Poverty alleviation requires careful planning

Local governments' poverty alleviation funds should make improving infrastructure and providing public services their priorities, says an editorial in Beijing News. Excerpts:

Fuping, an old revolutionary base in Hebei province, has gained new opportunities as provincial government departments and other poverty programs promised some 300 million yuan ($48.1 million) for an annual anti-poverty fund after a visit by Party chief Xi Jinping.

Nevertheless, challenges and pressure are equally great, as the county's efforts to lift people out of poverty, like its eco-tourism projects, ended unsuccessfully.

Fuping is not an isolated case. A village once visited by Premier Wen Jiabao is also a facing development bottleneck even though Wen's visit brought it hundreds of millions of yuan in investment and some 80 projects.

Local governments should treat visits from the central government appropriately and not place poverty alleviation work exclusively on the places visited.

Local governments should be alert about the arrangement and allocation of anti-poverty funds, and prevent bias and a concentration of funds in just a few places. They should also reflect on short-term and long-term goals and funding priorities when helping people out of poverty.

Such funds should first go to strengthen infrastructure and improve public services. For example, building more and better roads will shorten the distance to market for farmers, and education and training will raise farmers' quality and skills.

A common problem is the lack of relevant technical personnel, so to enrich those impoverished areas, it’s better off to "enrich" people's heads and establish more convenient institutions rather than handing out one-time payments.

Anti-poverty achievements in many places around the country in the past is mainly attributed to the process of marketization, and future efforts of institution-building should also be based on the market.