Shandong – Chongqing Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】  In 2011, Shandong Province actively explored new ways for poverty reduction cooperation in line with the actual situations and Shandong’s characteristics with “benefiting the people by government assistance, boosting industrial development by raising social funds and promoting the cooperation by taking advantage of the two sides’ strength” as the main content. Throughout the year, Shandong Province donated 42.5 millioin Yuan of government assistance funds to 14 key poor counties of Chongqing. 14 cities undertaking the anti-poverty task raised 38.5 million Yuan, Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and Shandong Provincial Department of Finance raised 4 million Yuan; launched and implemented 33 aid projects including entire village advancement of impoverished villages, modern agriculture, industries with local characteristics, renovation of primary and secondary schools and personnel exchange and training; built four schools, highroads of 96.5 kilometers, basic farmland of 25,000 mu, solved the drinking water problem of 7,000 people and 8500 heads of livestock; and held the “Shandong · Chongqing Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation and Economic and Trade Cooperation Project Signing Ceremony” jointly with Chongqing, reached agreement for 60 cooperation projects worth 31.7 billion Yuan. A total of 76 sending cadres and 55 teachers, doctors and agricultural technicians were exchanged between the two sides. 13 training courses for professional technicians and management personnel were held for about 2100 teachers, doctors, agricultural technicians and managers.

　　【Working mechanism】 After the state designated Shandong Province to provide counterpart support for Chongqing, Shandong government attached great importance to it and successively held the executive meeting and the provincial work conference on Shandong-Chongqing pairing-off poverty alleviation to make deployment for the work, issued the “Opinions of Shandong Provincial People’s Government on Promoting Shandong-Chongqing Pairing-off poverty Alleviation” and clarified the guiding ideology and overall requirement of “adhering to one principle and three combinations, focusing on four key points and four key links”, i. e. adhere to the principle of poverty alleviation with love, pay attention to actual effects, advantage complementation, mutual benefit and reciprocity, long-term cooperation for common development”, combine government driving with market guidance, combine donation with industrial cooperation and combine pilot projects with comprehensive development, highlight four key points, namely livelihood, industry, intellectual support and social poverty alleviation, and focus on four key links, namely capital raising, project management, responsibility implementation and mechanism establishment. The Opinions guided and promoted the smooth implementation of the pairing-off poverty reduction.

　　In order to comprehensively promote the poverty reduction work in Chongqing, Shandong Province integrated the strength of the aiding units, strengthened the cooperation with relevant parties and strived for create a good atmosphere for the work, forming a powerful force to promote the work. First, improve the organization and leadership. It set up a leading group for the counterpart support under the leadership of main provincial leaders, set up the leading group office to be responsible for the development of relevant policies, supervision on the implementation of relief funds and projects, strengthening the contacts with relevant parties of Chongqing and timely solving the actual problems in the pairing-off poverty alleviation cooperation. The 14 cities assigned the task also set up relevant governing bodies and offices, and a working system for all parties concerned to perform their duties and cooperate with one another was established in the whole province. Second, set up the city and county-level "one to one" twinning mechanism. Based on the overall situation of poverty alleviation and development, Shandong Province carefully selected 14 cities to establish twinning relationship with 14 key counties of Chongqing for poverty reduction. In order to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of poverty reduction cooperation, the 14 cities respectively included the poverty alleviation cooperation into their overall planning for economic and social development and developed special working plan and implementation opinions to promote the anti-poverty work to embark on a path of scientific, standardized and institutionalized development. Third, establish a stable funding mechanism. In accordance with LGOP’s requirements that the amount of eastern regions’ financial aid for the western areas should be clarified and increased gradually based on actually situations”, Shandong Province established the mechanism for stable funding for the pairing-off poverty alleviation by the 14 cities, the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and Provincial Department of Finance, providing powerful financial guarantee for the smooth implementation of the poverty alleviation cooperation. Fourth, improve the coordination mechanism. Based on the characteristics of wide coverage and strong continuity of the poverty alleviation cooperation, the two sides attached importance to the communications between the twinned cities and counties and explored the establishment regular exchange visits and joint meeting systems to solve the relevant problems in the pairing-off poverty alleviation. Since July 2010, according to incomplete statistics, the two provinces sent over 80 research groups and more than 2000 visitors to each other, including 8 provincial leaders, 120 prefectural leaders and more than 500 county and division-level cadres, greatly promoting the pairing-off poverty reduction. Fifth, improve the project management system. Giving full consideration to the poor counties’ geographical location, natural conditions, traditional culture, customs and economic and social development situation, based on the actual situations, the cities concerned of Shandong Province carefully developed the pairing-off poverty alleviation planning and annual project proposals, and established standardized East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation project screening mechanism to effectively strengthen project management. Sixth, establish the supervision and evaluation mechanisms. In order to strengthen the supervision and evaluation of the anti-poverty work and ensure the deployments, supervision and implementation of the work, Shandong Provincial Counterpart Support Office and the cities concerned divided the pairing-off poverty alleviation work and assigned specific tasks and responsibilities to relevant parties. The cities each submit annual work report to the relevant department and Shandong Provincial Counterpart Support Office is responsible for the supervision and assessment of the cities’ work planning, annual program and the implementation of anti-poverty work.

