Eastwest Poverty Cooperation Paying Dividends
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12 | ADVERTORIAL Friday, April 16, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY The old downtown area of Qingdao is juxtaposed with its vibrant modern city center. YANG XUEMEI AND WANG BO / FOR CHINA DAILY East-west poverty cooperation paying dividends Well-off and poorer ing the outbreak of COVID-19 and when they were hit by natural dis- regions join hands to asters. increase social welfare “The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 last year did upset many of our arrangements,” Hao recalled. But he By YUAN SHENGGAO said they managed to come through by working closely with the three Growers of Sichuan peppers in cities. Northwest China’s Gansu province After learning that there was a are now able to sell their produce at shortage of medical supplies in the a higher price on their doorstep three cities, Qingdao sent them face thanks to a buyer who has come to masks, goggles, disinfectant and oth- the province all the way from the er medical supplies when the city eastern province of Shandong. itself was undersupplied, Hao said. The buyer, a producer of Sichuan Left: Visitors pick strawberries at a culture park built for poverty alleviation in Nanxinzhuang village in the West Coast New Area of When a major flood hit Longnan in peppercorn oil based in Shandong’s Qingdao. Right: Tea leaves are picked at the Guanling tea industrial park in Anshun, Guizhou province. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY August last year, Qingdao offered the Qingdao, has set up a production city a relief fund of more than 17 mil- base in the city of Longnan of Gansu lion yuan, according to Hao. It also in response to the Qingdao govern- poverty alleviation cooperation, at a Since 2016, Qingdao has helped yuan. In August last year, Qingdao care, technology, agriculture and provided the city with supplies such ment’s call to help the pepper grow- news conference held on March 29. lift 545,800 poor people in Anshun, launched a monthlong campaign other fields to the three cities, bring- as tents and emergency lighting. ers in Longnan. He added that the Qingdao pepper- more than 440,000 poor people in named “Reducing Poverty by Pro- ing with them the latest know-how, Longnan was grateful for the help This is part of a national program corn oil producer has also benefited Longnan and 914,000 poor people moting Consumption”. said Hao Shuguang, deputy head of and expressed its gratitude by send- called the “East-West Pairing-off from the arrangement by gaining in Heze out of poverty. As part of the campaign, trade the Qingdao office for poverty ing a medical team of 50 to Qingdao Cooperation for Poverty Reduction”, access to quality raw materials. “The cooperation is built on sincer- shows were held to promote the alleviation cooperation. in October last year when it learned whereby a more developed region in “Qingdao did the same in the ity and also strong financial backing,” products from the three cities. Dedi- Doctors from Qingdao hospi- that Qingdao needed help with East China assists a less developed Guizhou city of Anshun and Dou said. “Qingdao has set aside an cated sales areas were set up in chain tals, such as the Affiliated Hospital COVID-19 tests, Hao noted. one in West China to shake off Shandong’s Heze city to help the assistance package of more than 3.4 supermarkets and shopping malls in of Qingdao University and the Qingdao has also done a good job poverty. locals find a job in their own home- billion yuan ($52 million) for the Qingdao to help the products reach Qingdao Municipal Hospital, have pulling its own poor residents out of “The peppers grown by Longnan town,” Dou said. “These efforts put three cities — 1.1 billion yuan for a larger market. visited the three cities to help local poverty. All of the 63,887 registered farmers are of good quality but Qingdao among the country’s top Anshun, 1.57 billion yuan for Long- Qingdao-born actor Huang hospitals set up new departments poor residents of Qingdao were lift- could only be sold at a low price performers in combating poverty by nan and 744 million for Heze.” Xiaoming and athlete Chen Meng and perform operations that local ed out of poverty in 2016, according because they were not processed as developing industries.” Since 2016, Qingdao has helped were invited to be the spokespeople doctors haven’t performed before. to city officials. a result of the city’s lack of accessi- Longnan, Anshun and Heze are bring 145 projects to Anshun, Long- for the campaign, according to local In addition to providing long- It has helped 5,152 poor people bility and lack of information from the three cities Qingdao has paired nan and Heze. officials. term-oriented assistance, Qingdao who can