Chapter 3
Actions and Achievements in the Major Fields of Sustainable Development
Section 2 Poverty Alleviation
I. Background
II. Actions and Achievements3.6 By the end of 1992, there were 80 million Chinese people still living in poverty. These people (8.8% of the total rural population) live mostly in the rural areas of central and western China or in the remote mountains. In the early 1990s, the Chinese Government clearly declared that it would work to solve the problems of food and clothing supplies for these 80 million poverty-stricken people by the year 2000 and thus enable poor regions to embark on the path of sustainable development early in the next century.
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3.7 Formulation of the poverty alleviation plan
According to the national poverty alleviation plan (the "Helping Eighty Million People in Seven Years" Plan), the State will do all it can to solve the problems of inadequate food and clothing for the 80 million poverty-stricken rural people in a seven year period from 1994 to 2000. This will be accomplished by concentrating the manpower, material, and financial resources of the country and mobilising all the forces of society. After three years of hard work, China's poverty-stricken population had dropped from 80 to 58 million by the end of 1996. In 1995, the net annual per capita income for those counties listed as major alleviation targets by the State had reached RMB 824 yuan and the available per capita grain reached 353.5 kg.
3.8 Continuous increase in input towards poverty alleviation
In 1995, RMB 9.85 billion yuan from the central government and RMB 2.1 billion yuan from local governments were invested in poverty alleviation. Meanwhile, in 1994 and 1995 the central government transferred, in portions, part of the credit fund originally allocated to six provinces with faster economic development to the poorest regions in the southwest and northeast. In 1996, the central government appropriated RMB 10.8 billion yuan as a special poverty alleviation fund.
3.9 Building capacity for self-development in poor regions
The officials and the public in poor regions, with the support of the government, are encouraged to alleviate poverty through self-reliance, hard work, scientific and technological progress, market-oriented production, developing and utilising local resources, increasing commodity production, and solving the supply problems of food and clothing. In this way it is hoped to finally eradicate poverty.
- Development of the economy and intelligence at the same time, application
of science and technology to poverty alleviation, and raising the competence
level of working people and managers in poverty-stricken regions
In the implementation of the Spark Programme, the "Food and Clothing" Project was started in order to strengthen the technical training of the poverty-stricken population. Its objective is that each poor household will be able to apply one or two technologies. In 1995, this type of training was offered to 15 million people, thus broadly disseminating the applicable farming techniques and technologies, pushing ahead the "Food and Clothing Project" on alleviating poverty through science and technology, and improving the practices of farmers in a continuous fashion. Under the "Food and Clothing Project", the 1995 grain yield registered an average increase of 2385 kg per hectare on the 630,606 hectares of arable land in the poor regions. This project managed to provide adequate food and clothing to approximately 10 million poor people that year.
- Giving high priority to utilisation of rich resources in poverty-stricken
regions and supporting the development of resource-utilising and labour-intensive
industries
One example is the poor region in southern Jiangxi Province where suitable fruit-growing has been vigorously promoted. Approximately 179,000 rural households in 3259 villages under 291 townships have become involved in fruit-growing on 78,667 hectares of orchards and, as a result, have had their income increased.
Picture 3-3 The Qin Canal - Diverting Water from the Yellow River in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Picture 3-4 Tea Field in Buyi Nationality Residential Area, Pu'an County, Guizhou Province - National Poverty Alleviation Project
- Providing employment as a means of poverty alleviation and organising
portions of the labour force
People in the poor regions have been organised to work in those communication or water conservation projects which use state investment. In 1995, the State paid RMB 4 billion yuan for labour from the poor regions. In the 1994-1995 period, the poor counties exported 25 million labourers in total. Sichuan Province exports approximately 6 million labourers each year. There has been an inflow of labour income totalling RMB 5 billion yuan per annum mailed back into the province through the postal service.
The Spark Programme is the first programme implemented by the Chinese Government for developing the rural economy through science and technology. This programme intends to introduce advanced and applicable technologies to the farmers, allow farmers to develop the rural economy and agricultural practices on the basis of scientific progress, improve rural productivity, and promote the sustainable development of agriculture and the rural economy. Since the initiation of the programme, 66,736 projects have entered into the designing and planning stage (of which 35,254 have been approved and have received funding of RMB 97.36 billion yuan in total). In 1995, the national Spark Programme produced a gross output value of RMB 268.27 billion yuan and a profit of RMB 47.39 billion yuan. The Spark Programme has proven to be conducive
to upgrading the technological and managerial standards of Chinese township
and village enterprises (TVEs), optimising the industrial structure of
the rural economy, and accelerating the transition from traditional farming
to modern agriculture. There are in total over 127 state-level technology-intensive
Spark zones, 217 Spark regional industries, and 40 Spark training centres.
