CDB Holds Its Fourth Conference on Promoting East-West Poverty Relief Cooperation

On July 29, 2020 in Chengdu, CDB held its fourth conference on leveraging development finance to support poverty relief cooperation between the eastern and western regions, at which the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches and instructions on poverty reduction and east-west poverty relief cooperation was studied and implemented. According to the conference, CDB would continue to intensify its efforts, fulfill its responsibilities, and promote experience sharing, while taking concrete measures that leverage development finance to support east-west poverty relief cooperation. Zhou Qingyu, Executive Vice President of CDB and President of Poverty Relief Program Finance, delivered a speech at the conference. Other attendees and speakers included representatives of 27 CDB branches, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Zhejiang Provincial Working Group for Poverty Relief Cooperation with Sichuan Province, and provincial and municipal departments overseeing east-west poverty relief cooperation, such as the Office of Beijing Municipal Leading Group for Poverty Reduction Cooperation and Assistance and the Guangdong Provincial Poverty Relief and Development Office.

According to Zhou Qingyu, while faithfully implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches and instructions on east-west poverty relief cooperation and of the national conference on promoting such cooperation, CDB has been making continuous efforts to improve its working mechanism, exert a leadership role, ensure the supply of policies, deepen cooperative relationships, and advance project implementation. By giving more support to cross-sectoral cooperation, CDB has made remarkable achievements in poverty reduction. As of the end of June 2020, CDB had delivered a total of 88 billion yuan in loans to 182 projects for east-west poverty relief cooperation, directly solving the unemployment of 11,868 people registered as living in poverty.

Zhou Qingyu stressed that looking ahead CDB should strengthen efforts in the analysis of the situation, gain an accurate grasp of the new tasks of east-west poverty relief cooperation, and attach equal attention to short and long-term projects, with a view to elevating CDB’s support for cooperation to a new level. Firstly, CDB should focus on the key areas of cooperation. It should encourage companies in the eastern regions to launch projects and enter local industries in the large resettlement areas, counties that still retain the poverty label, and extremely poor areas in the western regions. Secondly, CDB should overcome the impact of the epidemic and give more support to poverty relief based on labor cooperation, commercial orders, and consumption. Thirdly, CDB should strengthen the development of favorable policies to continue to benefit the real economy and help to stabilize employment with adequate job opportunities. Fourthly, CDB should evaluate the outcomes of poverty relief measures, further improve its work style, solve the problems identified, and make effective efforts in the prevention of returning to poverty, risk prevention and control, work summarization, and publicity.

At the conference, CDB signed east-west poverty relief cooperation agreements with business organizations and companies including Sichuan Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperatives Association, Meicai, Tongkun Group, and E-Fong Pharmaceutical. The two sides will join hands to deepen pragmatic efforts in advancing east-west labor cooperation and consumption-based poverty relief.