China Lifts 42,000 Villages Out of Travel Difficulties in 5 Years

LANZHOU, Dec. 4 (China News Service) -- Yang Chuantang, Minister of Transport of China, revealed in Lanzhou on Dec. 4 that over the past 5 years, China has solved the “travel difficulties” of 654 townships and 42,000 administrative villages in contiguous poverty-stricken areas, with 95% of townships and 81% of administrative villages having bus services. More and more areas have bid farewell to the history of lacking access to railways, expressways and aviation.

The National Transport Poverty Alleviation Work Conference was held in Lanzhou, Gansu, on Dec. 4. Reviewing China's transport poverty alleviation work during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, Yang Chuantang said that the convenience of transport has powerfully changed the situation of “two different worlds inside and outside the mountains” in poverty-stricken areas.

According to Yang Chuantang, during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, China focused on supporting the renovation and construction of about 21,000 km of county and township resource roads, tourism roads and industrial roads in contiguous poverty-stricken areas. Resources such as minerals, energy and tourism in many poverty-stricken areas have been effectively developed and utilized, and resource advantages have been transformed into economic advantages and development advantages.

Poor transport is the “crux” of the long-term backwardness of poverty-stricken areas. Taking Gansu, a typically poor province in China, as an example, road-building efforts in recent years have gradually freed villages in remote mountainous areas from the awkward situation of “leaving everything to heaven,” allowing many local specialties, including potatoes, apples and vegetables, to be sold smoothly outside, becoming a shortcut to shaking off poverty and becoming wealthy.

Yang Chuantang said that because of the improvement of transport conditions, some rural areas have turned agricultural products into tourism products and farmhouses into tourism facilities. Some local characteristic industries have risen and prospered because of roads. Tens of thousands of nationally known geographical indication specialty product brands have emerged in poverty-stricken areas, the trend toward large-scale, intensive and non-agricultural agricultural production and operation is obvious, and the process of transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture has been greatly accelerated.

Although the transport poverty alleviation work during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period achieved remarkable results, the “13th Five-Year Plan” period still faces some prominent difficulties and problems. Yang Chuantang admitted frankly that this is reflected in the fact that the “hard bones” of transport poverty alleviation and poverty eradication are getting harder to gnaw the further they go, effective funding input is insufficient, construction tasks are heavier and standards are higher, and new transport demands are growing day by day. Yang Chuantang said that in the next five years, China's transport poverty alleviation and poverty eradication will innovate in terms of concepts, policies, mechanisms, models and standards. For example, it will accelerate the promotion of poverty alleviation through “transport + eco-tourism,” “transport + characteristic industries” and “transport + e-commerce express delivery,” so that the function of transport poverty alleviation in supporting the development of characteristic industries becomes more prominent.