Guangdong – Guangxi Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation

　　【Overview】 2011 is a year that bridges the past and future and presents great opportunities for the Guangdong – Guangxi pairing-off poverty alleviation. Under the correct leadership of the Party committees and governments of Guangdong and Guangxi and the guidance of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, in accordance with the overall deployments of the "Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China's Rural Areas (2011-2020)", adhering to the guideline of advantage complementation, mutual benefits, long-term cooperation and common development, Guangdong and Guangxi further implemented the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development, worked together to make innovations and strived to promote the pairing-off poverty alleviation, making a good start and laying a solid foundation for the pairing-off poverty alleviation during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. On March 10, the poverty alleviation departments of Guangdong and Guangxi held in Baise City the “Forum on East-West Pairing-off Poverty Alleviation” and conducted in-depth discussion on the pairing-off poverty reduction during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. After that, based on in-depth research and demonstration, several rounds of consultations and repeated discussions, the two sides jointly prepared the “Outline for Guangdong – Guangxi pairing-off poverty alleviation during the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period”. On November 15, Vice Governor of Guangdong Province Liu Kun and Vice Chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Chen Zhangliang signed the “Outline for Guangdong – Guangxi pairing-off poverty alleviation during the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ Period”, clarified the guiding ideology, working ideas, goals, tasks, main measures and funding methods for the poverty reduction cooperation, proposed to continue to focus on development-oriented poverty reduction, start from regional cooperation and counterpart support aiming to boost the economic and social development of poor areas and enhance the self-development capacity of the poor and impoverished regions, and put forward the objectives and requirements for Guangdong – Guangxi pairing-off poverty alleviation. Over the past year, the two sides actively carried out collaboration in the field of education, transport, culture, health, agriculture, environmental protection and ecology, forming the multi-level, multi-field and all-around cooperation pattern, and achieved remarkable results. Smooth progress was made in the entire village advancement and the construction of model villages. In accordance with the requirements of the annual tasks, the two sides implemented 23 entire village advancement and model village building projects, continued the economic and trade cooperation, and signed contracts on 1672 cooperation projects with a total investment of 143 billion Yuan; Steady progress was made in the labor transfer and Guangdong received 150,000 labors transferred from Guangxi. Meanwhile, the two sides seriously held the poverty alleviation cadre trainings and completed the management cadre training task of the pairing-off poverty alleviation.

　　【Construction of model villages】Based on the current situation, Guangdong Province highlighted the key points, paid attention to actual effects in the anti-poverty work, continued to conduct Guangzhou-Baise pairing-off poverty alleviation and Dongguan – Hechi twinning poverty reduction, allocated 35 million Yuan of aid funds to support the construction of model villages for poverty reduction in the impoverished villages of Baise and Hechi, and implemented 23 entire village advancement and model village building projects, effectively solving the bottleneck problem restricting the economic and social development of poor villages, improving the development conditions, enhancing self-development capacity, improving the appearance of poor villages and achieving a virtuous circle of industrial development, ecological improvement and income growth of the masses.

　　【Pairing-off poverty alleviation】The governments and departments at all levels of Guangdong and Guangxi established twinning relationship, carried out exchange of visits, researches, trainings and condolences activities, exchanged sending cadres, carried out activities to support the education of poor areas, and established the working mechanisms for announcement of information, mobilization of social forces and disaster relief. Guangdong Province organized the province’s enterprises in Guangxi to provide counterpart support for poor areas, forming a poverty alleviation pattern with government assistance, business cooperation, social support and human resource development as the main contents.

　　【Economic and trade cooperation】Guangdong - Guangxi pairing-off poverty alleviation developed in exploration and innovation. Adhering to taking China - ASEAN cooperation in the Free Trade Area, the development of Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, a new round of Western Development and the regional cooperation of the Pan-Pearl River Delta as an opportunity, giving full play to the role of China International SME Fair, Guangzhou Fair and China-ASEAN Expo as a platform, through market operation, in accordance with the principle of "advantage complementation, mutual benefits, long-term cooperation and common development", the two sides strengthen economic and trade cooperation, set up industrial parks in Baise and Hechi, forming the platform for business cooperation and development, the base for industrial development and new economic growth points; and strengthened their convergence and interaction in the field of mineral resources, agriculture, tourism, logistics, electronic information, biotechnology, petrochemical and automobile manufacturing to promote technological exchange and cooperation. Priority was given to Guangdong’s enterprises that were launched in Guangxi and were closely related to the income growth of the poor with a large coverage in identifying poverty alleviation leading enterprises in Guangxi. In addition to enjoying the normal preferential policies of Guangxi, they are the first to get poverty relief loans from Guangxi.

　　【Cadre exchange and training】In 2011, the poverty alleviation departments of Guangdong and Guangxi jointly organized the two training courses for poverty alleviation management cadres, targeting at county-level deputy chiefs taking charge of anti-poverty work of Guangxi and the poverty alleviation principals. A total of 200 people attended the trainings. Focusing on lectures of practitioners of poverty alleviation in Guangdong, complemented with expert lectures, the trainings introduced the anti-poverty effectiveness and practices of the provincial poor villages of Guangdong and the achievements made in Pearl River Delta in the field of poverty reduction based on field research, arranged the leaders of provincial poverty alleviation office, party secretaries of the key counties and sending cadres of the poor villages to deliver lectures, organized the trainees to visit four types of impoverished villages covered by the businesses’ counterpart support, poverty reduction of Pearl River Delta, self-dependent poverty reduction of the cities and counties and the counterpart support of provincial departments, and achieved good results, welcomed by the cadres receiving training. Meanwhile, Guangdong and Guangxi activity carried out exchange of visits. In April 2011, Guangdong organized a pairing-off poverty alleviation delegation composed of more than 100 members to carry out field research on the construction of model villages in Baise and Hechi; the relevant leaders of Hechi City Poverty Alleviation Office went to Dongguan four times to report the twinning poverty alleviation work; and 250 exchange visits were conducted between the two sides. The communications and exchange enhanced their feelings for each other and strengthened their contacts, laying a solid foundation for a new round of East-West pairing-off poverty alleviation.