SCIO briefing on Hebei province's development
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 29, 2019
Phoenix Satellite TV:
We noticed that at the beginning of this month, after the approval of the Hebei provincial poverty alleviation office and the leading group for poverty alleviation, 21 districts and counties such as Zanhuang county have been taken off the list of poverty-stricken counties. At present, how many poverty-stricken counties and how many poor people are there in Hebei province? What are the current difficulties? How will the Hebei provincial government respond to the two major problems of tackling poverty alleviation and preventing the return to poverty? Thank you.
Wang Dongfeng:
Thank you to the reporter from Phoenix Satellite TV. I'll address this question. Winning the battle against poverty is one of the three major battles put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping in the report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It is also a major political task in terms of implementing people-centered development thoughts. The task of poverty alleviation in Hebei province is relatively heavy, which originally had a poor population of 4.99 million people. There were 45 poverty-stricken counties as recognized at the national level and 17 as recognized at the provinciallevel. Last year, 21 poverty-stricken counties grew out of poverty and 650,000 people steadily rose out of poverty. There are still 399,500 poor people and 13 poverty-stricken counties. This year, if 330,000 people were taken off from poverty list, and 13 poverty-stricken counties all got rid of poverty, there will be only 69,500 poor people left. They will be fully lifted out of poverty in the first half of next year. The inspection and recognition will be carried out in the second half of next year, and then our achievements will be consolidated to prevent a rebound. This is how the progress of poverty alleviation works. Last year, we made a turnaround win and registered good grades in the national assessment of poverty alleviation achievements, as well as in the assessment of poverty alleviation by coordination efforts from east and west China. The poor counties and the poor people still left are the "hardest bones" and are mainly located in the cities of Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Baoding. The three cities are overseen by myself, Mr. Xu Qin and the deputy secretary of the provincial Party committee, respectively. And each member of the provincial Party committee oversees one city in the province. Among the cities, there are great poverty counties under them. We want to ensure that we can accomplish the annual poverty alleviation task as scheduled this year and ensure that the battle against poverty will be fully won next year.
We are taking several measures to overcome the hardest challenges, and to prevent the return to poverty:
First, we must strengthen the implementation of responsibilities and continue to work hard to cement our poverty alleviation achievements. The Party secretaries of five levels will work hard together to get rid of poverty. Their Party job and government job should share the same responsibility, while their own single official post should have dual responsibilities. All the responsibilities should be fully implemented from one level to another. From the province to the city and to the county, the leading cadres at all levels will join the poverty alleviation battle with poverty-stricken counties and poor households, as well as with the poverty alleviation teams and working groups stationed in the villages. For those that were already lifted out of poverty, they should achieve "four don'ts", which are: don't relieve responsibility, don't terminate policies, don't stop helping, don't end supervision. This is the first measure to resolutely prevent the return to poverty.
Second, we need to pay close attention to the bottom-line task and comprehensively resolve the "two no worries and three guarantees." We implement interaction between the higher and lower levels and integration of departments and regions at different levels. For issues of education, health, dangerous houses and low income of ordinary people, etc., the provincial departments are responsible, while the municipal, county and village secretaries are responsible for organizing special improvement campaigns. To combine the rural revitalization strategy and to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the provincial government fully deploys and fully implements all actions to achieve high quality and meet high standards.
Third, we will focus on key efforts, and on soundly addressing industrial poverty alleviation, employment poverty alleviation, science and technology poverty alleviation and relocation poverty alleviation. This is an important measure to enhance revitalization and ensure sustainable development. For these to work effectively, they must adhere to the "one town, one industry; one village, one product" policy, in order to develop unique industries. Li Baoguo from Hebei province is an excellent role model recognized by the instruction from General Secretary Xi Jinping, and he is a role model of our time. He was a professor at Hebei Agricultural University, and his wife follows his steps and continues to serve the people. Now the Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Hebei Agricultural University and other agricultural research institutes, as well as help teams, will go into villages to resolve technical problems for people during their planting and the aquaculture processes, and will increase the scientific and technological content and added value for their agricultural products. And regarding relocation, it should be combined with the management of hollow villages. The Bashang region of Zhangjiakou is bordered by Inner Mongolia. There are many hollow villages, which means there is basically no labor there — only the elderly are left behind. To accomplish a series of support facilities for water, electricity and heating, we need a lot of investment. We are determined to move the people from Bashang out of the hollow villages and relocate them to the counties, towns and other villages. The elderly who have no ability to work will be sent to nursing homes, the ones who can work will enter the industrial parks, and the children will go to schools. If they need vocational training, they will have vocational training, which will lay the foundation for future employment and entrepreneurship. Bashang region will then return farmland to grassland to build ecology, and after the grassland is restored, we can repurpose it for grazing and raising cows. We are fully coordinating and promoting the relocation of the hollow villages, and the results have been very good. For the completion of a new type of urbanization and the construction of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, this is a combination package of measures which will have comprehensive effects. We must make further efforts and ensure that we can move them out, let them live steadily, and increase their wealth.
Thank you, reporters.
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