Poverty Alleviation of Ministry of Commerce

　　【Overview】 In 2011, the Ministry of Commerce earnestly implemented the spirit of the central poverty alleviation work conference and increased efforts on poverty alleviation and development in accordance with the deployments of the General Office of the Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council and the principle of doing practical things based on actual situation and seeking practical results focusing on “structure adjustment and pattern transformation”. In 2011, the Ministry of Commerce allocated 20.73 million Yuan of relief funds for Guang’an District of Guang’an City in Sichuan Province and Yilong County of Nanchong City and 75.26 million Yuan of policy project funds to support 23 aid projects. At the same time, the Poverty Alleviation of the Ministry of Commerce was titled as Advanced Collective for Poverty Alleviation and Development in China by LGOP.

　　【Field research on poverty alleviation】  In September 2011, Minister Chen Deming headed a delegation to carry out field research in the two counties and put forward that we should put “structure adjustment and pattern transformation” on a prominent position, firmly establish the scientific outlook on development, take the opportunity of a new round of Western Development and Economic Zone Construction in Chengdu and Chongqing, embark on the low-carbon development path for environment protection, develop new growth points by structure adjustment, strive to establish first-mover advantages of emerging industries, matching advantages of modern service industry, brand advantages of traditional industries and scale advantages of efficiency agriculture, and introduce and cultivate a number of leading industries to boost regional development and achieve the goal of poverty reduction and common prosperity. In order to boost the economic and social development of the two poor counties, we allocated 20.73 million Yuan of relief funds and arranged 36 relief projects, involving consumption expansion, flood control and disaster relief, culture and education, entire village advancement, protection of people’s livelihood, commerce and trade, investment inviting, personnel training, labor dispatching and pilot project of modern commercial services, which promoted the economic and social development of the poor areas and accelerated the cultural construction in rural areas. We also implemented the nutrition improvement program for rural students. In March 2011, International Trade Representative and Vice Minister Gao Hucheng of the Ministry of Commerce headed a delegation to carry out field research in the two counties and put forward that “in the anti-poverty work, we must change the blood-transfusion mode to blood-making mode, change poverty reduction to development and change government leadership to market operation, conduct the project relief projects based on local needs and adhere to sustainable development and full arguments for better poverty reduction effects”.

　　【Construction of rural market】  1. Implement the project of "home appliances going to the countryside". Taking the project of "home appliances going to the countryside" as an important carrier to encourage consumption of the masses, the Ministry of Commerce carefully organized the activities and issued 65.68 million Yuan of subsidies for the sales of home appliances in the countryside of the two counties, achieving sales volume of 384,000 home appliances and sales revenue of 910 million Yuan. 2. Construction the rural market system. In 2011, the Ministry of Commerce issued 4.25 million Yuan for the construction of the rural market system, newly set up one distribution center for the “Ten Thousand Villages and One Thousand Towns” Project and 178 farmhouse stores and achieved full coverage of farmhouse stores. The commodity distribution rate reached 80% and the chemical fertilizer and pesticide distribution rate was up to 100%. We supported the upgrading of 7 farmers’ markets. Youfangxiang Market in Jincheng Town of Yilong County and Huichun Town Frmers’ Market were approved to be pilot markets of modern circulation of farm produce in China. The upgraded farmers’ market addressed farmers’ difficulties of “dust on sunny days and wet feet on rainy days” in green grocery shopping and guaranteed the food security. 3. Improve the business information services in rural areas. We make use of information technology to develop rural economy and increase the income of farmers, included Guang’an District and Yilong County into the rural business information service center jointly established by the Ministry of Commerce and the Party Education Center of the Organization Department of Central Committee of CPC, and promoted the convergence of production and marketing to help solve the difficulty in marketing of farm produce. 4. Establish the “satisfying meat” service system. In 2011, we arranged 1.37 million Yuan of project funds for the construction of the “satisfying meat” service system, helped to upgrade the pig slaughtering supervision and harmless treatment system, and supported 45 towns, four fixed-point pig slaughtering centers and one large-scale slaughtering enterprises achieve video terminal building for slaughterhouses to prevent sick pigs entering into the market.

　　【County economic development】1. Introduce export-oriented projects. The Ministry of Commerce determined the introduction of four investment projects, organized 26 enterprises of Dongguan City, Guangdong Province to carry out field research and negotiations on investment, aiming to transfer coastal export-oriented enterprises to the two counties. 2. Develop labor transfer. We arranged 600,000 Yuan of funds to establish the labor export and transfer platform and promote the labor dispatch, organized four central enterprises including China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Jiaoyuan Corporation for International Economic and Technical Cooperation to carry out labor cooperation in the two counties, implemented the labor transfer contracts for 10 types of 460 labors, and signed the “labor export agreement of intent”. 3. Strengthen skills training. We arranged 440,000 Yuan of housekeeping training project funds for the training of 440 domestic workers, 420,000 Yuan of special funds for the trainings of commerce practitioners and technical personnel and trained 600 people for sugar, wine, home appliances, slaughter, shopping malls and restaurants in Guang’an District and 200 technicians for Yilong County, involving construction, sewing, electrical and welding workers. The 200 trainees were all employed by Chengdu Foxconn, Guangzhou Liancheng Garments Factory, etc, with employment rate of 100% and average monthly salary of more than 2,000 Yuan. In accordance with the principle of "order training, orientation training, quality assurance and employment assurance", in 2011, we helped the two counties transfer 39,035 labors; of which 335 people were transferred to foreign countries. 4. Support the development of foreign trade. We arranged 3.96 million Yuan for the development of foreign trade, of which: 1.77 million Yuan was used to support the SMEs in Guang’an District to tap international market, and 1.58 million Yuan was used for the coordinated development of foreign trade zones. The financial aid played a positive role in stabilizing the growth, adjusting the structure and promoting the balance in the two counties.

