Hong Kong Economic Herald:

This year marks the finish line for the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving the goals laid out in the 13th Five-Year Plan. What are the arrangements of the NDRC in the fight against poverty and how will the remaining poor population be lifted out poverty this year? Thank you. 

Cong Liang:

Thank you for your questions. Mr. Ning Jizhe and Mr. Zhao Chenxin have touched upon this question previously, and I will introduce the following four aspects of the work the NDRC is doing: 

First, we are promoting the completion of poverty alleviation and relocation work. As Mr. Ning Jizhe just said, our construction tasks were roughly finished one year ahead of schedule. But the work that comes after relocation, especially follow-up support, is still under way this year. We have done the following three things. First, we have formulated policies. We worked alongside 12 departments to map out 25 policies and measures for providing post-relocation aid and support. Second, we enhanced supervision. We urged and directed local authorities to fulfill their responsibility, overcome the impact of COVID-19, and expedite the work on the remaining projects as well as the post-relocation support in accordance with different regions and categories. We also carried out supervision over the remaining work at resettlement areas, as well as urging the related provincial-level regions to finish their projects and put them into operation as soon as possible. Third, we coordinated funding. We coordinated and arranged 26.4 billion yuan of general bonds issued by local governments and 4.8 billion yuan of poverty alleviation fund provided by the central government. All of it went to post-relocation support. As of the end of April, decisive progress had been made in the relocation campaign. A total of 9.515 million people from registered poverty-stricken families had been resettled, accounting for 99.4% of the whole. The remaining 0.6% of people will resettle as soon as possible this year. In addition, 17 out of 22 provincial-level regions had completed their resettlement tasks, and in the resettled families with an available labor force, more than 90% of the families had at least one person in employment. 

Second, give play to the role of poverty-relief employment programs in creating more employment opportunities and increasing incomes. Just now, Mr. Zhao also mentioned this issue. We have allocated capital amounting to 5.6 billion yuan in batches for poverty-relief employment programs, especially in extremely poor areas, including Tibet autonomous region, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu provinces and Hubei province and other areas seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. People living in poverty, especially those who cannot travel to work because of the pandemic, are being widely organized to participate in the programs. The percentage shares of incomes among investment by the central government increased to 15% from 10%. In the past, the lowest share was 10%. These programs are expected to help 300,000 poor people who cannot make it to work because of COVID-19 find jobs in their hometowns and increase their income.

Third, promote poverty alleviation by consumption. We have cooperated with 27 central government departments and units and conducted 30 specific actions to increase the consumption of special products and services in poor areas and relieve the negative impacts of the pandemic. We have coordinated 23 central government departments to utilize the advantages of their own system, industry and sector to directly purchase more than one billion yuan of special agricultural products from Hubei province and help the province sell products of 10 billion yuan worth; these efforts were effective. 

Fourth, coordinated steps will be taken in other poverty alleviation efforts. We will continue to increase support for safe drinking water, education and medical projects in poor rural areas, and we will speed up the construction of roads, power grid and water conservation projects in rural areas. New funds, projects and measures should be weighted toward areas in deep poverty.

In the next phase, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will fully implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the symposium on securing a decisive victory in poverty alleviation and Xi's instructions given during his inspection tours in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. We will ensure the completion of projects and the follow-up support in order to accomplish targets of relocation during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Thanks.