In southwest China’s province of Yunnan, there are still some 4.7 million impoverished people scattered over 88 poor counties. The provincial government is making Herculean efforts to lift them out of poverty in four years, and the goal is to give all the local residents an acceptable standard of living by 2020.

Members of the CPPCC Yunnan Provincial Committee have recently pooled their ideas about innovative ways to improve the region’s anti-poverty measures, so as to achieve the goal sooner and better. 

Zhou Changchun: Enhancing Financial Services to Support Targeted Anti-poverty Efforts 

Existing financial service centers should be built into comprehensive stations that serve the diverse needs of all residents. 

In addition to the original function of the financial centers as payment agencies, the stations are expected to offer other services such as facilities for deposit, withdrawal and exchange as well as issuing cards and loans. 

Moreover, the stations should also be able to collect application documents of local households for loans, help rural credit cooperatives with microloan issues, spread financial knowledge, offer consultations and distribute relevant materials. 

Villagers’ rights, certification of their contracted farmland, homestead and house should be added to the list of acceptable collateral for loans. 

To put in place such financial stations, efforts should be made to grant institutions easier access to the rural financial market and devolving the power of examination and approval, with a view to bringing more financial resources to disadvantaged regions. 

Based on these stations, an ever-improving rural financial system be introduced for public banks to fully support poverty-relief policies and programs, and for national commercial banks to upgrade services concerning agriculture, farmers and rural areas, while local financial organizations provide direct services such as granting microloans. 

Yunnan Committee of the Jiu San Society: Engaging Capital Market in Poverty Relief Action

The capital market is conducive to capital formation and optimized resource allocation, and efforts should therefore be made to formulate a plan that makes use of the market’s strengths to eliminate poverty. 

Specifically, it is advisable to set up special funds to help some eligible companies registered in disadvantaged counties to go public with a view to obtaining further finance. Also, it is proposed to seize the opportunities stemming from major national policies and seek all-round development by building an open platform, which helps attract and nurture more outstanding businesses. Local securities firms should also be supported in establishing funds, so as to encourage listed enterprises from outside Yunnan to register in the province’s destitute counties.

These enterprises should be encouraged to join in local economic development through reciprocal assistance, merger and acquisition. 

Dong Jinhong: Pooling Anti-poverty Funds to Produce Greater Effect

There are many problems in managing and applying Yunnan’s anti-poverty funds. For example, delayed appropriation adversely impacts the anticipated outcome, some policies are not fully implemented, and inadequate supervision of funds has led to cases of embezzlement and leverage. 

All the funds from different departments and other sources should be integrated for common and strengthened management, and the whole process of fund management from appropriation and utilization to reimbursement should be supervised by assigned personnel, and restrictions must be in place within the supervising and managing system. 

Zhang Xiaogai: Raising the Minimum Living Allowance Standard

The national rural poverty line stands at an annual net income of 3,050 yuan (U.S. $445) per capita, but the local minimum living allowance standard grants three sub-groups merely 237,165 and 133 yuan (U.S. $34,486 and 19.3) per month respectively. Even if impoverished people were offered minimum living allowances, they would still remain well below the national standard of poverty elimination, leaving unrealized the goal whereby social security guarantees a sound life for the most disadvantaged, where other efforts have been unsuccessful. 

Therefore, it is advisable to raise the minimum living allowance standard in the rural border area and bridge the gap between the national and provincial standards, that is, to increase the provincial living allowance to 3,050 yuan (U.S. $445) per annum for impoverished residents. 

Yunnan Committee of the China Democratic League: Taking Targeted Anti-poverty Measures to Prevent Reckless Action

The Yunnan provincial government should pay enough attention to imprecise identification indexes in Yunnan’s poverty reduction work. Serious consequences include a wide gap between investment supply and demand, a lack of systematic arrangement for resource allocation, the stark difference in aid received by different impoverished villages on government list, and irresponsible measures aimed at quick poverty elimination.  

The current identification method and using multiple and precise indexes should be further improved, so that resources can be directed to places and people truly in need, and there will be an end to the “egalitarian” practice of “taking turns” in receiving aid. 

A dynamic information platform should be built for targeted poverty reduction, with a view to collecting and sharing relevant information streams between different departments and better match real needs with social resources. Supervision should also be strengthened by bringing in a third party to carry out assessments and conduct surveys among the residents. This is expected to enhance the credibility of the common cause.

Yunnan Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy: Stepping Up Poverty Alleviation Efforts Using Returns on Assets

Impoverished households should entrust their assets and the funds they receive to economic entities and let them manage and invest the resources. This is expected to bring the villagers stable incomes in the long run.

A model of minimum return plus profits according to contributions should be introduced, in order to encourage the disadvantaged residents to buy into their community’s collective entities using their rights to farmland and forests as well as their properties and equipment, the advisors proposed.

Meanwhile, the government should increase support for farmers’ cooperatives and provide more platforms for enterprises with rural stakeholders, so as to help upgrade production and eventually increase the incomes of both the companies and the farmers. Capital management should be strengthened as well, with the returns on farmers’ assets handled according to the law. 

Additionally, agricultural and technology professionals should play a critical role in the process of using technology to reduce poverty and provide support for rural industrial development. However, this group is hampered by insufficient numbers, unsatisfactory overall performance, non-standard management, rigid mechanisms and a failure to meet the needs of modern agricultural development. 

Therefore, it is advisable for the provincial government to improve the current system, increase payments and benefits for professionals, and introduce a scientific assessment standard. For this purpose, grassroots government organizations may pay more attention to the professional skills of the personnel they recruit, agriculture-related schools focus on producing the talent that is desperately needed, subsidies be given to agricultural and technology staff undergoing training, and that talented personnel, and village heads lacking agricultural knowledge receive necessary training so as to better grasp local realities. 

The article was translated by Cheng Yahui. Its original unabridged version was published in Chinese.