What are the key actions in the critical year
——Ou Qingping, Deputy Director of the Office of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, Responds to the Hot Issues of Poverty Alleviation
Guangming Daily reporter Li Hui
2018 is the first year of the three-year action to fight poverty. A total of 13.86 million people were reduced in poverty throughout the year. The incidence of poverty decreased by 1.43 percentage points compared with 2017, and the poverty reduction task of more than 10 million has been overfulfilled for six consecutive years.
2019 is the key year to win the battle against poverty. What are the key measures for poverty alleviation in the key year? How will the fight against poverty in deeply impoverished areas be promoted? What are the outstanding problems in the field of "two worries and three guarantees"? At the State Council's regular policy briefing held on February 20, Ou Qingping, Deputy Director of the Office of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council, responded to the hot issues of poverty alleviation.
Concentrate on tackling the "hard core" of deep poverty
Deep poverty areas are the most difficult "hard bone" in poverty alleviation. The No. 1 Document of the Central Committee, just released, clearly states that it focuses on areas with deep poverty. Aiming at the key and difficult problems that restrict the targeted poverty alleviation in the deeply impoverished areas, we will make a list, clarify responsibilities item by item, and check and cancel accounts.
Ou Qingping introduced that in 2018, under the guidance of the State Council's Poverty Alleviation and Development Leading Group, the six provinces involved in the "three regions and three states" determined detailed implementation plans for poverty alleviation in deeply impoverished areas.
In order to focus on tackling deep poverty areas, 26 central departments issued 27 policy documents in 2018. In 2018, the central government added 12 billion yuan of special anti-poverty funds for deep poverty areas, accounting for 60% of the new funds of the central government's special anti-poverty funds that year. At the same time, the poverty alleviation cooperation, counterpart support and targeted poverty alleviation in the eastern and western regions have further focused on deep poverty areas.
"After one year's efforts, the number of poor people in the 'three regions and three states' has decreased by 1.34 million, and the incidence of poverty has decreased by 6.4 percentage points, 3.3 percentage points higher than the average level in the western region, and 5 percentage points higher than the national average." Ou Qingping introduced.
On February 13, the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council held a symposium on poverty alleviation in deep poverty areas in Hechi, Guangxi, focusing on the deployment and arrangement of poverty alleviation in 169 deep poverty counties outside the "three districts and three prefectures", with particular emphasis on strengthening work guidance and responsibility implementation. The new part of the central government's special poverty relief funds in 2019 will be mainly used for poverty alleviation in deeply impoverished areas, aiming at the prominent problems of "two worries and three guarantees", guiding local development of characteristic industries according to local conditions, and accelerating the improvement of infrastructure and public service weaknesses.
"It is less than two years before 2020, and it is still very difficult for deep poverty areas to overcome poverty." Ou Qingping said that we should actively promote the implementation of various policies and measures of "three regions and three states", increase support for 169 deep poverty counties outside the "three regions and three states", track, monitor The assessment will continue to promote the project of improving poor villages and focus on tackling the "hard core" of deep poverty.
Comprehensively check and solve the outstanding problems of "two worries and three guarantees"
Focusing on solving the prominent problem of "two worries and three guarantees" for the poor is a new task and challenge facing the current poverty alleviation, as well as a new goal and new requirement proposed by the central government in 2019. At present, what outstanding problems do we still face to solve the "two no worries and three guarantees" of the poor?
Ou Qingping introduced that, according to the statistics of relevant departments, in the aspect of "two worries", the problem of not worrying about food and clothing is generally small, but the problem of drinking water safety of the poor population is still prominent.
"According to the preliminary statistics of the Ministry of Water Resources, there are still more than 1 million rural poor people whose drinking water safety problem has not been solved. If we add other non poor people in the village, the scale will be even larger." Ou Qingping said that in terms of the "three guarantees", the basic medical care for the poor people has made good progress, but at present, the problem of being unable to look at or afford to get sick still exists, In particular, the level of public health and medical services in some deeply poverty-stricken areas and remote areas is still very low. In some remote areas and ethnic minority areas, children from poor families still drop out of school. According to the statistics of the education department, about half a million children drop out of school every year.
In addition, in terms of housing security, there are still some poor rural people living in dilapidated houses. "In terms of housing safety and security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development is leading the investigation, and relevant departments will have clear data and clear work arrangements by the end of March." Ou Qingping said that with these base numbers and work plans, all regions should benchmark, increase capital investment and work efforts, list, clarify responsibilities, and check and cancel accounts.
Ou Qingping said that in order to ensure the completion of the task of "Two Worries and Three Guarantees", the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council should also organize special inspection and supervision to ensure that there will be no blind spot or one person left behind to lift out of poverty by 2020.
Improve the level and quality of poverty alleviation
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is also a crucial year to win the battle against poverty. The executive meeting of the State Council clearly proposed that in 2019, we should complete the poverty reduction task of more than 10 million and achieve the decapitation of about 300 poverty-stricken counties. How can we ensure that this goal is achieved? How to ensure the quality and quality of poverty alleviation?
Returning to poverty is a prominent factor threatening the quality of poverty alleviation. "The rate of poverty alleviation and the number of people returning to poverty depend on the quality of poverty alleviation and the completion of poverty alleviation tasks." Ou Qingping said that poverty alleviation is not practical and the quality of poverty alleviation is not high, which will inevitably lead to poverty alleviation. Without the establishment of a stable long-term mechanism for poverty alleviation, poverty alleviation will not be sustainable and sustainable by relying solely on policy subsidies and money distribution. At the same time, the problems of returning to poverty due to disasters, diseases and disabilities should not be ignored.
"In order to strengthen the monitoring of poverty return, from this year on, we will timely carry out a 'look back' for all the poor people who have been lifted out of poverty, see whether each family has really lifted out of poverty, what are the risks of returning to poverty, and take measures to address the different difficulties and problems of each poor family." Ou Qingping said.
"Sudden poverty alleviation" and "digital poverty alleviation" are also prominent issues affecting poverty alleviation.
"In the future, we will continue to implement the most rigorous assessment and evaluation, and require the province to carry out inspection and acceptance according to the highest quality and strictest requirements for the withdrawal of all poor counties." Ou Qingping said that after the provincial inspection and acceptance, the central government will also spot check 20% of the counties. In 2020 and 2021, 832 poverty-stricken counties will also be surveyed to strictly check the quality of exit of poverty-stricken people and the completion of major indicators in the field of basic public services, so as to ensure that poverty-stricken counties exit strictly and scientifically.
