Box 7 Poverty Alleviation Through PV Power Generation and E-commerce

In areas with the appropriate resources and suitable conditions, the government has funded the construction of photovoltaic (PV) power stations, which are owned collectively by local villages. The income generated from the power stations is employed entirely for poverty alleviation purposes. As of the end of 2020, 100,000 villages had PV power stations, generating a total of 18.65 million KW of electricity and bringing an average annual income of RMB200,000 for each village. The earnings have been used to create public welfare jobs, fund small public welfare programs, and offer small bonuses and subsidies.

Remarkable results have been achieved in poverty alleviation through e-commerce, by tapping into potential of the new business form for helping the poor increase incomes. China launched demonstration projects to introduce e-commerce to rural areas in 2014. All 832 poor counties have been included in the initiative, with an investment of RMB24.92 billion by the end of 2020. The number of e-businesses in these counties grew from 1.32 million in 2016 to 3.11 million in 2020. Longnan City in Gansu Province has been a national leader in this field. As of 2020, the city had 14,000 online shops, with total sales of more than RMB22 billion. E-commerce has helped 500,000 poor people increase their incomes, and their per capita income derived from e-commerce rose from RMB430 in 2015 to RMB930 in 2020.