　　【Development of culture, education and health industry】 1. Develop education industry. The Ministry of Commerce arranged 1.5 million Yuan for the development of education for poverty reduction, improved the dining conditions of 11 schools, rebuilt the dining hall of Hanlin Primary School in Guang’an District, where Comrade Deng Xiaoping once studied; invested 1 million Yuan to set up audio-video classrooms and electronic reading rooms for Guang’an District No. 2 Middle School and Yilong County Xinzheng Primary School, invested 750,000 Yuan to set up the scholarship for poor students and subsidize students from needy families to pay tuition fees. 2. Support the construction of rural culture. We arranged 1 million Yuan of cultural development project funds to set up six cultural stations respectively in Madun, Shanquan and Nanqiao Village of Guang’an District, and Baita, Caijiaping and Longshenya Village of Yilong County and the farmers’ cultural and sports rooms as well; and set up Gang’an Sangzi Brass Band and Yilong Farmers’ Publicity Troupe to make propaganda for the spirit of the central work conference on poverty alleviation and development, spread the contents of new outline for poverty alleviation, present the anti-poverty achievements of the Ministry of Commerce and promote the construction of new rural culture. 3. Improve the health and medical conditions. We arranged 1 million Yuan of project funds to set up health stations in eight villages of Guang’an District, including Zhandou Village and Dengta Village, and six villages of Yilong County, including Baita, Caijiaping and Hanjiawan Village, and purchased necessary medical equipment for the health stations to alleviate the difficulties for farmers to see a doctor.

　　【Projects to benefit the people】  1. Fight floods and provide disaster relief. After Guang'an area suffered the most devastating flood over the past 160 years, the Ministry of Commerce immediately allocated 800,000 Yuan to support the construction of the market emergency response system, aiming to guarantee the market supply in times of crisis and support the post-disaster restoration and reconstruction; actively strived for Australian aid projects worth 38,654 Australian dollars (equivalent to 270,000 Yuan) for the post-disaster reconstruction and industrial development in Hu’an Town; and strived for Japanese aid projects worth 660,000 Yuan to construct water conservancy facilities in Gannian Village. 2. Livelihood projects. We implemented the entire village advancement projects in Baita Village of Yilong County, where General Secretary Hu Jintao paid a visit, and Hongse Village of Shuiyan District in Guang’an, the region Premier Wen Jiabao was concerned about, arranged 1.9 million Yuan to build highroads of 6.9 km, develop Chinese herbal medicine planting area of 150 mu and repair one pond for the two villages; allocated 8.4 million Yuan for the implementation of entire village advancement projects in Nanqiao Village of Guang’an District, Liaoyuan Village and Qinjia’an Village of Yilong County, built village roads of 34.5 km and four ponds, renovated the adobe houses of 120 poverty-stricken households, dug a number of biogas digesters, developed Chinese herbal medicines of 250 mu, farming area of 1000 mu and aquaculture area of 50 mu; and solved the most direct and most realistic difficulties that the poor were most concerned about. The projects were known as popular projects, satisfying projects and benevolent works among the masses. 3. Microcredit. We arranged 4 million Yuan to implement poverty alleviation projects with microcredit and guide the farmers to launch their own business relying on themselves.

　　【Exchange of cadres】 First, we organized 20 cadres and technical personnel of the two counties to receive one-year training in the large multinational enterprises of Shenzhen and Suzhou, aiming to cultivate practical talents with the market knowledge and the ability to operate businesses. Second, we sent Comrade Zhang Shengbin, a researcher of West Asia and Africa Department to serve as the Standing Member of the Party Committee and Deputy Head of Guang’an District, Comrade Lin Hong, the Deputy Director of Bureau of Fair Trade to act as the Subprefect of Yilong County to take charge of the foreign economy and trade, private economy, poverty alleviation and development, investment inviting and the work in industrial zones. Guang’an District sent Comrade Li Wensong, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Commerce to work in the Department of Commercial Services and the Department of Circulation Industry Development of the Ministry of Commerce. The exchange strengthened the convergence, contacts, communication and project implementation of the two sides. Third, in accordance with the deployment of the Central Government Organs, we organized 14 young cadres from central organs and relevant units to carry out the practice activity of “field research in one hundred villages” and eat, live and work together with the farmers in Baita Village and Caijiaping Village of Yilong County.