction, and did a good job of preparing for the fifth China - ASEAN Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction. Pilot project of poverty alleviation: It increased the pilot projects of mutual funds in poor villages from 210 in 2010 to 240, achieved good results in the pilot work of contiguous development and the construction of old revolutionary base areas, invested a total of 674.01 million Yuan in the 12 pilot projects in key counties launched in 2009 and 2010, and completed the preparation for the work of three new pilot counties involved in pilot projects of central lottery public welfare funds, namely Debao, Leye and Bama County.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2011, a total of 1.144665 billion Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds was invested in Guangxi, of which 934.245 million Yuan not including work-relief funds and ethnic minority development funds) was from the central government and 210.42 million Yuan was from Guangxi. 702.91 million Yuan was put in the infrastructure construction of poor villages, accounting for 61.4%; 175.1 million Yuan was invested in industrial development, accounting for 15.3%; 30 million Yuan was invested in the contiguous development, accounting for 2.6%; 25 million Yuan was put in ex-situ poverty-relief relocation, accounting for 2.2%; 66.5 million Yuan was invested in the “Rain Plan”, accounting for 5.8%;  92.4 million Yuan was issued as poverty-relief loan discount funds, accounting for 8.1%; and 52.755 million Yuan was issued as other funds, accounting for 4.6%. Meanwhile, it invested 583.675 million Yuan, 580.504 million Yuan and 8.943182 billion Yuan respectively in 28 key counties for poverty alleviation and development, 29 contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties and the impoverished villages involved in entire village advancement, respectively accounting for 51%, 50.7% and 78.1%.

　　【Credit poverty alleviation】In 2011, in accordance with the general idea of "government guidance, market operation, decentralization of administrative privileges, introduction of competition mechanism, fixed interest subsidies, flexible way of subsidy providing, gradually establishment of risk prevention and incentive and restraint mechanisms", taking credit poverty alleviation as the core of poverty alleviation and development, combined with the industrial development in key poor villages and the construction of “Ten, Hundred and Thousand” demonstrative projects of industrialization poverty alleviation, Guangxi made full use of the discount loans to develop leading industries, boost the development of poverty alleviation enterprises and adjust industrial structure, effectively promoting the economic development and income growth of the farmers in poor areas. The total poverty-relief loan discount funds in the region amounted to 92.4 million Yuan, up 9.4%. Guangxi issued a total of 1.30806 billion Yuan of poverty-relief project loans to support the development of 117 poverty alleviation leading enterprises and the development of competitive industries in impoverished villages, of which, 696 million Yuan was put in planting to support 67 projects, and 607.06 million Yuan was invested in industrialization poverty alleviation to support 49 supportive projects (including small-sized processing) and one other project (5 million Yuan). It supported the leading enterprises to help 841,000 rural households increase income by 780 Yuan per household. A total of 1.3471 billion Yuan of household poverty relief loans was issued for 79 counties, up 16.9%, accounting for 126% of the annual plan, covering 136,000 poor households, up 7%. The average income growth of the involved rural households was 1065 Yuan. The due loans were 1.04963 billion Yuan, of which 975.29 million Yuan was recovered, accounting for 93% of the total.

　　【Pilot project of village-level mutual funds】 In 2011, in accordance with the requirement of “consolidation and improvement”, Guangxi constantly expanded the scale of pilot mutual funds in poor villages and gradually improved the management system for the pilot work. As of the end of the year, the number of pilot villages for mutual funds in Guangxi reached 240 and the mutual funds amounted to 42.73 million Yuan, of which 40.73 million Yuan was financial anti-poverty funds and 2 million Yuan was individual contributions of the farmers. A total of 15,948 rural households participated in the mutual aid society, of which 10,392 were poor households, accounting for 65% of the total. A total of 29.808 million Yuan of loans was issued, of which 21.209 million Yuan was issued to the poor, 14.555 million Yuan was repaid, and the repayment rate of due loans reached 100%. The income growth of the rural households involved was 800 Yuan per household.

