Samsung to invest $22m in rural initiatives
South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will invest 150 million yuan ($22.5 million) in poverty alleviation, education and helping people with disabilities in rural areas of China.
In the next three years, Samsung said it will help build 10 tourism demonstration villages and agricultural production bases, as well as expand and rebuild 15 rural primary schools in Gansu province.
It will also pay for surgical operations for 5,000 children with congenital visual impairments in the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture of Sichuan province, Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province and Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture in Gansu province.
“It is a crucial period for China to comprehensively push forward the fight against poverty. At the begin2015. ning of this year, Samsung China adjusted its poverty alleviation strategy and centralized its resources to participate in the fight against poverty in China,” said Hwang Deuk-kyu, president of Samsung China.
Hwang said about 100,000 employees in China will take part in a series of voluntary services, such as rebuilding schools, upgrading infrastructure facilities and developing the rural tourism industry.
Chen Zhigang, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said Samsung China is developing local industries to boost employment, in a bid to turn a poverty-stricken village into a thriving area.
Samsung will deepen its cooperation with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to launch its third “sharing village” project in China, which is located at Baiyan, Leishan county, Guizhou province.
The investment involves repairing abandoned houses, building high-end homestay facilities and developing a rural tourism industry.
Samsung launched its sharing village project in China in The company’s first sharing village was launched in Fuping county, Shaanxi province and the second in Nanyu, Laishui county, Hebei province, with a total investment of 30 million yuan.
These areas benefited from investment in education, medical facilities and drinking water. The program enabled Samsung to further deepen its relationship with the local area. China has pledged to eradicate extreme poverty domestically by the end of 2020.
The number of those in poverty, which stood at more than 98 million at the end of 2012, was cut by two-thirds in the most recent five-year period.
The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development and the National Tourism Administration have launched a strategy of rural tourism, which involves lifting 17 percent of impoverished people out of poverty through developing tourism.
At the beginning of this year, Samsung China adjusted its poverty alleviation strategy and centralized its resources to participate in the fight against poverty in China.”
Hwang Deuk-kyu,