Poverty Alleviation and Development in Yunnan Province

　　【Overview】 Based on the new national poverty line of 2300 Yuan of per capita net income of farmers, as of the end of 2011, Yunnan had a poverty-stricken population of 10.14 million and the incidence of poverty was 27.3%. Among them, 1.602 million people lived in deep poverty with per capita net income of less than 785 Yuan, mainly concentrated in the remote ethnic minority areas. The province identified 73 key counties for national poverty alleviation and development and 7 key counties for provincial poverty alleviation and development. The key contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties identified by the state covered Wumeng Mountain area, Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou’s rocky areas, the border mountain areas in the west of Yunnan Province and the Tibetan areas of Diqing, involving 85 counties (cities, districts), of which 70 were key counties for national poverty alleviation, six were key counties for provincial poverty alleviation and nine were not key counties for poverty alleviation, which were the main battlefield of the poverty alleviation work of the country.

　　In 2011, with the promulgation and implementation of the outline for rural poverty alleviation and development in the new decade and with support from the central government for its construction, Yunnan Province seriously implemented the spirit of the central poverty alleviation and development work conference, the spirit of the province’s Ninth Party Congress and the spirit of the second plenary session of the ninth Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection. With joint efforts of all the comrades of the poverty alleviation system and support of relevant departments at all levels, in the face of the once-in-100- year severe drought, we continuously improved the production and living conditions of the poverty-stricken areas, and the per capita net income of rural residents in poor areas continued to increase, reaching 3573 Yuan, 633 Yuan more than that of the previous year, and there was a sharp reduction of 4 million in the number of the poor. In the anti-poverty performance evaluation organized by LGOP, Yunnan was rated as excellent and awarded 13 million Yuan. On the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development, Yunnan was selected as one of the six provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) for the meeting exchange, ten Yunnan’s units were titled as advanced units and ten comrades from Yunnan were titled as advanced individuals. On the “Exhibition on China’s Poverty Reduction Achievements in the New Century” sponsored by LGOP, Yunnan Province won the Excellence Award; two research reports namely “Poverty Alleviation in Contiguous Poor Areas with Special Difficulties in Yunnan” and “Strengthening the Management of Anti-poverty Funds” respectively won the first prize and third prize for excellent research reports. LGOP fully affirmed the “Implementation Plan for Promoting Honesty Poverty Alleviation” introduced by Yunnan Province.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2011, 3.317 billion Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds (of which 2.516 billion Yuan was central financial funds and 801 million Yuan was the provincial matching funds), 834 million Yuan more than that of 2010. The province strived for 337 million Yuan of financial aid from Shanghai for the anti-poverty work, up 63.5% over 2010, and the cooperative project funds of the two sides reached 4.65 billion Yuan. It obtained financial aid of 395 million Yuan from 27 central organs for poverty alleviation, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development, Tencent Charity Foundation and 217 provincial organs and enterprises; 306.3 million Yuan of investment from international governmental organizations, financial organizations and non-governmental organizations for the poverty alleviation cooperative projects in Yunnan Province, and 590 million Yuan of rural development project funds from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The province allocated 10 million Yuan for the implementation of entire town advancement of Dulongjiang Town and the entire village advancement and housing projects of Drung nationality; increased 150 million Yuan of local bond funds to promote the entire village advancement; allocated 14.2 million Yuan in five special projects including the resettlement of the immigrants of the reservoirs in three key counties; issued 3.14 million Yuan of provincial annual special funds for the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction of Yingjiang after the “3.10” earthquake; integrated the special anti-poverty funds for the poor in the Tibetan areas of Diqing, Lahu nationality of Lancang in Pu’er, Shanyao nationality of Funing in Wenshan and Bo nationality in Qiubei of Wenshan, and allocated the central anti-poverty funds of 1.7 billion Yuan for 2012, accounting for 90% of the total.

　　【Industry poverty alleviation】 The province newly set up more than 400,000 small water conservancy projects to solve the drinking water problem of 2.39 million rural residents; renovated rural highroads of more than 15,000 kilometers, making the township asphalt road rate reach 92.8% and the hardened road rate of administrative villages reach 28%; launched safe housing projects for 300,000 rural households; improved soil erosion area of 2800 square kilometers and ecological restoration area of 6000 square meters and subsidized 2.4821 million rural boarding students. The number of rural residents covered by the minimum living security system reached 4.03 million, the number of the insured of the new rural cooperative medical system reached 34.56 million, the insurance participation rate reached 96.2% and the number of pilot counties for the new rural social pension insurance in the province reached 37.

