Village Party chief leads rural vitalization

With its neat rows of apartments and clean, wide roads, there's nothing to indicate that Zhuangkeli village in the Binzhou Economic and Technologic Development Zone – located in Binzhou city in East China's Shandong province – was once a complete mess, where residents lived in poverty more than 10 years ago.

Zhuangkeli village takes on a new look after the joint efforts of its Party branch and residents. [Photo provided by Wei Jing for chinadaily.com.cn]

But things turned around completely when a transformation began thanks to the continuing efforts of four Party chiefs, who all made a difference during their terms. In particular, Li Haibin – who has been the incumbent since 2011 – is said to play a key role in building an efficient Party branch and helping residents improve their standard of living and incomes.

In 2011, the 34-year-old newly elected Party chief led all the members of the Party branch to pay off the village collective's debts and invited his predecessors to play an active part in village affairs.

Even today, he usually asks the senior Party chiefs for advice and gets the opinions of locals when he deals with issues concerning their interests.

With their support, Li has led the residents to use natural gas for cooking and heating, rather than burning wood and coal like before, greatly improving the air quality. Moreover, a group of renovation projects has been carried out to beautify the environment.

In addition, Li spares no effort in developing the collective economy and increasing the earnings of locals by encouraging entrepreneurship. (Edited by Jin Yongxue)