Innovation alleviates poverty
▶ Tourism, internet, new policies all play key roles
China has made remarkable achievements in lifting approximately 100 million people from poverty, a hardwon result of top- down policy support, nation- wide solidarity and commercial innovation.
From characteristic tourism to e- commerce to innovative lending, many business strategies and technological achievements have contributed to the mighty task.
In Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local officials help residents escape poverty with the help of abundant regional tourism resources, characteristic agriculture and animal husbandry.
Sataer Maimaiti, a 70- year- old villager in Aksu, Xinjiang has operated an “agritainment” resort with his wife since 2012. At first they saw almost no improvement, but the resort now offers jobs for impoverished households thanks to the local government’s poverty alleviation measures.
“With publicity by the township government and rural committee, the number of visitors coming to our resort surged more than 100 percent during the peak season in September 2020,” Maimaiti said.
China’s popularization of mobile phones and the coverage of communication networks provide a window to make underprivileged rural areas known to the outside world.
Fiber- optic and 4G networks have reached more than 98 percent of villages across the country, and 5G has also been introduced into more rural areas, making it possible for poverty alleviation via livestreaming to take place, Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics at Beijing Technology and Business University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
With the urbanization rate exceeding 50 percent, a large number of young people have returned to their hometowns to start businesses, making rural areas the driver of the future economy.
As a short video- sharing platform, Kuaishou contributes to the nationwide poverty alleviation task through its livestreaming services.
Data from Kuaishou showed that it has supported more than 100 rural entrepreneurs and incubated 57 rural firms and cooperatives that offer about 1,200 jobs and help more than 10,000 households increase their incomes.
More than 1,400 counties have participated in a national project of bringing e- commerce into rural areas from 2014- 20, releasing the potential of rural consumption in the form of Internet Plus and promoting the rapid development of livestreaming sales, Hong said.
He said livestreaming has enabled people in remote areas to receive higher education via online training courses.
In a small mountain village called Daditou in Liupanshui, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, Xu Wenyong established a specialized farming cooperative on a remote mountain with altitudes of up to 1,600 meters, thanks to favorable loan policies offered by commercial banks to help underprivileged regions.
In November 2017, the cooperative received a loan of 3.4 million yuan with an interest rate of 4.7 percent from Agricultural Bank of China. The rate was about 3 percentage points lower than the general interest rate for loans to rural communities, Xu said.
With the loan, Xu bought 100 cattle and helped 34 families, including 17 extremely poor ones, get out of poverty.