East China’s Jiangsu is taking the leading in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects at a level that embodies prosperity, sustainability and civility, serving as a successful example in this regard.
Rows of villas line a river running through Kaixiangong Village in the southern part of the province. The village has achieved steady development, with a collective income of 3.18 million yuan (almost 450,000 USD) and 1.2 private cars per household. There are many similar villages like Kaixiangong in southern Jiangsu.
The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) set a goal to double the 2010 GDP and per capita personal income by 2020, an important indicator for finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Achieving the goal ahead of schedule, in 2019 Jiangsu province’s GDP exceeded 9,963.1 billion yuan, ranking second nationwide, and its per capita disposable personal income hit 41,400 yuan, both of which doubled the figures from 2010.
Photo shows Kaixiangong village in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province. (Photo/Leng Jinming)
The unbalanced development between the southern and northern parts of the province has been a tough issue to tackle. “Northern Jiangsu is the measure of success in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and at a high level,” said Secretary of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee Lou Qinjian, adding that after years of efforts, now people in the region are embracing a well-off life.
People in Shihe township, east China’s Jiangsu province, find jobs near home through a poverty relief plant. (Photo/Wang Xinnian)
To win the battle against poverty in Huai’an in northern Jiangsu, the province started with the income increase of poor villages and low-income farmers. According to the province’s plan, the operating income of each poor village should exceed 180,000 yuan, and the poverty line for low-income people should be an annual per capita net income of 6,000 yuan during the 13th Five-Year Plan.
Gu Zhou, Party head of Songji village, Qingong township of the city’s Huai’an district, feels confident about the two indicators.
A water bird in the Daxigang Wetland Park, Xin’an neighborhood, Xinwu district, Wuxi, east China’s Jiangsu province perches on a fence above the water. (Photo courtesy of Xin’an neighborhood of Xinwu district)
“We’ll reap a bumper harvest of fruits this autumn,” said Gu, explaining that the village set up a cooperative in 2018, planting over 20 hectares of pecans, 6.6 hectares of apples and 6.6 hectares of peaches. The provincial poor village’s development of the fruit industry is inseparable from the pairing assistance by the province’s forestry bureau.
According to the official, there were 511 registered low-income farmers from 166 households in the village with a population of more than 3,200. With an underdeveloped collective economy, the village also faced serious problems of left-behind children, women and seniors. Gu didn’t expect that the village would shake off poverty so quickly.
Photo shows a restaurant in Qianjiadu village, Jiangning district, Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province. (Photo/Leng Jinming)
Songji has also developed the under-forest industry. Last spring, the village planted 20 hectares of cabbages under the fruits, adding over 60,000 yuan for the collective. In the second half of 2019, the planting of rutabaga and radish increased the collective income by 150,000 yuan. Chickens, ducks and geese are also raised under the forest, and more than 20,000 poultry have been slaughtered this year.
Aerial photo shows a zigzagging road that has been nicknamed the “mini Sichuan-Tibet Highway” due to its beauty in Jiangning district, Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province. (Photo/Li Wei)
Over the past two years, 245 households, including 102 registered low-income families, contributed more than 106.6 hectares of land to the cooperative. They can get a guaranteed return of 900 yuan per 0.06 hectares of land, dividends from the cooperative’s total revenue at the end of each year, and an average daily salary of 80 yuan.
As a result, the village’s collective income has soared to 400,000 yuan from 220,000 yuan in 2018. The figure is expected to exceed 600,000 yuan this year. Meanwhile, the per capita net income of villagers increased from 15,000 yuan in 2018 to last year’s 18,000 yuan, which is expected to surpass 20,000 yuan this year. All registered low-income villagers shook off poverty last year.