　　【Ex-situ anti-poverty relocation】 In 2011, in addition to the 5000 Yuan per person for the immigrants involved in ex-situ anti-poverty relocation in Guangxi according to the state’s requirements, Guangxi arranged 25 million Yuan of work-relief funds and 25 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to support the project. So far, Guangxi has issued 16.13 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds to implement soil conservation and masonry works of 1680 cubic meters, newly build and rebuild 78 village roads of 127.5 km, two bridges of 30 linear meters, 78 drinking water projects of 1,830 cubic meters, solve the drinking water problem of 36,018 people, harden water conservancy channels of 2.5 km, raise 5000 rabbits and support the development of herbs and sericulture of 465.8 mu. The remaining 8.87 million Yuan has been issued to the project counties, and relevant project will be implemented after determining the pilot areas for ex-situ poverty-relief relocation.

　　【Entire village advancement】During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, Guangxi determined to launch the entire village advancement projects in 3000 poor villages in two batches under the overall planning, and the examination and acceptance of projects will be carried out at the end of the  "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period. In 2011, Guangxi implemented the entire village advancement projects in 1,611 impoverished villages, of which 999 were covered by the national planning. A total investment of 1.845604 billion Yuan was invested in the project construction, of which 934.245 million Yuan was from the central government, 210.42 million Yuan was local matching funds, 577.896 million Yuan was integrated department funds and 123.043 million Yuan was other funds. In the field of infrastructure construction, Guangxi invested a total of 589.643 million Yuan, covering the construction of village roads of 5417.3 km and ponds of 300 mu, solving the drinking water problem of 224,000 people and 142,000 heads of livestock. Meanwhile, it invested 144.808 million Yuan, 112.822 million Yuan and 25.079 million Yuan respectively in production for income growth, planting and breeding industry that year. It also invested 373.94 million Yuan in public welfare projects, built cultural rooms of 7,701 square meters and village clinics of 14,568.2 square meters, trained 29.896 million farmers, renovated village committee of 6,165 square meters, repaired primary schools of 12,432 square meters and renovated 14,404 dilapidated houses. In addition, 115.538 million Yuan was invested in other fields.

　　【Key poverty reduction projects】In order to accelerate the pace of industrialization poverty alleviation in impoverished areas and support the poor to develop industries that can increase their income, Guangxi Decided to launch the “Ten, Hundred and Thousand” Demonstrative Project for industrialization poverty alleviation in the 12th Five-Year Plan period. The overall objective of the project: As of the end of 2015, set up ten demonstration bases for industrialization poverty alleviation, support one hundred or more poverty alleviation leading enterprises and help one thousand poor villages develop into model villages for industrialization poverty alleviation. By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, double the per capita net income of farmers of model villages compared to 2010. In September 2011, the demonstrative project was successfully launched. The first batch of projects covered 15 poor counties and one grape growing demonstration base, including featured industries with economic and ecological benefits such as sugar cane, Camellia, bamboo, Chinese herbs, rabbits and laying hens. A total of 50 million Yuan was put in for the project construction.

　　【Infrastructure construction】In 2011, the region invested a total of 704.04 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to support the infrastructure construction in poor areas, improve the living environment of poor areas and improve the production and living conditions of the poor. The first time, it allocated 267.19 million Yuan of the first batch of financial funds for the infrastructure construction, covering the construction of 1762 village roads of 2256.6 km, 113 independent bridges of 1930.4 linear meters, 125 drinking water projects for people and livestock, 21 small water conservancy projects and five small docks. The second time, it allocated 70 million Yuan of the first batch of financial funds for the infrastructure construction, covering the construction of 532 village roads of 666.5 km, 54 bridges of 426 linear meters, 22 drinking water projects and nine small docks. The regions issued the second batch of anti-poverty funds of 161.35 million Yuan for infrastructure construction, covering the construction of 1138 village roads of 1433.8 km, 80 independent bridges of 1205.1 linear meters, 102 drinking water projects and 30 small water conservancy projects. Meanwhile, Guangxi issued 36 million Yuan of funds for the infrastructure construction in border areas, of which 6 million Yuan was issued for Baise City to construct nine village roads of 42.5 linear meters and one independent bridge of 16.7 linear meters; 19.2 million Yuan was issued for Chongzuo City to build 53 village roads of 90.5 linear meters, and 10.8 million Yuan was issued for Fangchenggang City to build 28 village roads of 47.2 km and seven independent bridges of 207.2 linear meters. The construction of all the projects has been completed. In addition, Guangxi allocated 5 million Yuan for Phase III project to improve the appearance of the urban and rural areas, covering the construction of 13 village roads. In 2011, it issued 165 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for the construction of 6,777 drinking water projects, including 814 small centralized water supply projects and 5,963 family water tanks, benefiting 205,000 people.