Through these training programmes, 36.8 million individuals have been trained
in relevant technologies and management. |
3.10 Mobilisation of societal forces participating in poverty alleviation
- Organising the corresponding central party departments, State departments,
enterprises, and institutions to offer direct help
At present, 122 central party departments, State departments, large-scale enterprises, and institutions have established relationships of designated assistance with 330 key poor counties (these account for 56% of the poor counties in the country). In 1995 alone, the above-listed work units made investments worth RMB 947 million yuan in materials and capital and introduced investment worth RMB 990 million yuan into the recipient counties. The various state departments also started scores of departmental or sectoral plans for promoting development in poor regions, such as "Poverty Alleviation through Transportation", "Drinking Water for Both Humans and Livestock", and "Common Prosperity through Development of the Electric Structure".
- Organising aid from the developed regions to under-developed regions
Early in 1995, the State initiated the "Projects for Cooperation between the Township Enterprises in East and West China" with the aim of encouraging the development of township and village enterprises in the poor central and western parts of the country and promoting the growth of the rural economy. One hundred pilot areas for TVE cooperation will be set up in central and western China by the year 2000, with 1000 industrial pilot projects started, 1000 mature new technologies and products disseminated, and 100 sister counties (cities) of bilateral cooperation matched. In order to utilise regional advantages between the eastern and western regions, promote common prosperity, and narrow the regional disparity, in 1996 the State Council drew up a poverty-alleviation programme which demanded that six provinces and three municipalities directly under central administration, and four cities of independent economic planning along the coast help ten provinces and autonomous regions in the west. This programme has proceeded smoothly.
The "Guangcai" Project is a concrete action by native Chinese entrepreneurs to manifest the National "Helping Eighty Million People in Seven Years" Poverty Alleviation Plan, the purpose of which is to mobilise all societal forces to participate in resources development, business investment, and personnel training in the poor central and western regions of China. Common prosperity is the objective and common benefit is the linkage. From the inception of the project in April of
1994 to the end in October of 1996, 827 sub-projects were implemented by
558 enterprises, the agreed investment reached RMB 8.9 billion yuan, and
3.2 billion had been made available. The Sichuan Hope Group has invested
RMB 9.276 million yuan in the setting up of 7 factories (such as feed-processing
plants and natural pigment factories) in Xichang, Daxian, Ganzhou, Yongfeng,
Xinyang and many other regions of central and western China. The Guizhou
"Shenqi" (Magical) Pharmaceutical Corporation has invested RMB
1.6 million yuan in three poverty-alleviation projects in the poor Yaoshan
and Yaolu regions of Guizhou Province. These factories, all of which are
in operation, have recruited local young workers for on-the-job training,
offered a great number of jobs to the local population trapped in poverty,
and promoted the development of the local economy . |
3.11 Arrangements for resettlementThe government has organised voluntary resettlement for those who are willing to leave those hometowns which are poor in natural conditions and resources. By moving out of these towns, nearly one million people have managed to find better food and clothing supplies. For example over 600,000 people have moved out of the desolate areas in the poorest regions of Dingxi Prefecture of Gansu Province and Xi-Hai-Gu Region of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
3.12 Pursuit of international support
The World Bank has provided a US$ 250 million loan to the first phase of the "Southwestern China Poverty Alleviation Project". This project has been fully implemented in 35 key poor counties in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi Provinces. After the completion of the project, 3.5 million people will enjoy stable food and clothing supplies. The preparatory work for implementing the second phase of the poverty alleviation project has almost been completed. This next phase of the project, once again sponsored by the World Bank, will take place in the mountainous areas of Shaanxi and Sichuan in early 1997. Other projects of resource development are being carried out with support from the UNDP and various other NGOs. Smooth progress has been recorded in a project for improving basic education in the poor areas. This project is being run by the State Education Commission and financed by a US$ 320 million loan from the World Bank.
3.13 Improvement of infrastructure in poor areas
By 1995, the poor counties, with major governmental support, had expanded the acreage of their basic farmland by 269,000 hectares. Also, drinking water was newly channelled to 6.09 million livestock and 7.56 million people, more than 30,000 kilometres of new highways had been constructed (so that 98.3% of the towns in the countryside are now connected by highways), more than 31,000 kilometres of electric transmission lines had been constructed (88.4% of the villages were powered by the grid network), and there were substantial improvements in cultural life, education, and sanitary conditions in the poor regions.
Figure 3-1 Graph of the Poverty-Stricken Population
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