Sichuan’s achievements in poverty alleviation and civil-military integration

A report recently released by the Sichuan provincial government shows that its poverty alleviation program has had a substantial influence on the province’s development, with more than a million people and 3,513 villages lifted out of poverty in 2018.

The impetus came from President Xi Jinping’s remarks made during the 2017 Two Sessions, which are the meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. At the meetings, Xi called on the officials in Sichuan Province to promote sustainable economic development with great focus on poverty alleviation and military and civilian integration.

Officials from the provincial government have rolled out 22 targeted polices on poverty alleviation in accordance with Xi’s guidance, which have incorporated infrastructure construction, education and employment. The government also set up a five-member leading group in each of the 11,501 economically-disadvantaged villages in the province.

The development of a local village called Huopu is evidence of the program’s success. Based on the instructions of the village’s leading group, the impoverished community started a 1.3 hectare farm of Morchella (a kind of mushroom), which is expected to earn them an income of more than one million yuan (nearly 150,000 US dollars) this year.

Villagers are now able to afford basic things such as furniture because of the economic opportunities that have been made available to them.

“In the past, we used to on the ground because we had no furniture. But now, we can afford to buy a sofa and a stove” said a villager from Huopu village, “In winter, we will be able to keep warm by sitting beside the stove.”

The provincial government has been striving to improve the local education. A vocational school named “Sichuan Zhanqi Rural Revitalization Training College” has been established in Zhanqi village to tackle the problem of shortage of skills in the community. The school is capable to train 2,000 students at the same time.

“The school will help to cultivate a new batch of leaders for the local villages, such as government functionaries, rural cadres, skilled farmers, rural enterprise leaders and management personnel” said Yang Xinghong, Vice-president of Sichuan Zhanqi Rural Revitalization Training College.

The other focus area for the provincial government has been to promote the civil-military integration plan. In 2017, the government launched a plan called “The implementation plan for the construction of innovative province”, encouraging military enterprises and some major scientific R&D faculties in the province to share their achievements with civilian enterprises.

To date, Sichuan’s civil-military integration business income has exceeded 340 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the past two years.