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Tag: Hubei

  • Hubei injects financial support to poverty alleviation

    Hubei injects financial support to poverty alleviation

    By Ma Yuan, People’s Daily
    Central China’s Hubei province has helped impoverished rural households develop pillar
    industries and increase income by offering financial support such as micro and small loans,
    organizing enterprises to set up online platforms, and improving the rural credit platform.
    Cai Guangmei from Caifanggou village, Danjiangkou of Hubei province runs a poultry farm that
    houses 1,500 chickens, an orange orchard covering 26.67 hectares, and 3.33 hectares of pumpkin
    patches. His farming business is prospering.
    However, an orange orchard was the only source of income for Cai’s family three years ago. Cai
    wanted to open a poultry farm but suffered from the lack of capital.
    In June 2017, the Hubei Rural Credit Cooperatives lent 100,000 yuan ($14,200) to Cai with
    discounted interest rate. With the money, Cai implemented the project and established and
    expanded his farming business gradually. Now, the annual net income of his family has reached
    150,000 yuan.
    Like Cai, Xue Yong from Gucheng county, is also among the many farmers benefiting from
    financial targeted poverty alleviation in Hubei.
    The story of Xue getting rid of poverty and becoming better off has surprised his fellow villagers,
    as the man with cerebral palsy used to struggle to make ends meet via chicken farming. In August
    2016, his family was thrown into a more desperate condition because it faced a 40,000-yuan
    tuition fee of his sister who was then admitted by a university.
    After learning Xue’s situation and knowing that his condition met the standards for poverty
    alleviation loan issuance, the Hubei Rural Credit Cooperative immediately lent him 80,000 yuan.
    After paying the tuition fees for his sister, Xue used the rest of the money to develop his poultry
    business.
    Now, Xue’s chicken farm houses more than 3,000 chicks. Via e-commerce platforms, he could sell
    over 100 chickens and several thousand eggs per month and make 80,000 yuan each year. He has
    also become a famous chicken farming and diseases specialist in his hometown.
    By the end of September 2019, the Hubei Rural Credit Cooperatives had provided financial
    services for 1.21 million impoverished households and issued a total of 17 billion yuan in micro-
    credit loans, helping 300,000 impoverished households increase income directly or indirectly.
    Financial targeted poverty alleviation offers not just timely help; it should make the assistance
    regular so as to facilitate long-term economic development. By focusing on areas of weakness in
    social and economic development of impoverished regions, China Construction Bank (CCB)
    Hubei branch introduced resources, capital, technologies and solutions to poor regions. The
    practice has turned impoverished regions from recipients of “blood transfusion” into ones capable
    of “blood creation”.
    Zhu Yanyang, deputy governor of CCB Hubei branch, introduced that the bank had issued more
    than 10 billion yuan of targeted poverty alleviation loans to 107,637 registered impoverished
    households, and offered pairing financial assistance to 126 impoverished villages.
    Sweet potato farming is a pillar industry for poverty alleviation in Hong’an county, Huanggang.
    Through developing dried sweet potato noodles, local food companies built sweet potato and
    wheat planting bases and signed long-term supply contracts with local farmers, forming a
    partnership among enterprises, planting bases, cooperatives and local villagers.

    Financial institutions play an important role in supporting the continuous development of poverty
    alleviation projects launched by enterprises. In recent years, the Postal Savings Bank of China
    (PSBC) Hubei branch has enlarged loan support to characteristic industries and poverty alleviation
    projects in impoverished areas, said Deng Jianhua, deputy governor of PSBC Hubei branch.
    The branch has issued loans worth nearly 10 billion yuan for targeted poverty alleviation, helping
    more than 50,000 impoverished households get rid of poverty and become better off, Deng added.
    While funding poverty alleviation projects, the PSBC Hubei branch has spread financial
    knowledge to impoverished areas. It sent grassroot credit clerks to villages to publicize financial
    knowledge in a targeted manner, which has effectively helped impoverished people increase their
    financial literacy and get rich. The bank has also accelerated construction of the credit system in
    impoverished areas, helping form a positive scenario in which a good credit score enables the
    borrowers get more loans from the bank for developing industries.

  • All impoverished people contracting COVID-19 outside Hubei have recovered

    All impoverished people contracting COVID-19 outside Hubei have recovered

    By Qiu Chaoyi

    All impoverished people contracting COVID-19 outside Hubei have recovered, said Wang Chunyan, an official with the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

    Wang made the remarks at a press conference held by China’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council Wednesday. She noted that a total of 828 impoverished people across the country have contracted the virus, and 772 have recovered.

    Liu Yong, an official with China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA), introduced that multiple measures have been taken to guarantee the basic living standards for those living in hardship. For instance, Hubei has offered handouts of at least 300 yuan per person for disadvantaged groups in rural areas during the epidemic, and the figure is 500 yuan in urban areas.

    Besides, it also set up temporary shelters for the impoverished out-of-towners stranded in the sealed-off province and subsidized each of them with 300 yuan on a daily basis to ensure basic living necessities. By March 31, 69 shelters have been established in Hubei, accommodating over 13,000 people with 35 million yuan allocated.

    Fan Yu, vice-director of MOCA’s Social Affairs Department told the press conference that civil authorities across the country have opened 864 shelters during the epidemic. They relaxed the qualification and extended the term for rescue, offering accommodation and food for people stranded because of traffic control and failing to secure jobs.

    To prevent possible reoccurrence of poverty caused by the disease, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development issued a guideline, requesting the State Poverty Alleviation and Development Information Portal to incorporate specific groups in its system and offer timely assistance, including those who have shaken off poverty but still see possibility of returning to it, those who are about to be lifted out of poverty, and those who see sharp drop in income or surge in spending.

    Statistics indicated that 2/3 of impoverished families have migrant workers who contribute 2/3 of their family income. Wu Hua, deputy director of the office’s Department of Development Guidance, introduced that 1.38 million impoverished migrant workers had been transferred to their workplaces through the point-to-point inter-provincial charter service launched by the government, and more than 20 million migrant workers in 25 provinces have returned to their job.

    In 22 central and western provinces, over 60 percent of the 370,000 poverty alleviation projects have resumed work; among 28,000 poverty alleviation enterprises, 95 percent of them have cranked up again; and 28,000 workshops for poverty reduction have set the engines rolling again, accounting for 90 percent of the total.

    A notice was recently issued by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development together with 6 other relevant departments to spur the sales of poverty alleviation products. As of March 27, the 22 central and western provinces have identified 22,566 poverty alleviation products, and farm produce worth more than 2.1 billion yuan has been purchased by 9 provinces and municipalities in eastern China.

    According to Wang, there are 52 counties in 7 provinces and autonomous regions across the country still remaining in poverty, and implementation plans have been made to help them get rid of poverty. Besides, the 52 counties and their 1,113 impoverished villages have established poverty reduction schemes. This year, the country’s poverty alleviation work will focus more on capital allocation, projects layout, and consumption-driven poverty alleviation.