　　【Entire village advancement】 The province invested 1.213 billion Yuan of central and provincial anti-poverty finances for the implementation of entire village advancement projects in 5919 poor natural villages, of which: 218.62 million Yuan was issued in the entire village advancement of 623 impoverished minority villages organized by the Provincial Ethnic Affairs Commission; 994 million Yuan was issued for the implementation of 5296 projects in key villages, including 460 million Yuan of central financial funds and 534 million Yuan of provincial matching funds, benefiting 257,000 households and 1.09 million people.

　　【Entire town advancement】 1.602 million people in Yunnan Province live in deep poverty, mainly concentrated in 1075 towns, including 116 towns with deep poverty-stricken people of more than 3,000. In April 2011, the province allocated 3 million Yuan for each of the four towns that were implementing the pilot projects of entire town advancement among the first batch of 17 towns. At the same time, it launched the second batch of pilot projects of entire town advancement in 25 towns in deep poverty and planned to issue 10 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for each of the town in two years, 5 million Yuan issued that year.

　　【Pilot project of county-based contiguous development】 To explore the establishment of a large-scale poverty alleviation pattern characterized by mass mobilization, public participation, resource integration and contiguous development, the province launched demonstration poverty alleviation and development projects in 11 counties of the contiguous poor areas in Wumeng Mountain area and the rocky mountain areas, including Zhenxiong County, Yiliang County, Qiaojia County, Ludian County, Yongshan County, Shizong County, Funing County, Guangnan County, Wenshan County, Mengla County and Zhenkang County, and issued 10 million Yuan of subsidies for the implementation of demonstration projects in each county.

　　【Industrial poverty alleviation】  A total of 582.41 million Yuan was invested in industrial poverty alleviation projects, of which 122.81 million Yuan was from the central government and 2.29 million Yuan was provincial matching funds. The financial anti-poverty funds were issued in two batches to support the development of traditional competitive industries such as vegetables, tobacco, sugar, tea, rubber, mulberry, livestock, potatoes and fruits and the development of emerging industries such as health food, herbs, flower and coffee industry. The program covered 194 projects in 98 counties and districts of 16 prefectures. A total of 375.26 million Yuan was invested in 125 planting projects, including financial subsidy of 80.1 million Yuan; 207.15 million Yuan was invested in 69 breeding projects, including 45 financial anti-poverty funds. As a result, the industrial structure of poverty-stricken areas was further optimized and the capacity for sustainable development was further enhanced.

　　【Credit poverty alleviation】 The province allocated financial special discount capital of 150 million Yuan to encourage the issuance of 2.989 billion Yuan of household loans, supported the poor of 7365 villages in 1218 towns of 124 counties (cities and districts) to develop food production of 1.462 million mu, cash crop planting of 3.218 million mu, economic fruit and forest area of 2.167 million mu and supported the poor to breed 2.865 million heads of livestock, benefiting 336,000 poor rural households and resulting in the income growth of 2000 Yuan per household. It arranged financial special discount capital of 30 million Yuan to guide the issuance of 1 billion Yuan of project loans, adhered to the practice that provincial government issued 30% and prefecture (city) government issued 70% of the project loans. The province identified 16 provincial projects worth more than 10 million Yuan and 122 prefectural (city) projects worth less than 10 million Yuan. Among the recommended loan projects, 58 were planting projects, 49 were breeding projects and 31 were industrialization projects (including small-sized processing). While recommending the loan projects, the province paid attention to strengthen the mechanism for leading enterprises to drive the poor’s development, making the loan projects covering 3484 villages of 681 towns in 69 counties of 16 prefectures (cities), encouraging 4.25 poor people to develop competitive industries with local characteristics.

