Guangxi strives to push forward poverty alleviation amid epidemic prevention and contro

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Pang Geping, Li Zong, People’s Daily

Industries in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have resumed production and projects have been restarted amid prevention and control of the novel coronavirus epidemic, striving to march toward the goal of basically eliminating poverty by September 2020.

Tea-oil tree planting is a traditional industry of Natao township in Bama Yao autonomous county of Hechi, Guangxi. In Pinglin village of the township, more than 20 mask-wearing Party members and cadres and 40 villagers were planting tea-oil seedlings at a plantation.

In Yulin, a prefecture-level city in southeastern Guangxi, factories are busy again. In Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd, robot arms were assembling an electrical vessel at a disinfected workshop. The resumption of production has been proceeding in an orderly manner here.

Lv Jianfeng, a member of the municipal Party committee of Yulin and director of the city’s publicity department, said to proactively serve the enterprises, Yulin has introduced 16 measures to support small- and medium-sized companies to restart production, and 21 measures to facilitate stable economic growth.

The city has also tried everything to accelerate the resumption of work and production through enhancing guarantees for epidemic control materials, labor, production factors, and transportation of materials, Lv added.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the financial institutions in Guangxi have issued loans totaling 7 billion yuan ($1.01 billion) to 1,928 enterprises working on epidemic prevention and control, and another 76 billion yuan to micro-, small- and medium-sized firms to address their urgent need to resume production.

“We have to do our best to speed up restart of projects and resumption of work and production amid epidemic prevention and control. We’re racing against time with full energy to make up for our losses caused by the epidemic and striving to complete this year’s tasks for economic and social development,” said Chen Wu, chairman of the autonomous regional government.

Qin Zhen, a cadre stationed in Xinxing village, Pingle township, Luchuan county of Yulin, has worked with his colleagues to help impoverished farmers sell agricultural products via social media. With their assistance, 30 impoverished households of the village sold 3,000 chickens, 3,000 kilograms of passion fruits, and 6,000 kilograms of high-quality rice online.

Affected by the epidemic, farmers had difficulty selling their fruits and poultry products, Qin disclosed, adding that they are relieved now as the products have been sold.

Poverty alleviation workshops in Guangxi are also working at full capacity to win the decisive war against poverty. Lan Yifeng and his wife, both impoverished, have returned to their work at the poverty alleviation workshop at a craft factory in Shanhu village, Nalin township, Bobai county, Yulin.

On workdays, the couple, together with 27 workmates, have to wear mask and go through strict epidemic prevention and control procedures, including measuring body temperature, registering their information, and cleaning and disinfecting their hands, before they enter the factory.

To recruit workers for poverty alleviation workshops and help impoverished households get employed, Bobai county launched recruiting services and held job interviews via online platforms such as WeChat. So far, 226 companies have offered more than 10,000 job opportunities and more than 2,100 letters of intent have been signed.

“Guangxi has an arduous task for poverty eradication, and we can’t let the epidemic affect our efforts to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and secure a decisive victory in poverty alleviation,” said Lu Xinshe, secretary of the Communist Party of China Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee.

To do that, the priority task is to figure out issues that hinder the poverty reduction efforts and take targeted measures to help impoverished people solve their problems one by one, Lu said.

A woman works at a silk reeling workshop of Guangxi Jingxi Xinsheng Cocoon Silk Technology Co., Ltd. in Jingxi county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 3, 2020. Zhao Jingwu/People’s Daily Online