World Bank Backs Poverty Relief Program in GuangxiSome 900,000 poor residents in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have benefited by a poverty eradication program financed by World Bank (WB).Wei Junfeng, a 47-year-old farmer of ethnic Zhuang group, is just one of the beneficiaries. He told reporters that he never thought he could build a new house of his own when he first participated in the WB-backed poverty relief program three years ago. A native of a Zhuang village from Jingxi County, Wei attended a WB-financed agricultural training course in 1997 and bought five pigs and 20 sheep with a 2,000 yuan loan from WB. Wei's income quadrupled two years later. Wei's family moved into a three-room house built with brick and tiles this October. The WB southwest China poverty eradication program is the first scheme China has directly used WB loans for the purpose. The program is designed to lift 3.5 million poor people living in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou, Yunnan Provinces out of poverty in six years. Huang Chengwei, an official responsible for the program, said a perfect management organization with adequate managerial personnel has been set up at the regional level, grass-root and even in village since the poverty relief program was first introduced in Guangxi in 1995. In the past five years, Guangxi used US$113.5 million loans from the World Bank to directly or indirectly support the program. Statistics show that under the poverty eradication program, 410,000 local farmers of Guangxi have attended various training courses, and 90,000 people found jobs outside the region. Some 550,000 people have benefited by roads and water supply facilities built with WB loans. World Bank loans are also used to construct 240 teaching buildings and support 100,000 poor students in Guangxi, according to the poverty eradication program official. |
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