On February 25, a grand gathering was held in Beijing to mark the China’s accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honor its model poverty fighters. Xi Jinping, Chinese President, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, presented awards to Role Models in China’s Poverty Alleviation Fight and delivered an important speech. He solemnly declared that under the joint efforts of the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups in China, at the significant moment of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, China had scored a complete victory in its fight against poverty. The 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list. China has eliminated overall regional poverty and achieved the formidable task of eradicating absolute poverty, creating another “miracle” that will “go down in history.” This is a great honor to the Chinese people, to the Party, and to the Chinese nation!

The gathering honored 1,981 Exemplary Individuals and 1,501 Exemplary Organizations in China’s Poverty Alleviation Fight, including China Minmetals as an exemplary organization. Mr. Tang Fuping, Party Group Secretary and Chairman of China Minmetals attended the gathering, and so did Mr. Wang Wenhai, Director of the Party and Mass Work Department and Director of the Office of Poverty Alleviation of China Minmetals, as the award receiver on behalf of China Minmetals.

Since the start of China’s poverty alleviation fight, China Minmetals has acted with firm resolve to implement General Secretary Xi’s important propositions and the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and policies concerning poverty alleviation. China Minmetals has intensified its efforts to “maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment,” foster “stronger confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, resolutely uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and resolutely uphold the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership, and insist on “featured, precise, and long-acting” practices. It has spared no efforts to firmly and effectively assist six paired impoverished counties, namely Zhenxiong, Yilaing, Weixin counties in Yunnan Province, Huahuan County in Hunan Province, and Yanhe and Dejiang counties in Guizhou Province. It has invested assistance funds of RMB 170 million to the six counties, allocated RMB 207 million to the Central SOEs Industrial Investment Fund for Poor Area, and facilitated the introduction of assistance funds of RMB 47.113 million. By doing so, it has devoted “China Minmetals force” and made “China Minmetals contributions” to winning the poverty alleviation fight. It has highlighted the responsibilities and duties of a Chinese SOE in following the Party and rising to challenges in the poverty alleviation cause.

Among the six impoverished counties paired with China Minmetals, two were key counties of extreme poverty under the speeding-up efforts of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (CPAD). The six counties are located in three provinces, with considerable differences in geographical conditions, progress, and priorities, which entailed heavy burdens and huge pressure in assistance. In face of such an arduous and formidable situation, China Minmetals Office of Poverty Alleviation strived and took the initiative to innovate under the leadership of the Party Group of China Minmetals and with the strong support of officials serving temporary positions and directly-managed enterprises. Based on an innovative top design, China Minmetals fully leveraged its advantages and strengths and carried out a number of sustainable and duplicatable practices in poverty alleviation sectors such as finance, education, industry, people’s livelihood, and consumption. It launched financial poverty alleviation models such as the “futures + insurance” financial program, the “Mineral Core” vocational education program, the “Small and Beautiful” industrial program in Huahuan County. It also coordinated the implementation of the “Selling Zhaotong Products in Beijing” consumption program and invested a large amount of assistance funds in introducing overseas foundations to the impoverished counties for three year in a row.

China Minmetals’ endeavor was rewarded with fruitful results. In Huahuan County, “birthplace of targeted poverty alleviation,” seven industrial parks for poverty alleviation established by China Minmetals are growing, which have benefited over 2,000 people and helped over 3,000 impoverished residents in increasing income and rising out of poverty, leaving permeant engines for poverty alleviation in Huahuan County. In Panzhihua Technician Institute, nearly 100 impoverished students in two classes obtained three years of systematic skill education for free under the “Kuangxin” assistance program. Under the “futures + insurance” financial program for poverty alleviation, 23 projects featuring six futures products were carried out in 11 impoverished counties around China, assisting over 69,000 rural households. In terms of pro-consumption campaigns to aid poverty alleviation, the Company doubled its contribution by mobilizing its labor union. Furthermore, China Minmetals Office of Poverty Alleviation has enhanced the publicity of poverty alleviation by promoting its experience and practice on major media platforms and compiling white papers on poverty alleviation, aiming at systematic introductions to the China Minmetals’s general ideas, representative practices, and major achievements in the cause.

With such great efforts, China Minmetals was ranked “Good,” the highest rank in the assessment for assistance for targeted poor areas from central Party and government departments for two years in a row since the official launching of the assessment mechanism in 2018. Its “futures + insurance” financial practice and the “Small and Beautiful” industrial model for poverty alleviation were selected as model cases of targeted poverty alleviation by enterprises by the CPAD in 2018 and 2019, respectively. By the end of November 2020, the seven impoverished counties paired with China Minmetals were removed from the poverty list as planned.

The achievements and honors encourage us rather than carry us away. Shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavor. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, China Minmetals will make persistent efforts and continue its striving, aiming to make more and greater contributions to consolidating and extending the achievements of poverty alleviation and effective work coordination related to rural revitalization.