　　【Pilot projects of mutual funds】 It invested 33 million Yuan of central and provincial financial funds for the establishment of 260 mutual aid societies in 31 pilot counties and continued to promote the pilot mutual funds projects in poor villages. In 2011, in the national cross-examination of mutual funds organized by LGOP, Yunnan’s pilot mutual funds work was fully affirmed and highly praised by the inspection team. From October 21 to 24, 2011, Yunnan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office and the Provincial Department of Finance held in Yongde County of Lincang City the province's 2011 Work Conference on the Pilot Mutual Funds Projects of Poor Villages and Business Training. The meeting summarized the pilot work of mutual funds in poor villages of Yunnan Province since 2007.

　　【Labor transfer training】 The province invested financial anti-poverty funds of 130 million Yuan this year, 6.7 million Yuan more than that of the previous year, and used all the funds in expanding the scale of skills training. As for the labor transfer training plan for 200,000 people, it arranged skills trainings for 150,000 people, up 58% over 2010. The ratio between skills training and guiding training rose from 1:2.5 to 3:1 to meet the needs of the poor for skills trainings. The Rain Plan completed the labor transfer training for 208,000 people in impoverished regions, of which 79,400 labors were transferred to other provinces and 121,200 were transferred within the province.

　　【Human resource development for poverty alleviation】The province formulated and implemented the “Planning for Training of Cadres in Poor Regions of Yunnan and Poverty Alleviation Cadres during the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period” and allocated 1 million Yuan of special funds in 2011 to hold eight training courses for the cadres in poor areas and poverty alleviation cadres for 1239 person-times.

　　【Ex-situ anti-poverty relocation】  The province put in financial anti-poverty funds of 150 million Yuan, of which 100 million Yuan was from the central government and 50 million Yuan was the provincial matching funds. 30,000 people in 91 counties were involved in the ex-situ anti-poverty relocation. It relocated 21416 people of 65 key counties for national poverty alleviation, 24256 people of 72 contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties, 6992 people of 23 border counties, 18564 people of minority areas, 10280 people in 32 old revolutionary base areas and 7470 people of 23 districts. The province built 6973 houses of 625,000 square meters for the poor with financial funds of 113.7 million Yuan.

　　【Poverty alleviation among the Shanyao people of Yao nationality】 Yunnan Province further promoted the implementation of the “Overall Planning for the Pilot Poverty Alleviation and Development in the Regions Concentrated with Shanyao People of Yao Nationality in Funing of Yunnan”. As of October 2011, a total of 206.595 million Yuan of funds were issued for Shanyao people, accounting for 49% of the total (421.6343 million Yuan), of which: 28.785 million Yuan (20 million Yuan of central government funds and 8.785 million Yuan of other anti-poverty funds) were issued by the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, 167.81 million Yuan was other departments’ funds and 10 million Yuan was raised by the prefectures and counties. From December 17 to 27, 2011, a delegation headed by Director of the Re-examination Research Group of the Supervision Office of General Office of the Central Committee Li Bofu conducted a field research in Yunnan Province and fully affirmed the poverty alleviation work conducted for Shanyao people according to the instructions of General Secretary Hu Jintao and other central government leaders.

　　【Poverty alleviation of Drung nationality in Dulongjiang Town】 From January 28 to October 2, 2011, the provincial government carried out field research in Dulongjiang Town for twice and held the meeting to promote the poverty alleviation and field research of Drung nationality in Dulongjiang Town. The Coordination Team for the Advancement of the Entire Drung Nationality in Dulongjiang Town timely held the coordination meeting and required the member units to allocate the annual financial funds as soon as possible and make clear the project schedule to promote the project implementation. As of the end of December, a total of 338.995 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds was put in, 10% beyond the annual plan.

　　【Poverty reduction for Lahu Nationality】  The province invested 34.7531 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds to help Lahu Nationality in Lancang County of Pu’er City to conduct industrial development and infrastructure construction, develop social undertakings and construct environmental protection projects, covering 20 Lahu village teams of 12 administrative villages in five towns, directly benefiting 3261 Lahu people from 905 households.

