Poverty relief in China

[Billy]

Destitution is still one of the biggest challenges that China faces despite great achievements made by the country in social and economic development in the past 20 years, during which more than 220 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty.

To cope with the issue, the Chineses government has decided to begin a number of action plans on poverty reduction and development in the first 10 year of the new century to help raise up the nation's 30 million people still living below the poverty line, an annual income of about 650 yuan (US$78) per capita.

The key tasks of poverty reduction in the new era is summarised as follows:

1. Helping the poor who are still inadequately fed and clothed to resolve their feeding and clothing problems;

2. Helping the poor who have tentatively resolved feeding and clothing problems to further improve their production and living conditions, consolidate the achievements already made and improve their quality of life and general qualifications;

3. Intensify infrastructure construction in poor rural areas, improve eco-environment and gradually reverse social, economic and cultural backwardness of the poor communities so as to create a prosperous economic climate.

Priorities on poverty reduction in the new era include:

1. In consideration of the current distribution and characteristics of the rural poor population in China, the focus of national support will be on the ethnic minority areas, old revolutionary bases, border areas and various destitute areas in central and western China.

2.A list of counties with heavy poverty reduction tasks will be selected from the above four categories as the key poverty reduction counties based on the principle of clustering of poor populations and continuous poverty blocks, while also taking into account factors such asaverage farmers' income level, percentage of population affected by poverty and basic production and living conditions.

3. The central government will give special support to the counties chosen by the above standards. Poverty reduction funds from the central government will be mainly used for poverty reduction work in these key counties and for the poor rural areas in these key counties. Meanwhile further support will be given to poor rural areas in other counties in the above four categories of poor regions in central and western China.

4.In light of the fact that eastern provinces are relatively better developed economically, these provinces should develop their own strategies to reduce poverty .

Key poverty reduction policies in the new era include:

1. Support poor areas to develop agriculture and animal husbandry based on market needsin combination with general economic restructuring to generate increased income for the poor;

2. Further upgrade production and living conditions of poor regions, intensify construction of rural infrastructure and eco-environment;

3. Develop science and technology, education, culture and health to facilitate the all-around social progress of poor regions;

4. Further expand poverty reduction funds and improve use efficiency of poverty reduction funds;

5. Call on all members of the Chinese nation to participate in the reduction of poverty and consequently the strengthening of the country. Such involvement could include partnership between government administrations and poor regions to support their development initiative, as well as assistance by the more developed eastern provinces to the less developed western provinces in an east-west poverty reduction collaboration.

[xoxoxoBruce]

This policy sound pretty general. At least the central government is aware of the problem but it will be interesting how the actual plan develops. Also, whether the money supplied by the government is all spent on these projects without being diverted by local officials to other uses.

[Hubris Boy]

Goodness, what a fascinating post the Billy Committee have written for us this time. Sadly, the Billy Committee have neglected to offer solutions for the elimination of the single largest obstacle to prosperity in China: the Communist Party.

But it's nice to see that the Party is making an effort to increase productivity and reduce poverty in China. These ChiCom attempts at social engineering are always amusing to watch-- from a distance, of course. The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution are two that come to mind.

I'm especially titillated by item #5 on the Billy Committee's list of "Key poverty reduction policies in the new era":
<blockquote>&lt;snip&gt;"... assistance by the more developed eastern provinces to the less developed western provinces in an east-west poverty reduction collaboration."</blockquote>

This initiative should be extremely popular, especially in the "more developed eastern provinces". I look forward to the welcome spectacle of the Communist Party attempting to enforce a massive redistribution of wealth on the nascent capitalists of eastern China; the production of golden eggs is always enhanced by strangling the goose.

[Elspode]

Yeah, I thought that this post seemed to deviate substantially from Billy's normal verbiage, too.

[elSicomoro]

Be honest Billy, where did you get that from?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Take it easy guys, he credited the source at the bottom of the post. "welcome to China, meyun@sohu.com"
I for one, find it interesting to hear(see) the rhetoric that the people are being fed by the party. Also to see if it jibes with the party line to the rest of the world about internal policy.
When this policy gets into gear, if ever, maybe Billy can give us some feedback on what they're doing and how it's received. I believe his family lives in one of those poor rural areas and may see this first hand. :p

[elSicomoro]

Bruce, you know that that's his e-mail addy, right?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, it's a credit not a link. The software underlined it, not me.

[Billy]

some people have email me to contact. You can test it. I don't hope to cheat anyone.

The post is from
TOM.COM .It is Hong Kong company.

