China News Service: 

Ensuring that a large-scale return to poverty does not occur is the bottom-line requirement for promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. Could you please tell us about the current situation in consolidating the results of poverty alleviation? How can we ensure this bottom line and help areas that have been lifted out of poverty move from "receiving aid" to "becoming self-sufficient?"

Han Wenxiu: 

Eliminating absolute poverty is a historic achievement recognized worldwide, attained through the hard work of the entire nation under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Preventing a large-scale return to poverty is a critical task in work related to agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents. In recent years, effective mechanisms and measures have been established across various regions, and the achievements in poverty alleviation have been consolidated. By the end of 2023, over 60% of those monitored to prevent a return to poverty had eliminated the risk. Support measures have been implemented for the remaining individuals, effectively preventing a large-scale return to poverty.

For a family or community, poverty alleviation is not a one-time effort. Structural unemployment, illness, disasters, accidents, and other factors can still push people back into poverty. Preventing a large-scale return to poverty is both a major economic and political task that requires continuous effort. We cannot afford to slacken our efforts in either thinking or action. This year's No. 1 central document emphasizes three key areas:

First, we must improve monitoring and support. Monitoring factors and dynamic changes that could lead to a return to poverty must be timely and effective, with immediate support measures to eliminate risks. We must ensure responsibilities are fulfilled, make good use of big data early warning systems, and further enhance the timeliness of monitoring and the precision of support to secure the bottom line of preventing a return to poverty. Additionally, efforts should be accelerated to promote interconnectivity between the poverty prevention monitoring system and the dynamic monitoring information platform for low-income populations, strengthening cross-departmental information integration and sharing to avoid redundant construction and information silos.

Second, we must strengthen industrial and employment support. These are fundamental measures to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation. In recent years, a batch of industrial projects have been implemented as part of the poverty alleviation efforts. Strengthening industrial support should focus on improving the quality, efficiency, and sustainability of industries, providing targeted guidance, and addressing shortcomings in technology, infrastructure, and marketing in accordance with the requirements made in this year's No. 1 central document on consolidating, upgrading, revitalizing, and adjusting industries. Additionally, enhancing the performance management of funded projects will ensure that the local population has a stable industrial foundation. Last year, a total of 33.969 million people who have been lifted out of poverty found jobs outside their hometowns, an increase of 1.19 million over the previous year, showing a stable increase. To strengthen employment support, the focus should be on stabilizing the employment scale of the people who have shaken off poverty, advancing initiatives to prevent a return to poverty through employment, and leveraging the roles of labor collaboration between eastern and western regions, employment support workshops, and public welfare jobs. This will ensure that those with the ability to work have stable jobs.

Third, we must enhance self-development capabilities. With less than two years left in the transition period for consolidating and expanding the results of poverty alleviation and effectively linking them with rural revitalization, it is fundamentally necessary to enhance internal motivation and focus more on "self-sufficiency" for the continuous development of areas that have shaken off poverty and the sustained income growth of people who have gotten rid of poverty. The goal is to transition from "receiving aid" to "becoming self-sufficient." The No. 1 central document specifies that for key areas, such as counties receiving focused support for rural revitalization and concentrated resettlement areas for relocation, further preferential support policies in fiscal, finance, land, talent, and paired assistance should be implemented. These policies aim to improve development conditions, enhance development capabilities, and help these areas achieve income growth and prosperity through their own efforts, thereby enhancing their living standards. Thank you.