work and who want to the outside world,” said Dou Zong- up with in the poverty alleviation These projects involved a total Since 2016, the city has been send- last year helped the three cities work find a job, with 2,961 of them jun, head of the Qingdao office for cooperation program. investment of more than 9.3 billion ing specialists in education, medical meet their immediate needs dur- working in the public welfare sector. Qingdao businesses work with rural partners in Gansu to boost incomes By YUAN SHENGGAO local whose family had been listed The project has invested 50 mil- as impoverished. lion yuan in its first phase, planting After a yearslong battle against However, the life of Ren’s family 1,333.33 hectares of marigolds and poverty, the mountainous has now changed after she was benefiting more than 7,100 house- Chengxian county in Northwest employed at the LiHe plant. “Now, holds in 17 towns and villages in China’s Gansu province, declared our monthly salary is more than Chengxian county. That has also victory over poverty in 2019. 3,500 yuan, and we have expanded helped 1,112 impoverished house- The rural county could not have our house from a single clay house to holds escape poverty, according to overcome its hardships without the five tile-roofed houses,” Ren said. local officials. collaboration and assistance of The company utilizes local To date, Qingdao has enacted 50 businesses from Chengyang district resources such as the Sichuan pep- projects in Longnan, with a total Shinan district in Qingdao has attracted a cluster of financial enterprises. WANG HUA / FOR CHINA DAILY in Qingdao some 1,500 kilometers per and processes it into more than investment of 760 million yuan, cre- away. 10 types of products such as pepper ating a strong base for industries in Chengxian county, under the oil and skincare creams. the city, according to local officials. administration of the city of Long- To date, the project has had an Apart from the projects, Cheng- Financial services provide safety net nan, had long suffered from impov- investment of 160 million yuan, yang district has also helped Cheng- erished conditions and been which is used to purchase 5,000 xian county sell its agricultural largely cut off from the outside metric tons of peppers every year, products by holding promotional world because of a poor transport and its annual output value is esti- events and conducting livestreams. to secure livelihoods of farmers network. As a part of a govern- mated at 800 million yuan. Since 2018, the district has helped ment-backed scheme, businesses That not only helps local farmers Chengxian county to realize more By YUAN SHENGGAO Listed as a severely poverty- dependent on weather, and they and investors in Chengyang dis- in Chengxian county to sell their than 60 million yuan in sales. stricken county, Dangchang relies could only expand the feeding size trict sought to provide assistance to peppers, but also benefits more Chengxian was also listed as the Financial businesses in Qing- on traditional agriculture for its if there was a price rise, which lags Chengxian county in helping it bet- than 50,000 households in rural only pilot county for alleviating pov- dao have played a key role in tar- income. Leveraging its advantages behind the market, Pang said. ter utilize its strengths in agricul- areas in Longnan, local officials erty through consumption in Gansu geted poverty alleviation, aided by in financial services, Galaxy Fighting poverty with insurance ture, diversify the products it could said. province. local government support, provid- Futures put together plans to pro- and futures can help ensure farm- offer to the wider market and bet- Another poverty alleviation “In the past, our honey was proc- ing much-needed financial servi- vide insurance and futures for the ers have egg stockpiles and are ter commercialize its yields. project by Chengyang district in essed in individual workshops and ces to rural cooperative local chicken farmers in Dang- more resistant to market fluctua- LiHe Extract, a Qingdao-based Chengxian county is the marigold was hard to sell via limited market businesses across the country. chang. tions with payment protection, he high-tech company engaged in plantation and lutein industry park, channels and at a low price,” said Li One such example is Galaxy For the project, the Shinan dis- explained. chemical extraction and processing, which operates in cooperation with Kun, head of Erlang township in Futures, which has a branch of trict government provided Dang- It also helps farmers not to fall invested in an extraction project in Jiayi Biology, a Qingdao-based bio- Chengxian county. operations in Qingdao’s Shinan chang county with an insurance back into poverty because of egg Chengxian county, and as a result tech company.