　　【Livelihood projects】 In 2011, taking the protection and improvement of people’s livelihood as the starting point and ultimate goal of the pairing-off poverty alleviation, adhering to improving people’s livelihood with government funds, focusing on the “entire village poverty reduction project” and the “10,000 Yuan of Income Growth Project” being implemented in Chongqing, Shandong integrated the financial and material resources to launch a number of livelihood projects in poor villages, including entire village advancement, road building and renovation of primary and secondary school buildings, solving some of the most realistic and most pressing problems of the poverty-stricken masses of local areas. Zibo, Jining and Tai’an respectively implemented six entire village advancement projects in Shizhu County, Wanzhou District and Wuxi County, renovated dilapidated and old houses of 7500 square meters for 154 rural households, rebuilt roads of 32.2 kilometers and built ten watering pools for people and livelihood, solving the housing, travel and drinking water problems of nearly 10,000 people. Weifang City implemented Nanshan Town’s Tourism-based Poverty Alleviation Demonstration Project in Kai County of Chongqing, built and rebuilt village roads of 17.2 kilometers, newly built 9 safe drinking water pools for local residents and livelihood, laid pipelines of 45 kilometers, and resettled 7 households and 15 local residents, improving the living conditions of the poor. To solve the travel difficulty of the masses in Qianjiang, Xiushan and Pengshui, which are in the Wuling Mountain area in the southeast part of Chongqing, Rizhao, Dezhou and Liaocheng implemented 6 road repairing projects and newly built rural highroads of 58 kilometers. Jinan, Weihai, Rizhao and Dezhou launched four primary and secondary school building projects in the recipient counties. After the project implementation, it will greatly improve the schooling conditions of the children of poverty-stricken people, immigrants and migrant workers and benefit more than 6500 people. Rizhao newly built students’ dormitory building of 2364 square meters and dining room of 535 square meters for Qianjiang District Zhongtang Town Primary School. As of the end of 2011, more than 500 students moved into the new dormitory building and the board and lodging conditions of the school was significantly improved.

　　【Industries with local characteristics】  Based on their own industrial advantage and the resource advantages of the twinned counties in Chongqing, Shandong’s relevant cities concerned strengthened their support for industrial development, strived to develop competitive industries with local characteristics and, through increasing aid funds for the promotion and application of agricultural new species, new results and practical technologies in poor counties and districts, helped the recipient counties adjust structure to enhance the development level of agriculture and strengthen the self-development capacity of local areas. Giving full play to their advantages in agricultural industrialization, Zibo, Zaozhuang, Yantai, Jining, Rizhao and Linyi established 7 high-quality featured agricultural and animal product bases and demonstration parks in the twinned counties, covering the growing of pepper, honeysuckle, grapes and vegetables as well as cow breeding, and improved farmland of 25,000 mu, directly benefiting more than 80,000 people. The Breeding Cow Base Project implemented by Zaozhuang City in Fengdu County will improve the species of 12,000 traditional beef cattle and engage 200 rural households to engage in standardized farming, involving 11 towns and 39 poor villages. It will lift about 15,000 poor people of the project areas out of poverty.

　　【Intellectual poverty reduction】 Giving full play to its personnel advantage, through vocational and skills trainings, sending cadres and dispatching doctors, teachers and agricultural technicians to poor areas, Shandong Province comprehensively conducted intellectual poverty reduction in the twinned poor counties to improve the self-development capacity of the poor. In the field of personnel training, taking personnel training as a key task, Dongying, Yantai, Weifang, Tai’an, Rizhao, Liaocheng and Binzhou included it into the government aid projects, provided financial support for it and held vocational and practical technical trainings for the poor. As a result more than 600 high school graduates from needy families and over 5300 poor people mastered some skills and techniques and found jobs. In the field of cadre sending and exchange, 76 sending cadres were exchanged between Shandong and the twinned counties of Chongqing. The sending cadres showed their strong working capacity in the temporary working positions and said that the practice in the poor counties broadened their horizons, accumulated their experience, enhanced their capability and cultivated their strong will, laying a good basis for them to do a good job in their sector and promote the anti-poverty work. As for technical personnel exchange, 55 sending teachers, doctors and agricultural technicians were exchanged between the two sides.