　　【Poverty reduction in Tibetan areas of Diqing】 In accordance with the guiding ideology of “planting trees on mountains and moving people downhill”, adhering to the combination of local support and non-local support and the principle of giving priority to natural villages in deep poverty, the province invested 177.543 million Yuan (of which 40 million Yuan was financial anti-poverty funds, 103.014 million Yuan was integrated department funds and 34.259 million Yuan was raised by the masses) for the Tibetan areas of Diqing to conduct comprehensive poverty alleviation and development, covering 117 village teams of 17 village committees in nine towns, benefiting 3790 households and 21490 people (of which 10803 people were poverty-stricken residents and 6092 people lived in deep poverty).

　　【Housing project for poverty alleviation】  The provincial government attached great importance to the improvement of basic housing conditions of the poor in impoverished regions, invested 280 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds for the housing renovation of 41912 households (including special projects for 28000 households and other projects for 13912 households), covering a total land area of 3.535 million square meters, benefiting 41799 households and 214007 people of 9429 village teams in 3079 village committees of 732 towns. On the basis of housing projects, the province successively implemented the ex-situ poverty-relief relocation projects, housing projects to resist earthquake and dilapidated house renovation projects in rural areas.

　　【Construction of old revolutionary base areas】 20 million Yuan of central financial anti-poverty funds and 10 million Yuan of financial matching funds were invested in the construction of old revolutionary base areas, more than 40 million Yuan of funds were integrated to support the implementation in 168 projects in 62 villages of 56 towns in 45 counties (cities) of 14 prefectures (cities), benefiting 14,260 people. With a total investment of 119.768 million Yuan, through the pilot project of old revolutionary base construction in Shuitian Town of Weixin County, it achieved rural per capita net income of 2556 Yuan, 235 Yuan more than that of the previous year. LGOP arranged one lottery welfare fund project for Yunnan Province and invested 15 million Yuan to support the entire village advancement of old revolutionary base areas. Yunnan designated Weixin as the pilot county and the project proposal was reviewed and approved. The total investment is expected to reach 69.293 million Yuan.

　　【Convergence of two systems】  The province continued to promote the implementation of pilot projects for the effective convergence of the rural minimum living security system and the pro-poor policies, invested 57 million Yuan of financial anti-poverty funds, identified 204,000 impoverished households and 701,000 poor residents in 16 pilot counties of 16 prefectures (cities), planned to implement at least one pro-poor measure for each household in three to five years, strived for multi-channel investment for industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation and focused on industrial development to meet the overall requirement of comprehensive support for low-income people of the state.

　　【Poverty alleviation planning for contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties】　On December 12, 2011, the work conference on the poverty alleviation planning for contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties in Yunnan was convened in Kunming and the province formally started the preparation of the poverty alleviation planning for contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties. On October 21, 2011, Kunming City Government and the Foreign Capital Project Management Center of LGOP signed a cooperation agreement on the preparation and implementation of the “Planning for Poverty Alleviation Projects in Changdian Contiguous Poor Areas of Kunming”. After being reviewed and approved by the relevant departments, the planning results and scheme are expected to be included into the national planning for regional development and poverty alleviation of contiguous poor areas. By then, Changdian, the experimental area for comprehensive poverty alleviation and development in Yunnan will become the main battlefield of the poverty alleviation and development in the next decade.

　　【Exchange and cooperation】27 central organs for poverty alleviation, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development, Tencent Charity Foundation and 217 provincial organs and enterprises put in a total of 395 million Yuan to further promote the fixed-point poverty alleviation in Yunnan. Shanghai provided financial aid of 337 million Yuan for Yunnan Province, 161 million Yuan more than that of the previous year, to support the poverty reduction among the poor in contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties, develop planting and breeding industry, promote local development, carry out cadre exchanges and trainings and strengthen economic exchange and cooperation, covering Diqing, Honghe, Wenshan, Pu’er, Baoshan City and Xishuangbanna, etc. In cooperation with Humana People to People, Oxfam Hong Kong and World Vision and one domestic non-government organization Amity Foundation, the province implemented the community-oriented pilot projects, comprehensive poverty alleviation projects and disaster relief projects with a total investment of 30.633 million Yuan, 10 million Yuan more than that of the previous year, covering 31 counties of 11 prefectures and cities, benefiting nearly one million poor people.

