Shanghai's partner aid to Yunnan
Original, GPIG, 02-02-2018
The cooperation between Shanghai and Yunnan has a long history. In the 1960s, many light textile and machinery enterprises from Shanghai were relocated as part of the Third Front Movement, forming a host of new industrial programs in Yunnan. At the end of the 1960s, thousands of educated youths in Shanghai went to Yunnan, many of them became the backbone of economic and social development of both provinces.
In September 1996, in line with the main goals of the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program, the Development-Oriented Poverty Alleviation Work Meeting decided to establish a mechanism to reduce poverty by promoting east-and-west cooperation. The leaders in Shanghai reached out to the central government and requested to establish counterpart cooperation with Yunnan. Since then, the long-term friendly cooperation between the two areas have entered a new historical stage. After mutual consultations, Shanghai decided to take prefectures with larger impoverished population and heavier development-oriented poverty alleviation tasks, such as Wenshan Prefecture, Honghe Prefecture, and Simao Prefecture (nowadays Puer City) as important sponsor targets, and paired 12 districts and counties in Shanghai with 23 key counties covered in the national development-oriented poverty alleviation program in the three prefectures.
The new looks of Masushu Village in the town of Yilong, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province
In July 1997, Shanghai initiated the pro-Yunnan program bu sending the first batch of 13 cadres to Yunnan to carry out poverty alleviation work in Wenshan, Honghe and Simiao.
Bused on in-depth investigations made under the support of local authorities, the group of cadres sent to aid Yunnan put forward the idea to launch “decent-life pilot village” projects in each village in an effort to make every village and every household have an access to the fruits of poverty alleviation. In 1998, the first batch of 44 “decent-life pilot village” projects were launched in 22 counties in Wenshan, Honghe and Simao, involving 9,664 people in 2,055 households, among whom those from ethnic minorities such as Miao, Zhuang, Yi, Wa, Hani and Lahu formed the majority. In the same year, by integrating the 6.6 million of financial aid from Shanghai with local resources, Yunan turned hillsides into 1,763 mu terraced fields; built a batch of hope schools, village clinics and activity rooms; and developed agricultural products and processing units. Under those efforts, the 44 pilot villages were lifted out of poverty.
Later, Yunnan and Shanghai began to carry out the programs of building “7+8 pilot villages with decent life and comfortable housing”, pilot villages with a relatively comfortable life achieved step by step, forming a progressive anti-poverty model characterized by mutual assistance. In April 1999, the pilot program for villages with a decent life proposed by Shanghai was promoted in the whole Yunnan. This exploration and practice provided real cases for the research that went into drafting the Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas on promoting whole village advancement as an important aspect of the national development- oriented poverty alleviation program.
In April 2004, the Party and Government Delegation of Shanghai arranged a study and inspection tour to Yunnan. On that tour, the delegation, on behalf of Shanghai, donated 80 million yuan to support Yunnan’s Fight against Abject Poverty, and decided to add Diqing Prefecture to its important sponsor targets and arrange Jiading District, Baoshan District, Shanghai Airlines and Shanghai Jinjiang Hotels Group to establish assistance partnerships with three counties in Diqing Prefecture.
From 2006 to 2010, in line with the order of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC), Shanghai actively undertook the poverty alleviation task in Deang, an ethnic minority with a small population. Through SEAC’s assistance mechanism for smaller ethnic groups, Shanghai invested 33.64 million yuan to give full support to the 80 natural villages inhabited by Deang people in Dehong Prefecture, Baoshan Prefecture and Lincang Prefecture in Yunnan. Those efforts, which lifted 19,700 Deang people out of poverty, were honored in the 5th national conference to award model institutions and individuals excelling in promoting ethnic unity and progress.
Since 2009, according to the requirements of the national medical reform plan and the Ministry of Health, 19 tertiary general hospitals in Shanghai have established assistance partnerships with 19 county-level hospitals in 16 prefectures in Yunnan.
The new looks of the countryside in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province
From 2001 to 2012, 100 primary and middle schools in Shanghai established assistance partnerships with 100 counterparts in Yunnan. A total of 960 excellent teachers were sent to Yunnan to support the education in ten batches.
