Developing distinctive local industries puts Liuzhou on pathway to success

By Zhang Dandan | China Daily | Updated: 2019-11-20 07:53

Liuzhou city of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has made great achievements in poverty alleviation, thanks especially to its industries with distinctive local features.

According to the local government, the city is expected to help 93,000 people and 103 poor villages shake off poverty this year, which will exceed the goal of helping 85,000 people out of poverty set at the beginning of 2019.

Local industries including rural tourism and processing of agricultural and forestry products have developed rapidly in Liuzhou, which has benefited more than 90 percent of the city's poor households, according to the city government.

For instance, Taiyangcun town, located at Liunan district of Liuzhou, has helped a raft of poor households increase income by developing bamboo shoots plantations.

The shoots are a key ingredient in the popular local dish of Liuzhou river snails and rice noodles, which in itself has a strong market demand.

Tan Hualei is one of the town's villagers who benefit from planting bamboo shoots.

"Based on the current situation, the purchase price of bamboo shoots is 2.4 yuan (34 cents) per kilogram, I can earn a net income of more than 16,000 yuan this year," said Tan, who planted some 5,333 square meters of bamboo shoots in April.

Up to now, Liunan district has issued total subsidies of 550,000 yuan to local poor bamboo shoot planters, with a total planting area reaching 6.51 square kilometers.

To maintain the increase of local people's income and consolidate its achievements in poverty alleviation, as of this year, Liuzhou has committed to developing modern agricultural industrial parks and supporting agricultural companies, agricultural cooperatives and family farms to develop green and ecological agriculture.

The city has established 10 professional service teams with 2,086 industry instructors to offer professional guidance to local people. As of now, 518 training courses have been held, with 29,071 people participating.

In addition, Liuzhou has stepped up its efforts to strengthen the exchange between production and marketing to expand the market for its agricultural products.

Liuzhou has held six promotional events for its products this year. Tentative deals worth 1.6 billion yuan were reached at the first promotion event held in its Sanjiang county.

The city has also increased financial input to help poverty alleviation, especially in severely impoverished villages and towns.

By the end of September, Liuzhou had raised a total poverty alleviation fund of 2.42 billion yuan, 466 million yuan more than the same period last year.

Liuzhou also allocated extra funds in 2019 for seriously impoverished counties, towns and villages.

Each of the city's 172 impoverished villages has an additional poverty alleviation fund of 500,000 yuan, while each of the 10 seriously impoverished villages has an extra fund of 3 million yuan. And each of the four deeply impoverished villages and towns in the city has an extra fund of 4 million yuan.

zhangdandan@chinadaily.com.cn