　　【Pro-poor measures】1. Develop scientific planning. Highlight the strategic positioning of poverty alleviation and development in the new era: Take poverty alleviation and development as an important platform and a key starting point for balancing urban and rural development, promoting coordinated regional development and building a harmonious society; Highlight the positioning of main battlefield of contiguous poor areas: Take the preparation and implementation of the poverty reduction planning for contiguous poor areas as the core of the overall layout for the poverty alleviation and development in the new stage; Give priority to solving the problem of deep poverty: Target at the masses living in deep poverty in remote, minority and impoverished regions; Highlight the establishment of a large-scale poverty alleviation pattern: Combine special poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation; Highlight the innovations to the pro-poor policy system: Improve the pro-poor policy system conductive to poor regions and poverty-stricken people; Highlight the establishment of responsibility, assessment and initiative systems: Take top leader responsibility system as a rigid target of poverty alleviation and development work assessment.

2. Vigorously promote the anti-poverty work. On January 21, Governor Qin Guangrong stressed on the Fourth Session of the Eleventh People's Congress of Yunnan Province that in 2011, in the poverty alleviation and development work, we should target at the people living in deep poverty, lift 1.6 people out of poverty and provide adequate food and clothing for 500,000 rural residents. On the afternoon of March 9, the provincial government held in Beijing the poverty alleviation and development forum and invited relevant representatives of LGOP, 27 central organs for poverty alleviation, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development and Tencent Charity Foundation to talk about the development plan for the poverty alleviation of Yunnan Province. On April 27, the provincial government held in Kunming the provincial work conference on poverty alleviation and development to make deployments on the anti-poverty work in 2011. From August 10 to 15, the 13th joint meeting on Shanghai-Yunnan pairing-off poverty alleviation cooperation was convened in Kunming. Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Shanghai Party Secretary Yu Zhengsheng attended the meeting. The principal leaders of the two sides signed the pairing-off cooperation meeting minutes. On December 16, acting governor Liu Jiheng presided over the 68th executive meeting of the provincial government on the anti-poverty work.

3. Do a good job of pilot work. The province launched the poverty alleviation in Ninglang County to explore the implementation of pilot projects for overall poverty reduction among the masses, continued to implement pilot projects of entire town advancement and poverty reduction in contiguous poor areas, took Kunming Changdian Poverty Alleviation and Development Zone as the provincial experimental demonstration zone, explored the establishment of new poverty alleviation and development mechanisms integrating balancing the urban and rural development, breaking regional boundaries, integrating advantageous resources and the implementation of industrial driven poverty alleviation and development, continued to promote the construction of poverty alleviation industrial parks in some contiguous poor areas of Xiangyun County and Binchuan County and made steady progress in the pilot mutual funds projects of poor villages.

4. Make propaganda. It mainly made propaganda for the publicity and promotion of the successful experience of pilot areas, invited mainstream media to participate in major anti-poverty activities and the announcement of poverty alleviation projects, opened up the “Golden Hotline” program for poverty alleviation on Yunnan People's Broadcasting Station and printed the “Briefings on Poverty Alleviation of Yunnan”, creating a communication platform for all circles of society to understand, care about and participate in poverty alleviation.

5. Strengthen the supervision. It strictly implemented the systems for management of project funds, highlighted and strengthened performance appraisal, carried out pilot work of special performance evaluation, improved the performance appraisal indicators, focusing on assessment of the decrease in the number of objects of poverty reduction, income growth rate of farmers, financial investment, control of income gap and clean poverty alleviation; made clear the working methods and conducted comprehensive, objective and accurate analysis and evaluation on the investment, use and efficiency of the financial anti-poverty funds and special poverty relief funds to enhance the level of poverty alleviation and development.

6. Improve the mechanism. It carried out the studies of more than ten comprehensive and special issues on the guiding ideology of poverty alleviation at the new stage, the pro-poor strategy and policy system and the comprehensive poverty alleviation in contiguous poor areas with particular difficulties, carried out more than 30 large-scale research activities, steadily promoted the preparation of the “Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Areas of Yunnan (2011-2020)”, prepared the “Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Ordinance of Yunnan Province” and included it into 2011 Grade II legislation plan of the provincial government, completed the preparation of the “Study on the Strategic System for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Yunnan Province” (three volumes), the “Policy Measures on Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development” and the “Pilot Work of Mutual Funds”, etc., and established and improved the anti-poverty work reward and punishment mechanism.