In June 2011, Shanghai decided to establish assistance partnerships between Minghang District and Shangri-La County in Diqing, with the eighth batch of pro-Yunnan work as a beginning. Since then a pattern of counterpart cooperation characterized by “three prefectures helping three counties” has formed. Besides, under the guideline of the Shanghai municipal government, Bright Food Group and Shanghai Traffic & Transportation Group established assistance partnership with Diqing. By the end of June 2011, Shanghai, in accordance with the unified deployment and requirement of the central government and upholding the spirit of “involving true emotions, doing concrete deeds, and seeking actual effects”, accumulatively provided more than 1.981 billion in financial aid to 26 counties, and areas inhabited by Deang and Dulong ethnicities in Honghe, Wenshan, Puer and Diqing in an effort to improve their basic conditions in aspects of production, living, education and medicine as well as enhance their ability to develop on their own on the basis of whole village advancement. As a result, 5,249 supporting projects of various types were launched under the assistance of Shanghai. Among them, there were 2,858 whole village advancement projects，directly benefiting 600,000 people of all ethnic groups.
In the past 15 years since the establishment of assistance partnerships between the east and west to shift the latter out of poverty, Shanghai provided 416 million yuan in financial aid for Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Wenshan, Yunnan, and managed to mobilize all social sectors in Shanghai to donate more than 30 million yuan. Besides, it also attracted 1.15 billion yuan from Shanghai enterprises by establishing economic cooperation with them. With those funds, 1,672 supporting projects were launched in Yunnan, effectively pushing forward the development-oriented poverty alleviation program in Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Wenshan. Now, the villages newly built after the whole village advancement program look quite different. Blocks of two-storey buildings with a beautiful appearance and spacious courtyard lie along a limpid pond under dense green trees. The whole picture presented a peaceful and affluent sight. Behind the peace and affluence is Shanghai and Yunnan’s mutual efforts in reducing poverty which has lasted for more than ten years.
Original, GPIG, 02-02-2018
The cooperation between Shanghai and Yunnan has a long history. In the 1960s, many light textile and machinery enterprises from Shanghai were relocated as part of the Third Front Movement, forming a host of new industrial programs in Yunnan. At the end of the 1960s, thousands of educated youths in Shanghai went to Yunnan, many of them became the backbone of economic and social development of both provinces.
In September 1996, in line with the main goals of the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program, the Development-Oriented Poverty Alleviation Work Meeting decided to establish a mechanism to reduce poverty by promoting east-and-west cooperation. The leaders in Shanghai reached out to the central government and requested to establish counterpart cooperation with Yunnan. Since then, the long-term friendly cooperation between the two areas have entered a new historical stage. After mutual consultations, Shanghai decided to take prefectures with larger impoverished population and heavier development-oriented poverty alleviation tasks, such as Wenshan Prefecture, Honghe Prefecture, and Simao Prefecture (nowadays Puer City) as important sponsor targets, and paired 12 districts and counties in Shanghai with 23 key counties covered in the national development-oriented poverty alleviation program in the three prefectures.
The new looks of Masushu Village in the town of Yilong, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province
In July 1997, Shanghai initiated the pro-Yunnan program bu sending the first batch of 13 cadres to Yunnan to carry out poverty alleviation work in Wenshan, Honghe and Simiao.
Bused on in-depth investigations made under the support of local authorities, the group of cadres sent to aid Yunnan put forward the idea to launch “decent-life pilot village” projects in each village in an effort to make every village and every household have an access to the fruits of poverty alleviation. In 1998, the first batch of 44 “decent-life pilot village” projects were launched in 22 counties in Wenshan, Honghe and Simao, involving 9,664 people in 2,055 households, among whom those from ethnic minorities such as Miao, Zhuang, Yi, Wa, Hani and Lahu formed the majority. In the same year, by integrating the 6.6 million of financial aid from Shanghai with local resources, Yunan turned hillsides into 1,763 mu terraced fields; built a batch of hope schools, village clinics and activity rooms; and developed agricultural products and processing units. Under those efforts, the 44 pilot villages were lifted out of poverty.
