Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China's Rural Areas (2011-2020) Speech for Press Conference (December 6, 2011)
Mr. FAN Xiaojian, Director (Minister) of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development
Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the press: Good morning! I am very pleased to attend today’s press conference. And I am grateful to all of you for your attention to and support for the development-oriented poverty reduction program for rural China.
The year of 2011 is very important in China’s poverty alleviation history. For instance, we held in June the Exhibition on China’s Poverty Reduction Achievements in the New Century. In November, The State Council Information office issued a white paper titled New Progress in Development-oriented Poverty Reduction Program for Rural China. A couple of days ago, the CPC Central Committee convened the Development-oriented Poverty Reduction Working Meeting at its highest level. The meeting summed up the valuable experience of development-oriented poverty reduction, elaborated in depth the significance of development-oriented poverty reduction in the new phase, and thus initiated the new efforts to end poverty. And after this meeting, the Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Reduction for China’s Rural Areas (2011-2020) (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) was officially released. So today in this press conference, I will introduce to you the specifics of the Outline.
I. Background for the Formulation of the Outline
At the outset of reform and opening-up, there were 250 million poor rural residents in China, and the poverty incidence rate was 30.7%. Over the past 30 years, especially since the implementation of The Seven-year Priority Poverty Reduction Program in 1994 and the Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2001-2010) in 2001, the Chinese government has endeavored to reduce poverty through development, with expediting development as the fundamental measure to alleviate poverty; our people-oriented policy puts at the central place the improvement of people’s living and producing conditions in poverty-stricken areas and the enhancement of poor people’s living standard; we will uphold the leadership of the Party and the directing by our government, with the powerful organizing leadership as an important guarantee for the realization of poverty reduction; we will adhere to development-oriented poverty reduction, achieving poverty reduction mainly by enabling the people of self-development; we will extensively mobilize social aid into poverty reduction, taking social aid and pairing the more-developed provinces and municipalities in the east with the impoverished regions in the west as an effective model of our poverty reduction；we’ll remain respect the principal role of the local cadres and masses in development-oriented poverty reduction for poor rural areas, and ignite the internal vitality for development-oriented poverty reduction through bringing into play their own initiative, enthusiasm and creativity；It is important to learn from foreign countries’ poverty reduction experiences and international exchange and cooperation will be an important complement to our work. Up until the end of last year, the objectives set out in the last Outline was generally achieved, as evidenced by a great drop of the number of the rural poor from 94.22 million at the end of 2000 to 26.88 million at the end of 2010, and poverty incidence rate from 10.2% to 2.8%. During 2001 to 2010, rural per-capita net income of the key counties in the national development-oriented poverty reduction program increased from RMB1277 to RMB3273, up 8.1% annually, slightly higher than the rural average. Meanwhile, infrastructure, production and living conditions of poor areas were improved, hand in hand with progress made in social undertakings, establishment of subsistence allowance system and adequate food and clothing availability. These great achievements are significant for economic progress, political stability, ethnic unity, frontier security and social harmony. China is the first developing country to have realized ahead of schedule the goal of halving the extreme poverty, as listed in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, thus making great contributions to the world’s poverty reduction efforts.
However, China is still at a primary stage of socialism, and will remain so for a long period of time, featuring a relatively low level of the economic and social development, noticeable unbalanced regional development and deep-seated rural development bottlenecks such as a large size of the impoverished population, comparative deprivation, frequent cases of sinking back into poverty, and underdevelopment of regions with special difficulties that lie in vast and contiguous stretches. In the meantime, as industrialization, informatization, urbanization, marketization and internationalization gain more momentum, China will face new opportunities and challenges during its poverty reduction process. In order to deal with the new situation and fulfill new missions, we further specified our guiding ideology, our objectives, general thought, focus points and policy measures. That is the overall background of the formulation of the new Outline.
II. Process of the Formulation of the Outline
Since the beginning of 2009, the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development conducted a series of surveys and researches, and put forward a train of advice for the improvement of poverty reduction strategy and policy system. In February 2010, after listening to the report on poverty reduction in its 101st routine meeting, the State Council decided to formulate the new Outline for the new decade, so as to usher in a new stage for poverty reduction efforts.
The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the drafting of the Outline. They held several meetings to listen to work reports and discussed major issues. We started the drafting process in March 2010 and finished it 15 months later with the strong support of the Office of Rural Work Leading Group and Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, Research Office of the State Council, and the member ministries under the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development. Then, after soliciting opinions of local governments and relevant departments, experts and people of different circles, the government promulgated the Outline in the name of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, signifying the appearance of the third programmatic document in China’s history of poverty reduction.
III. Framework and Main Characteristics of the Outline
The Outline is divided into five parts, nine chapters and forty-nine articles. The first part is the foreword; the second part contains two chapters, including general requirements and targets & tasks; the third part includes one chapter which specifies target group and scope; the fourth part contains four chapters covering specific, industrial and social poverty reduction programs as well as international cooperation; the fifth part involves two chapters including policy guarantee and organizational leadership. I will not elaborate on this since you all have this document at hand now.
The Outline has six outstanding characteristics: First, an important judgment was made. By 2010, subsistence of rural population, i.e. food and clothing was basically ensured. Now is the time for us to consolidate our achievements, help people shake off poverty and get well-off more quickly, improve ecological environment, increase development capacity and narrow development gaps. Second, a clearer objective was set. “Two Worries-free and Three Guarantees” sums up both the need for subsistence and partial needs for development, which is consistent with the essential characteristics of the poverty reduction efforts in the new stage. Third, a more scientific guiding principle was adopted. The government will uphold the development-oriented principle, and connect poverty reduction with subsistence allowance system. The Outline specifies that poverty reduction should promote development and subsistence allowance system support subsistence. Fourth, a better work pattern that combines specific, industrial and social poverty reduction efforts , which was laid out for the first time in history. Fifth, a clearer target group was identified, which falls into four levels, namely, the poverty reduction recipients, the contiguous destitute areas, key counties and poverty-stricken villages. Sixth, a stronger policy guarantee was secured. China raised its poverty line, and decided to reinforce efforts to target at impoverished areas that lie in contiguous stretches, and to earmark more additional special anti-poverty funds from the central budget to those areas. The Outline also requires relevant parties to improve strategies and policy systems that are conducive to poor areas and their needy residents. Meanwhile, eight requirements were put forward, including fiscal and tax support, preferential investment policies, financial services, industrial support, land use, ecological protection, human resources and key target groups. On top of that, China also requires expediting the legislation process in this respect.
This was the brief introduction to the Outline. Now, in line with the main goals of the Development-oriented Poverty Reduction Working Meeting, Mr. Du Ying, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Mr. Hu Jinglin, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Finance and I are ready for your questions.