　　【Economic and trade cooperation for poverty alleviation】 Since 2010, adhering to the principle of “government driving, enterprise-oriented, market operation and advantage complementation for a win-win situation”, Shandong and Chongqing signed 7 cooperation agreements, including the “Framework Agreement for Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation” and the cooperation agreements signed between the departments of agriculture, industry, state-owned assets supervision and administration commission, tourism, human resources and social security as well as science and technology departments of the twinned regions. The two sides strengthened their exchange and cooperation in the field of modern agriculture, industry and investment, tourism resource development, energy development and utilization, science and technology as well as culture. Relying on the platform for East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation, Shandong Province organized relevant municipal and provincial departments, especially large enterprises and groups to carry out field research on the natural resources, industrial situation and market demands of Chongqing, strived to combine Shandong’s advantages in industry, personnel, technology and management with Chongqing’s location, resources, market and policy advantages and explore new ways for common development and a win-win situation through advantage complementation. It successively organized and participated in the “China Chongqing International Investment and Global Sourcing Fair”, “Promotion of Investment and Economic and Trade Cooperation in Three Gorges Reservoir in Chongqing” and other important economic cooperation and exchange activities, and signed agreements with Chongqing on a large number of major economic cooperation projects. Especially during the period of the “China Chongqing International Investment and Global Sourcing Fair” in May 2011, Shandong organized the relevant departments of the 14 cities and provincial organs involved and more than 80 enterprises to hold the “Signing Ceremony of Shandong-Chongqing Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation and Economic and Trade Cooperation Projects” in Chongqing and signed contracts on more than 600 economic cooperation projects worth 31.7 billion Yuan, involving modern agriculture, textiles, manufacturing, food processing, tourism services, etc. Some of these projects have been completed and put into operation, some are being constructed. Jinan Weili Seed Company actively supported Canggou Town of Wulong County to develop watermelon industry, graft and introduce 35,000 watermelon seedlings and build 100 mu of improved watermelon species demonstration zone in Jinan. The company sent relevant experts to give field technical guidance for many times, promoted the standardized planting, expanded the coverage of improved species and encouraged the development of more than 10,000 mu of watermelon field with output value of 30 million Yuan. Linyi Dadi Honeysuckle Co., Ltd made progress in the construction of the Honeysuckle Base in Chengkou County. 2.6 million honeysuckle seedlings promoted in Phase I pilot project have been transported to Chengkou, involving six towns, and the planting area reached 10,000 mu, which can increase the income of local farmers by 100 million Yuan every year. Jining Ruyi Group invested 1.5 million Yuan in the construction of Wanzhou Western Spinning City Project. 1 billion Yuan was invested in 2011 and the projects are expected to record annual sales revenue of 50 billion Yuan and resettle more than 50,000 people after the implementation. Yantai Vast Co., Ltd rented standardized plants of 5000 square meters in Baima Industrial Park of Wulong County with investment of 120 million Yuan and set up four thin-wall steel bushing production lines, which are expected to record annual output value of 60 million Yuan.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】Shandong Province actively organized and mobilized all sectors of society to participate in the activities of student subsidizing for poverty reduction. On December 22, 2011, Jinan Garden Development and Construction Group and Wulong County jointly organized the “Jinan Garden Development and Construction Group - Wulong Promotion Conference on Student Subsidizing”. General Manager Lui Yunchu took the lead in donation and mobilized 24 leading group members, branch companies’ managers and staffs to subsidize 50 poor primary school students in Wulong County. The warm-hearted people donated 300,000 Yuan (1000 Yuan per student per year) for the six-year primary school education of the pupils of the poor county and gave the money to the group’s labor union for temporary storage. The funds will be distributed to the poor students every academic year through Wulong County Poverty Alleviation Office. At the meeting, the company donated a batch of sports equipment worth 30,000 Yuan to Baima Town Hope Primary School, including two mobile basketball stands and 8 table tennis tables. Warmhearted people of Shandong also got involved in the activity of subsidizing poor students. After learning that high school graduate Yang Guohua could not afford the tuition fee for university education due to poverty and his mother was ill in bed during his field research in Wulong County, Chairman of Jinan Dazheng Dongzhi Vehicle Piping Co., Ltd Xu Jiandong decided to provide financial aid of 5000 Yuan per year for Yang Guohua to complete his five-year university education. On September 8, 2011, 25,000 Yuan of tuition fee was transferred to the special account of Wulong County Poverty Alleviation and Development Office, which will then be given to Yang Guohua in batches every year. On September 10, Yang Guohua got the subsidy of 5000 Yuan for the first academic year and started his university life. After learning the “Jinan Garden Development and Construction Group - Wulong Promotion Conference on Student Subsidizing”, Guo Jinghui, a retired worker of Jinan City Landscaping Bureau said that she would like to participate in the activity and was willing to subsidize poor students to complete their education. She built the twinning relationship with Ran Wenxi, a poor student of Grade Two in Sanxi Primary School, Baima Town, Wulong County and promised to support this student until he completes his education. Meanwhile, Guo Jinghui also actively mobilized her friends and relatives to get involved in this activity. Chairman of Shaanxi Dacheng Electric Power Engineering Co., Ltd Zhao Yue was a good example. He actively joined in the student aid team after being moved by Guo Jinghui’s action and promised to subsidize ten poor students of Grade II in Hongqi Primary School, Baiyun Town and Wulong County, including Hu Zhuo, etc, during their primary school education period, 1800 Yuan per student per year.