　　【Practical things done for the people】In 2011, Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Office planned to build 1169 village roads of 2161.6 km and completed the project construction at the end of November 2011 with a total investment of 126.612 million Yuan, of which: 101.664 million Yuan was financial anti-poverty funds, 2.64 million Yuan was local matching funds and 22.308 million Yuan was raised by the masses. The masses put in labor service of 752,000 work days for the project construction and the project benefited 678,000 people.

　　【Industrial poverty alleviation】In 2011, Guangxi achieved good results in industrial poverty alleviation: First, it completed the task of 2010-2011 annual plan for industrial poverty alleviation, including planting area of 319,000 mu, transformation of low-yield farmland of 53,000 mu, breeding of 781,000 poultries and breeding of 67,000 heads of livestock, respectively accounting for 116.9%, 119.8%, 105.3% and 102.2% of the annual plan, and it completed all the objectives for aquaculture and sericulture projects. It used 113.78 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds, accounting for 97.9% of the total. The industrial poverty alleviation projects covered 2,219 impoverished villages and benefited 165,654 rural households. Second, it increased investment to boost the development of industrial poverty alleviation. In 2011, it invested 175.1 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to support the poor develop competitive industries with local characteristics. 120 million Yuan was allocated for the construction of the first batch of key industrial development projects in impoverished villages, covering planting area of 238,000 mu, the transformation of low-yield farmland of 106,000 mu, breeding of 1.204 million poultries and 27,000 heads of livestock and aquaculture projects of 775,000 kg. 4.6 million Yuan of financial funds was put in for the second batch of projects to support the pilot poverty reduction by industrial development in Nandan County, Longsheng County, Mashan County and Pubei County. In addition, Guangxi invested 50 million Yuan to set up the “Ten, Hundred and Thousand” demonstration bases for industrialization poverty alleviation in 15 counties of the autonomous region.

　　【Pilot work of contiguous development】In 2011, Guangxi made smooth progress in the pilot work of “county-based entire village advancement and contiguous development by integrating funds”. First, conducted examination and acceptance of the pilot projects in Longsheng, Tian’e, Longlin and Longzhou County and the grade of assessment result was excellent. As of the end of December, 58.857 million Yuan of central poverty-relief funds was used to implement the pilot projects launched in six counties in 2009, accounting for 88.4% of the total investment; the region completed the construction of planting projects of 124,000 mu, breeding projects of 547,000 heads of livestock, basic farmland of 600 mu, roads of 511.7 km, 202 small water conservancy projects, 1996 biogas digesters, 24 schools, 10 village-level cultural rooms and five village clinics, and the training of farmers for 77,000 person-times. 39.36 million Yuan of central poverty-relief funds was used to implement the pilot projects launched in six counties in 2010, accounting for 89.8% of the total investment; the region completed the construction of planting projects of 65,000 mu, breeding projects of 310,000 heads of livestock, basic farmland of 250 mu, roads of 437 km, 36 small water conservancy projects, 570 biogas digesters, 12 schools, 13 village-level cultural rooms and 15 village clinics, and the training of farmers for 23,000 person-times.