Later, Yunnan and Shanghai began to carry out the programs of building “7+8 pilot villages with decent life and comfortable housing”, pilot villages with a relatively comfortable life achieved step by step, forming a progressive anti-poverty model characterized by mutual assistance. In April 1999, the pilot program for villages with a decent life proposed by Shanghai was promoted in the whole Yunnan. This exploration and practice provided real cases for the research that went into drafting the Outline for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas on promoting whole village advancement as an important aspect of the national development- oriented poverty alleviation program.
In April 2004, the Party and Government Delegation of Shanghai arranged a study and inspection tour to Yunnan. On that tour, the delegation, on behalf of Shanghai, donated 80 million yuan to support Yunnan’s Fight against Abject Poverty, and decided to add Diqing Prefecture to its important sponsor targets and arrange Jiading District, Baoshan District, Shanghai Airlines and Shanghai Jinjiang Hotels Group to establish assistance partnerships with three counties in Diqing Prefecture.
From 2006 to 2010, in line with the order of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC), Shanghai actively undertook the poverty alleviation task in Deang, an ethnic minority with a small population. Through SEAC’s assistance mechanism for smaller ethnic groups, Shanghai invested 33.64 million yuan to give full support to the 80 natural villages inhabited by Deang people in Dehong Prefecture, Baoshan Prefecture and Lincang Prefecture in Yunnan. Those efforts, which lifted 19,700 Deang people out of poverty, were honored in the 5th national conference to award model institutions and individuals excelling in promoting ethnic unity and progress.
Since 2009, according to the requirements of the national medical reform plan and the Ministry of Health, 19 tertiary general hospitals in Shanghai have established assistance partnerships with 19 county-level hospitals in 16 prefectures in Yunnan.
The new looks of the countryside in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province
From 2001 to 2012, 100 primary and middle schools in Shanghai established assistance partnerships with 100 counterparts in Yunnan. A total of 960 excellent teachers were sent to Yunnan to support the education in ten batches.
In June 2011, Shanghai decided to establish assistance partnerships between Minghang District and Shangri-La County in Diqing, with the eighth batch of pro-Yunnan work as a beginning. Since then a pattern of counterpart cooperation characterized by “three prefectures helping three counties” has formed. Besides, under the guideline of the Shanghai municipal government, Bright Food Group and Shanghai Traffic & Transportation Group established assistance partnership with Diqing. By the end of June 2011, Shanghai, in accordance with the unified deployment and requirement of the central government and upholding the spirit of “involving true emotions, doing concrete deeds, and seeking actual effects”, accumulatively provided more than 1.981 billion in financial aid to 26 counties, and areas inhabited by Deang and Dulong ethnicities in Honghe, Wenshan, Puer and Diqing in an effort to improve their basic conditions in aspects of production, living, education and medicine as well as enhance their ability to develop on their own on the basis of whole village advancement. As a result, 5,249 supporting projects of various types were launched under the assistance of Shanghai. Among them, there were 2,858 whole village advancement projects，directly benefiting 600,000 people of all ethnic groups.
In the past 15 years since the establishment of assistance partnerships between the east and west to shift the latter out of poverty, Shanghai provided 416 million yuan in financial aid for Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Wenshan, Yunnan, and managed to mobilize all social sectors in Shanghai to donate more than 30 million yuan. Besides, it also attracted 1.15 billion yuan from Shanghai enterprises by establishing economic cooperation with them. With those funds, 1,672 supporting projects were launched in Yunnan, effectively pushing forward the development-oriented poverty alleviation program in Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Wenshan. Now, the villages newly built after the whole village advancement program look quite different. Blocks of two-storey buildings with a beautiful appearance and spacious courtyard lie along a limpid pond under dense green trees. The whole picture presented a peaceful and affluent sight. Behind the peace and affluence is Shanghai and Yunnan’s mutual efforts in reducing poverty which has lasted for more than ten years.
