Box 4 Poverty Eradication in Severely Impoverished Areas

The toughest battle against poverty lies in severely impoverished areas. These areas lag furthest behind in the drive towards a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

On June 23, 2017, President Xi Jinping presided over the Seminar on Eliminating Poverty in Severely Impoverished Areas, urging the need to accelerate the pace of this campaign. After the seminar, the central authorities issued Guidelines on Supporting Severely Impoverished Areas in Ending Poverty. According to the document, additional funds, programs and policy measures for poverty alleviation would be mainly applied to severely impoverished areas, particularly the “three areas and three prefectures”. The provinces concerned created master plans for implementation, and counties made specific plans. Government departments formulated 49 specialized policy documents, covering finance, banking, land, housing, education, healthcare, the eco-environment, businesses and water resources.

From 2018 to 2020, the state budget allocated RMB72.2 billion to assist severely impoverished areas, accounting for 60.2% of the total funding over these three years. The funds were applied on a preferential basis to public infrastructure projects, key construction projects for social undertakings, and energy and transport investment projects.

Since 2017, China has approved 40 ha of land used for poverty alleviation purposes annually by every county in severely impoverished areas. Since 2018, these areas have brought in RMB190 billion through inter-provincial transfer of 41,200 ha surplus rural land quotas for urban construction.

China has adopted differentiated credit policies, increased interest subsidies for startup business loans in severely impoverished areas. It has extended greater tolerance for non-performing personal loans used in targeted poverty alleviation, and abolished counter-guarantee requirement. China has applied the policy of immediate approval for applications for initial public offerings (IPOs) to qualified enterprises in the “three areas and three prefectures” in extreme poverty.