　　【Poverty alleviation by disaster relief】In 2011, the state issued 2 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds to alleviate the damages caused by natural disasters such as torrential rains, typhoons, floods and landslides to the infrastructure and industry in Guangxi, of which 300,000 Yuan was issued to Nanning City, 200,000 Yuan to Beihai City, 300,000 Yuan to Fangchenggang City, 300,000 Yuan to Qinzhou City, 200,000 Yuan to Guigang City, 300,000 Yuan to Yulin City and 400,000 Yuan to Chongzuo City. The timely investment of the funds helped repair the damaged facilities and recover the industries and consolidated the anti-poverty results.

　　【Construction of old revolutionary base areas】In 2011, Guangxi carried out the identification of old revolutionary base counties and towns. On the basis of comprehensive survey, it developed the “Distribution Table of Old Revolutionary Base Towns of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region” and the “Name List of 777 Old Revolutionary Base Towns of Guangxi”, providing a reliable reference for the formulation of economic and social development policies for old revolutionary base areas.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】In 2011, a total of 4131 regional, city and county (city, district) organs and 4983 cadres were designated to provide counterpart support for the fixed-point poverty alleviation in Guangxi, including 204 units directly under Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Government, which dispatched 227 cadres to work in the poor villages, 927 units directly under the city government, which sent 850 cadres to the poor villages, and 3,000 county-level units, which sent 3861 cadres to work in the impoverished villages. The central organs, regional, city and county helping units directly invested a total of 323.471 million Yuan (including donations in kind) of anti-poverty funds and introduced investment of 687.397 million Yuan for the region, of which 117.56 million Yuan was directly invested and 8.2 million Yuan was invited by the central organs; 68.374 million Yuan was directly invested and 85.936 million Yuan was invited by the regional organs and the units of central organs in Guangxi; 39.996 million Yuan was directly invested and 65.881 million Yuan was invited by the city units; and 97.54 million Yuan was invested and 527.38 million Yuan was invited by the county units. The anti-poverty funds invested by the relevant units were mainly used to support the infrastructure construction, industrial development, education, the construction of cultural and activity rooms, medical care, development of grassroots units, training and disaster relief in poor villages. Meanwhile, through inviting investment from other areas, Guangxi helped the poor regions implement 374 projects to benefit 538,002 poor households, significantly increasing the per capita net income of the farmers of impoverished villages. In August 2011, Guangxi party committee and government issued the “Opinions on Strengthening Social Poverty Alleviation During the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period” (Gui Fa [2011] No. 35) and implemented the work responsibility system of “cadre leadership, village poverty reduction by units and household poverty reduction by cadres”. Each provincial leader was responsible for contacting one poor county and one impoverished villages and providing counterpart support for one poverty-stricken household. Each of the city and county leading group members was responsible for contacting one poor village and providing counterpart support for one poor household. Each of organs, enterprises and institutions affiliated to the autonomous region, city or county government as well as the central units in Guangxi was designated to provide counterpart support for one poor village and each cadre of the helping units was responsible for providing counterpart support for one impoverished household.

　　【East-west cooperation in poverty alleviation】In 2011, Guangdong-Guangxi poverty alleviation cooperation task was successfully completed on schedule. A total of 200 poverty alleviation cadres of Guangxi went to receive two trainings in Guangdong Province; Guangdong arranged 35 million Yuan to construct one model village for entire village advancement in each of the 23 counties (cities, districts) in Baise and Hechi City of Guangxi; Guangxi organized labor transfer to Guangdong Province for 15,000 person-times with labor service income of 1.8 billion Yuan. Guangdong and Guangxi signed 1672 cooperative projects with a total investment of 143 billion Yuan. On November 15, the two regions signed the “Outline for Guangdong-Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Cooperation During the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period” and clarified the development objectives, cooperation principles and work priorities for the poverty relief cooperation in the next five years. First, in the 12th Five Year Plan period, Guangdong will provide 35 million Yuan of aid funds every year for the construction of poverty alleviation model villages in Baise and Hechi city of Guangxi and provide 1.5 million Yuan per year to support the training of poverty relief cadres of Guangxi. Second, set up industrial parks in Baise and Hechi, guide Guangdong’s enterprises to develop in the industrial parks to establish a platform for the cooperation and development of the enterprises of the two regions, set up industrial bases and form the new economic growth points. Third, implement a new round of support for the education projects of Guangxi. Guangdong will strive to provide financial aid for 10,000 students from needy families of Guangxi to receive high school education, vocational education or higher education during the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

　　【Poverty alleviation training】 Cadre training: In 2011, the region invested a total of 5.921 million Yuan of funds (including 1.421 million Yuan for villages’ two committees) for the training of 4900 cadres (including 1000 new cadres of the villages’ “two committees” in the next decade according to the Organization Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee), completing 100% of the scheduled task.

