Full Text: Development and Progress in Xinjiang (8)

In recent years, export of labor services has become a new channel for Xinjiang to expand employment. For many years people living in remote areas of southern Xinjiang experienced hardships, since they mainly relied on the not very profitable farming and animal husbandry for a living. Since 2006, the Xinjiang government has launched a labor-export program first in southern Xinjiang's Jiashi County and then throughout the whole autonomous region. Through the program local rural residents could apply for positions at inland companies after signing up and going through training courses that give them the necessary qualifications. The local government is required to appoint a leader (or leaders) who supervise the migrant workers in their new company, and also take along with them Halal cooks to cater to their needs. Since 2006, Jiashi County has exported some 19,000 person-times of labor services to inland enterprises, making a total profit of almost 200 million yuan. The migrant workers enjoy an average per-capita yearly net income of 7,000 yuan, double that of local farmers and herders in 2008. The Xinjiang government attaches importance to professional training for migrant workers, spending 300 million to 400 million yuan each year on such trainings.

Since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policies at the end of 1978, Xinjiang's social-security system has gradually taken shape, to provide basic living guarantees for the people. The 2008 figures show that Xinjiang has 799 community services facilities in urban areas. About 9,645,700 people have taken part in the five major insurance programs, of basic pension insurance, unemployment insurance, medical insurance, industrial injury insurance, and maternity insurance. A total of 638,000 urban residents are receiving the minimum living allowance from the government. Social welfare institutions of various types have 19,000 beds by the end of 2008, taking in 14,000 residents under their care. From July 2007, the rural minimum living allowance system was introduced, providing subsidies for farmers and herders with annual average per-capita income lower than 700 yuan. In 2008, 1,310,000 farmers and herders in extreme poverty received the subsidies. By the end of 2007, medical aid services were available in every city, district and county. In 2008 the government invested 310 million yuan in medical assistance services for a total of 2,164,000 users, including 938,000 receiving medical services and 1,226,000 persons who have participated in medical insurance programs or cooperative medical care programs.

Economic development in such a large region is not balanced. Since the mid-1980s, the local government has launched a large-scale poverty-alleviation campaign, aimed at ensuring basic subsistence for the impoverished rural population, and with a major focus on the promotion of economic and cultural development. The program also underwent changes, from providing money and food, to well-planned development-oriented poverty reduction efforts with good organization and clear goals. Over the period from 1978 to 2008, Xinjiang's impoverished population decreased from 5.32 million to 2.53 million, and their living and working conditions have been significantly improved. In recent years the state has put more efforts into poverty-alleviation in southern Xinjiang, where the situation is the most severe. From 2001 to 2007, 78% of the central and local governments' poverty-alleviation funds, work-relief subsidies and subsidized loans were invested in southern Xinjiang, where 70% of the total poverty-alleviation programs were based. Since 2004, earthquake-resistant housing programs have been carried out in quake-prone areas, a six-year plan to provide safe housing for people in these areas. The state invested 41.2 billion yuan in these programs by the end of 2008, constructing and fortifying 1,895,000 houses. In southern Xinjiang, 742,300 impoverished farming families have since moved into quakeproof housing. (more)