Focus on local development

Workers sort out fresh vegetables at a vegetable planting base in Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture in Gansu province. [Photo/fjdaily.com]

Siming district has encouraged a group of enterprises and industries, deemed suitable for local development, to take root in Linxia and to utilize the local resources.

Guided by Siming district, Xiamen Green Baihe Food Co, a leading agricultural enterprise in Fujian province, set up its branch in Linxia in March this year. The company leased more than 6,000 acres of local land for to cultivate vegetables.

Lin Qiuxiang, general manager of Gansu Chengbo Agricultural Ecological Technology Co, said that land contracts alone can bring local farmers about 600 yuan ($90.84) a year in rent per mu and they can also work at the base to participate in the planting, harvesting and packaging. To date, the base has helped 1,500 local people out of poverty.

Siming district has actively promoted investment for poverty alleviation in Linxia and attracted a number of agricultural and manufacturing enterprises.

The Siming Industrial Park, located in the Linxia Economic Development Zone, is speeding up its construction. It is being built by Kaiyuan International Investment Co, a state-owned enterprise in Siming district.

Chen Shunxing, deputy general manager of the company, said that in the wake of the poverty alleviation program for China's eastern and western regions, state-owned enterprises in Siming district have been pioneers in establishing roots in Linxia, which has in turn seen the establishment of private enterprises. In the future, more and more businesses, food businesses in particular, will be introduced into the park to form a cradle for the development of local industries.

All-round poverty relief efforts

Over the years, the two regions have formed a comprehensive, multi-level and wide-ranging pattern of cooperation. The driving force of Siming is imperceptibly promoting Linxia's overall development.

A number of projects aided by Siming involve schooling, medical treatment, travel, housing and other areas. Siming's influence has long been inseparable from local development.

Nowadays, there are "weekend schools" that are open for local employees in the poverty alleviation workshops. Professional and technical people from Xiamen teach them to read and write, speak Mandarin and offer them first-aid courses.

Advanced e-commerce concepts are being popularized in the Zhongda E-commerce Industrial Park in Linxia.

Zhongda has carried out e-commerce training for 930 local people, 456 of whom come from registered poor households and this has helped 160 people emerge from poverty. Meanwhile, benefiting from e-commerce, 101 disabled people have shaken off penury.

In June last year, Zhongda also created a public brand for regional agricultural products for Linxia, named Xiyou Nongshi. So far, sales of the brand's agricultural products have topped 12 million yuan.