[Billy]

We help the west people to become rich. But we can not do in it in one day. The whole society help them, like other foreign people.

[Billy]

07/07/2003
Xinhua

A financial-aid policy set at the joint sponsorship of the Chinese central government and the government of northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region is expected to benefit more than 1.73 million school kids whose families are scattering far and wide in the region's 67 needy cities or counties.

According to the local government, those elementary and middle school kids living in need in southern Xinjiang's four autonomous prefectures, counties on the border and farming and livestock breeding areas, will be exempted from tuition fees and textbook expenses latter this year.

This is a measure taken to prevent the students from discontinuing their studies for financial reasons, said local officials.

Some 190 million yuan (US$22.8 million) will be allocated annually to implement the policy with 140 million yuan of subsidies (US$16.9 million) from the central government as fees for textbooks and other teaching materials and the remaining 50 million yuan (US$6.1 million) come from the local governments for paying tuition and relevant fees.

[Billy]

Youth asked to build west China

06/11/2003
China Daily
A campaign calling on the nation's youth to help in the development of the country's western regions was launched yesterday in Beijing.

Co-sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Education, the campaign plans to recruit 5,000 to 6,000 undergraduates annually to provide voluntary services in the west.

"The campaign is just one contribution to the country's overall 'Go west' strategy," said Zhao Yong, a senior official of the central committee at the press conference.

He stressed that the development of the western regions depends on skills.

According to official statistics, although the population of the 12 western provinces and autonomous regions accounts for 28.8 per cent of that of the whole country, the number of well-educated people, professionals and workers trained with skills here is only 15.5 per cent.

The Communist Youth League has arranged for people with PhDs and college students to help western development for many years.

"This time, we hope some of these young volunteers will stay and make a career there," said Zhao.

The volunteers are expected to work in underdeveloped counties and towns in the western regions for one or two years, in the fields of education, public health, farming technology and poverty alleviation.

The campaign especially welcomes college graduates in the west as well as those majoring in agriculture, forestry, hydraulic engineering, medical science and teacher training.

The campaign will also help ease the problem of graduate unemployment, he said.

In 1999, China's university and college enrollment began an upward trend. Based on an average four-year academic programme, the class of 2003 will be made up of 2.12 million graduates, 670,000 more than last year, Vice-Minister of Education Yuan Guiren told the press conference.

The State Council, China's cabinet, has asked local governments and departments to make greater efforts to help this year's university graduates find jobs.

"Although 6,000 is only a very tiny part of this year's college graduates, the campaign can somehow introduce a new direction of pursuing a career to these young talents," said Yuan.

[Billy]

East, west co-operation narrows gap
04/15/2003
Xinhua

Cooperation between China's affluent east and the relatively bleak and backward west has begun to bear economic fruit.

Statistics available show that the economic growth rate disparity between the western region and the rest of China has dropped to 0.6 percentage points in 2002 from 1.5 percentage points in 1999 when the country initiated the western development strategy.

China's vast, arid western region is economically underdeveloped mainly because of its natural, historical and social factors. Its current per capita gross domestic product equals 67 percent of the nation's average, a mere 40 percent of that of the eastern region.

Since the initiation of the western development strategy, however, China's western areas, with their plentiful natural resources and broad market potential, have become increasingly more attractive to investors around the country

The Kizilsu and Kirgiz border ports within Xinjiang, both situated at the westernmost tip of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for instance, have attracted two large investment projects.

An engineering company from eastern Jiangsu Province has invested 5 million yuan (US$600,000) in a project with a local firm to prolong the shelf-life of local grapes and figs, which are produced in large quantity and high quality here, but cannot be sold elsewhere in the country or abroad due to deterioration.

It is understood that more than 10,000 enterprises and one million people from eastern Jiangsu Province are currently doing business in the western region, bringing with them investments totalling 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion).

"By investing in the west, eastern firms have not only helped to stimulate the development of the west, but also further developed themselves by engaging in new projects and new markets," said Li Quanlin, vice-governor of Jiangsu.

Meanwhile, capital from overseas is also beginning to enter the west in increasing amounts.

A source with the Ministry of Commerce said more than 100 foreign firms have invested in the western areas. A case in point is Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which has drawn 82 of the world's leading firms.

North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region received 27 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) and US$560 million of foreign capital last year alone, which made up 40 percent of its annual fixed assets input.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Co-sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Education, the campaign plans to recruit 5,000 to 6,000 undergraduates annually to provide voluntary services in the west.

Hmmmm.....Community service?

[Billy]

The youth expalin sience and tech to the poor, paly the entertainment, donate money to the education....