County in China’s Xinjiang delivers employment opportunities to relocated villagers by cultivating prosperous specialty industries

Since 2017, nearly 14,000 impoverished residents from villages deep inside the Kunlun Mountains have moved to a new community in Aktax township, Yecheng county, Kashgar prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Local residents work in the industrial park in Aktax township, Yecheng county, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinjiang Daily/Wang zhen)

Amine Ghoji works for a clothing manufacturing workshop in Aktax, which has hired more than 300 female villagers who were relocated from the mountains.

In 2018, Ghoji moved to Aktax, and attended sewing training courses organized by the local government. Her husband meanwhile received shoemaking training sessions. Nowadays, the couple has secured jobs near their home.

When they lived in the mountains, the only source of income for Ghoji’s family was the 5 mu (about 0.33 hectares) patch of farmland they tended to, with the maximum annual income of the family being between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan ($451.2). Nowadays, Ghoji alone earns nearly 3,000 yuan a month, and their family income now exceeds 50,000 yuan a year.

The workshop that Amine Ghoji works for is located inside an industrial park that covers more than 40,000 square meters. There are seven companies inside the park, which provide jobs for 1,072 people and pay their employees an average monthly income of nearly 3,000 yuan.

“To consolidate the achievements we’ve made in poverty reduction and promote rural rejuvenation, we arranged women who had previously mastered sewing skills to work for companies inside the industrial park. By joining the companies, these women not only learned new skills, but also increased their incomes,” said Qi Fubao, deputy secretary of the Party committee of Aktax township.

In recent years, Yecheng county has continuously provided support for relocated villagers by nurturing industries and offering assistance to the villagers in finding jobs. More than 5,800 relocated villagers have secured jobs in the locality.

Apart from the industrial park, other facilities, including a breeding base, an agricultural park, and specialty fruit planting base, have been built in the locality to get farmers and herders involved in a rich variety of industries.

According to Qi, the agricultural base has already created jobs for 1,620 people. Meanwhile, the specialty fruit planting base has offered up jobs for 180 people, a number that is expected to grow to support 500 people with employment by 2025, increasing the annual income per household by 10,000 yuan by that year.

“We plan to invest 170 million yuan to build a processing industrial park, which is scheduled to be put into operation by the end of this year. Besides, we’ll also develop the tourism industry in order to help more people secure jobs,” Qi disclosed.