Significant progress

Decades of effort have significantly changed the poverty situation in Ningxia. As Ma introduced, water, road and housing problems have been well-addressed. A total of 99 percent of households in Ningxia have access to tap water. All impoverished families living in dilapidated houses had their houses improved, and all administrative villages had access to roads two years ago. This year, every natural village will be connected with roads.

Li Baihu, a villager in Haiyuan county, clearly remembered that in 1997, when he used the 6,000 yuan ($839) he saved to build a new house, he had to walk over 5 kilometers to get water, which took him about three hours.

"Things have greatly changed in recent years," said Li, adding that in 2015, with government's 30,000 yuan subsidies and his 70,000 yuan in savings, he moved to a 100-square-meterhouseand in 2018, he had access to tap water and bought a sofa, television, refrigerator and washing machine.

"One thing beyond my expectation was that besides government help, enterprises also initiated projects and gave loans to us to develop the livestock and planting industry."

In 2017, Li bought two cows with the money borrowed from China Resources (Holdings) CoLtd.

"I had two cows at the beginning. With the two I bought in 2017 and small ones they gave birth to later, there were eight in my cowshed at the beginning of this year. During the pandemic, I sold two for nearly 30,000 yuan," said Li, adding that he felt life is full of hope.

"Developing different kinds of industries is actually one of our special measures to relieve poverty," said Ma. He also listed several forms of support in the areas of finance and education.

"Financial support plays an important role in poverty alleviation. The coverage rate of financial support for poor households is at 85 percent at present in Ningxia. Loans offered to each household average more than 50,000 yuan," said Ma.

Continuous efforts

With various policies and measures, residents' income has seen a great increase.

Chen Junming, 54, who lives in Pengyang county, transferred his land to an enterprise in 2018. Nowadays, he earns 100 yuan per day by working in the herb industry developed by a company. Along with the earnings from his wife, the couple received nearly 40,000yuan in extra income last year. He is not the only one with two incomes in his village.

In 2018, all the 102,000hectares of hilly and mainly uncultivated land in his village was transferred to enterprises in the herb industry. Villagers could participate after finishing their farm work, providing them with an extra income. In 2019, each household earned nearly 20,000 yuan from the herb industry.

"Rome was not built in a day,nor was our poverty alleviation program," Ma said.

"Even with continued epidemic prevention and control, our work will not stop."

Xiji county is the only poverty-stricken one in Ningxia. Ma said that besides lifting the county out of poverty, the regional government is also working on measures to prevent people from slipping back into dire straits.

"Dynamic monitoring is necessary, which will include poor households, marginalized households and impoverished people in each village. We will also receive feedback from residents to strengthen points of weakness and disadvantages in poverty alleviation efforts," said Ma.

He added that with fully implemented policies regarding poverty reduction, Ningxia will undoubtedly prevail in its campaign for poverty alleviation and lift all the 18,800 people out of poverty. Even after the campaign, disadvantaged groups such as families of only two elderly people or one elderly person, those suffering from a chronic disease, or people incapable of working will still enjoy special attention.