"All-round Contract Responsibility System" to Eliminate Poverty ĦĦĦĦHechi is known to have a karst topography accounting for over 65% of its land with a population of 3.70 million in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. By its geographical administrative setup it consists of 11 counties and county towns. Of these nine are of great notoriety for poverty at a national level and for every five people out of the whole local population there were four still living in poverty by the end of 1996 though some two million had already been helped out of poverty. To local leaders at various levels from prefectural down, the problem to help lift the remaining one fifth - 740,000 out of poverty had been a "hard nut to crack" and, as a matter of fact, a "nut" the Hechi people have long tried to crack. Acting under a unified "all-round contract responsibility system", every government institution, Party and government heads, department chiefs, section leaders and office workers including those at a rural township level have been mobilized into the fight to eliminate local poverty in Hechi. ĦĦĦĦFor an "all-round contract responsibility system" to have been introduced on a prefectural scale bountiful results have been yielded in Hechi. Statistics show that with 330,000 people having been helped out of poverty there has been found a cut in the number of poverty-stricken people to 170,000 by the end of 1998 and a drop of poverty incidence to 5% from 20% in 1996 in the whole of Hechi Prefecture. Economicnews 1999-02-11 Page2 Full Story in Chinese