SCIO briefing on securing a decisive victory in poverty alleviation
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 13, 2020
Phoenix TV:
I have two questions. First, the impact of this epidemic has been relatively large. Do you have any statistics on, or have you been focusing on new poor families created by the epidemic? Second, some places such as Guangxi province have established temporary jobs for the poverty-stricken families. Should such a short-term "blood-transfusion-style" practice be advocated? How do you view jobs of this nature in the future? Thank you.
Liu Yongfu:
Since the poverty alleviation campaign began, we have been conducting monitoring every year. Statistics are available. Just now I reported that the number of people falling back to poverty has been decreasing year-on-year. We also have statistics for those at risk of falling back to poverty or at risk of falling into poverty. Around two million people are at risk of falling back to poverty, and about three million are at risk of falling into poverty. That means a total of about five million people, plus the remaining five million impoverished people at the end of 2019. So, our task involves lifting 10 million people out of poverty this year. You just mentioned that some places have set up temporary public welfare jobs, which is also common across the country. During the poverty alleviation campaign, some public welfare posts can be set up. Government-invested projects concerning people's livelihoods can provide public welfare jobs for the poor. This approach helps them by giving them work, as they will have an income. This has been a successful approach in many areas and we will continue adhering to this approach. However, we must also gradually improve the setting of public welfare posts. Public welfare posts should only be set up when there is a need for public welfare undertakings. The posts requires holding public welfare activities, and impoverished people should go to work. In some places, the public welfare posts have turned into a kind of welfare. That is not right. So, we must gradually regulate this.
Except for China, I do not know of large-scale photovoltaic power stations being established for poverty alleviation elsewhere. In the process of poverty alleviation, tens of thousands of village-level photovoltaic power stations have been built in impoverished villages across the country. Each power station of around 300KW can produce an annual income of more than 200,000 yuan. This income can be regarded as the collective income of a village. In the beginning, some places distributed money directly to poor households. Now we encourage them to set up public welfare posts that allow poor households, semi-able-bodied laborers and less advantaged laborers to work. Their income ranges from 500 to 600 yuan per month, up to 800 to 1,000 yuan per month. By engaging in public welfare services, they solve the needs of public welfare causes, such as road maintenance, care for the elderly and cleaning. Due to the impact of the epidemic this year, more efforts must be made in this regard. A total of 80% of the revenue from village-level photovoltaic power stations will be used to create public welfare posts. Therefore, we are advocating the approach you just mentioned, but we must gradually implement regulations to prevent supporting "lazy people." Thank you.
