Interpretation of the “Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China's Rural Areas (2011-2020)”

　　（I）Situation judgment

　　Accurate judgment of the situation is the premise of correct decision making. "Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020)" (hereinafter referred to the "Outline") points out: "By 2010, the number of poverty-stricken people had been reduced to less than 10 million from 250 million at the beginning of reform and opening up, the rural minimum living security system had been fully established and the survival, food and clothing problems of rural residents had been basically solved". On the basis of this judgment, it puts forward the characteristics of poverty alleviation and development work in the future: "poverty alleviation and development in China has been transferred from the stage of focusing on solving food and clothing problems to the new stage of consolidating the results of addressing food and clothing problems, accelerating poverty reduction, improving the ecological environment, enhancing the development capacity and narrowing the development gap". It is the major theoretical foundation for the scientific establishment of poverty alleviation and development strategy and policy system in the new stage.

　　On the basis of fully affirmed the achievements, the "Outline" can seize the principal contradiction of anti-poverty work and the changes: Change from providing adequate food and clothing to consolidating the results of solving food and clothing problems, poverty reduction, improving environment, enhancing capacity and narrowing gap. In the process of building a moderately prosperous society, it is becoming a major task of the anti-poverty work to narrow the development gap. The changes of the main contradiction decide the changes of the strategic plans and policy measures in the new stage.

　　（II）Guiding ideology and principle

　　The guiding ideology of the "Outline" has obvious characteristics of the new stage. It proposes to "raise the standard of poverty alleviation, increase investment, take contiguous poor areas as the main battlefield and focus on providing adequate food and clothing for the poor and lifting them out of poverty as soon as possible", which is a good understanding of the key and strategic core for the anti-poverty work in the new decade.

　　Its guideline highlights the characteristics of two-wheel drive of the times. It proposes to "adhere to the development-oriented poverty alleviation and implement the effective convergence of poverty alleviation and development and the rural minimum living security system", which clarifies the idea of promoting development by poverty reduction and maintaining livelihoods through implementing the minimum living security system. It not only adheres to China’s basic experience in poverty alleviation and development, but also affirms the positive results of livelihood protection and system innovation in the recent years, and proposes to gradually improve the social security system.

　　The seven basic principles not only summarize our main experience, but also are the basic requirements for future work.

　　In short, the general idea of the "Outline" reflects the requirements of the scientific outlook on development, the large-scale poverty alleviation strategy and the spirit of advancing with the times.

　　（III）Objectives and missions

　　A highlight of the "Outline" is the presentation of the overall objective for the next decade, which has two levels of meaning. First, target at the poor. “By 2020, we’ll ensure the nation’s impoverished will no longer need to worry about food and clothing and ensure their access to compulsory education, basic medical care and housing”. The policy implications of the objective include not only the need to survive, but also some development needs, in line with the basic characteristics of the poverty alleviation work in the new stage. Second, target at impoverished areas. "The growth rate of the per capita net income of farmers in poor areas is expected by be higher than the national average, the main indicators of basic public services will be close to the national average and the trend of widening development gap will be reversed". It fully indicates the new requirement of narrowing the development gap.

　　The main task is also a highlight of the "Outline". The 12 tasks cover all aspects of economic, social and ecological construction. This arrangement has a role in two aspects: First, compared with the previous outline, this outline has more specific objectives and tasks, easy to implement and check. Second, create conditions for better integration of poverty-relief resources. Especially when the provinces formulate specific implementation methods, they can detail the specific goals and increase efforts on resource integration to improve the operability of the implementation measures based on the 12 objectives and missions put forward by the "Outline".

　　（IV）Target scope

　　The "Outline" divides the targets into four levels and proposes relevant policy measures.

　　First, make clear the objects of poverty reduction: "Able-bodied rural residents whose incomes are below the poverty line are targets for poverty reduction programming". It also clarifies that we should "raise the poverty line gradually. Provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government should determine their own poverty line according to their respective conditions".

　　Second, make clear the main battlefield of the anti-poverty work. "Contiguous poor areas like the Liupan Mountain area, the Qinba Mountain area, the Wulin Mountain area, the Wumeng Mountain area; rocky desertification areas in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces; mountainous border areas in Western Yunnan, the south of the Greater Khingan Mountains, the Yanshan Mountain-Taihang Mountain area, the Luliang Mountain area, the Dabie Mountain area, and the Luoxiao Mountain area; as well as Tibet, Tibetan ethnic areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces and Kashgar, Hotan and Kezilesu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang are the main battlefields of the poverty alleviation and development work". It also puts forward the specific measures to implement poverty reduction projects in contiguous poor areas with special difficulties. This is a major strategic deployment for the poverty alleviation work in the new decade. It indicates the goal of building a moderately prosperous society and the determination and attitude for a decisive victory through further highlighting key points, concentrating forces and increasing efforts for the anti-poverty work.

　　Third, clearly propose to continue the anti-poverty work in other key counties and impoverished villages in addition to contiguous poor areas. It stresses that “the support policy for originally-identified key counties remains unchanged. However, provinces (as well as autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) should design and adopt various measures in line with their actual conditions to gradually reduce the number of key counties. The previous level of government support will remain unchanged in cases in which counties develop from key counties into normal counties”. It not only fully considers different situations of various regions, but creates conditions for key counties to shake off poverty.  

　　Fourth, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government can designate contiguous areas with special difficulties independently and target their intensified support to those areas. It aims to further highlight the key points. According to the overall objective of building a moderately prosperous society, the poverty alleviation work in the next decade must always give priority to addressing urgent problems of the poor, target at the poorest regions and groups and adhere to the principle of "timely help" rather than "icing on the cake" and should not avoid "sprinkling black pepper".

　　（V）Work Pattern

　　The "Outline" for the first time puts forward the trinity work pattern integrating special poverty reduction, industrial poverty alleviation and social poverty alleviation. The contents of each part are more comprehensive and specific, building and improving the large-scale poverty reduction pattern. It fully affirms our rich experience in poverty reduction since the 16th National Congress of the CPC, reflects the progressive development of the national pro-poor strategy and meets the work requirements of protecting livelihood and promoting development, building a platform and creating conditions for us to integrate resources to form joint forces under the new situation.

　　（VI）Policy guarantee

　　As for policy guarantee, the "Outline" for the first time clearly proposes to improve the pro-poor strategy and policy system and puts forward the concept of assessment on the impact of poverty. Meanwhile, it conducts policy design in eight aspects, namely fiscal support, favorable investment policies, financial service, industrial support, land use, ecological preservation, guarantee of talents and key groups.

　　As for organization guarantee, the "Outline" puts forward requirements in seven aspects, of which three are outstanding: First, based on the new work pattern, it proposes the management system “whereby the central government plans the project as a whole, provinces take overall responsibility and counties shoulder responsibility of implementation” and the working mechanism of “focusing on contiguous poor areas and implementing projects in specific impoverished villages and poor households”. Second, it puts forward that we should further improve evaluation incentive mechanisms for Party and government officials as well as departments and key counties, and organizational departments at all levels should actively coordinate work in this regard. Third, it proposes to accelerate lawmaking processes in order to provide a legal basis for poverty reduction.