　　Rain Plan: In 2011, Guangxi put in financial anti-poverty funds of 62 million Yuan in labor trainings for 216,263 person-times; invested 10.5 million Yuan in practical technical trainings of farmers for 181,650 person-times; and put in 51.5 million Yuan in labor transfer training of poor villages for 44,763 people, including 19.2972 million Yuan for vocational education of 16081 people in non-rocky mountain areas and 16.0168 million Yuan for vocational education of 10561 people in rocky mountain area. In addition, it invested 11.686 million Yuan for short-term trainings of 11686 people and 4.5 million Yuan for the pilot reform of Rain Plan projects, subsidizing 6435 poor students.

　　【Management of foreign-funded poverty alleviation projects】  Poor rural community development projects: The project construction period is six years and the project was launched in August 2005. As of December 2011, Guangxi had put in a total investment of 327.95 million Yuan (of which 20.193 million Yuan was invested in 2011) in the project construction, covering 653,000 households (41,000 households in 2011) with cumulative withdrawals reimbursement of 207.586 million Yuan (70.682 million Yuan in 2011), equivalent to U.S. $ 29.905 million, comprehensively completing the project construction task.

　　Pilot projects of community-led poverty alleviation mechanism innovation. Launched in June 2009, the project was completed at the end of 2011. The pilot projects were launched in 22 poor villages of 11 counties, covering 302 poverty-relief projects with a total investment of 21.76 million Yuan. International non-government organizations’’ poverty alleviation: In 2011, the international non-government organizations provided a total of 29.425 million Yuan of aid funds, of which 22.96 million Yuan was from the World Vision, 3.77 million Yuan was from Oxfam Hong Kong and 2.695 million Yuan was invested by ActionAid International. In addition, Guangxi Simplyhelp Education And Poverty Reduction Foundation funded the establishment of five primary schools with a total of investment of 570,000 Yuan.

　　【International exchanges and cooperation】In 2011, Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Office supported the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) to successfully hold the “Seminar on the Development and Implementation of Poverty Alleviation Planning for Developing Countries” and the “Training of Development Assistance Officials of Nigeria”. 35 division-level officials from relevant sectors of 35 developing countries and 34 international development aid officials from Nigeria attended the events. We provided support for the holding of the Fifth China - ASEAN Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction. Invited by the organizer of the forum, Director-General of Guangxi Poverty Alleviation Office Wu Yuxiong delivered a speech entitled “Practice of Guangxi in Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth”, which was highly praised by relevant guests and welcomed by the participants.

　　【Pilot project of lottery public welfare fund】 The first batch of pilot entire village advancement projects (Rongshui and Luocheng County) in old revolutionary base areas funded by the central lottery public welfare fund covered 18 towns, 30 villages, 285 natural villages, 13,409 households and 61772 people. The total investment to the project was 124.014 million Yuan, of which: 42.5 million Yuan was central lottery public welfare fund and 81.514 million Yuan was integrated department funds, the funds raised by the masses and the labor service inputs of the masses. As of December 2011, a total of 95.6997 million Yuan was put in the two pilot counties of Guangxi, accounting for 77.2% of the total. 31.038 million Yuan of special lottery welfare fund was invested, accounting for 73.0% of the total lottery welfare fund of 42.5 million Yuan. At the same time, approved by the Ministry of Finance and LGOP, three impoverished counties namely Debao County, Leye County and Bama County were identified as the pilot counties for the new projects in 2011.