A Record of Ruyuan Accelerating Ethnic Economic Development and Boosting Livelihood Improvement
Accelerate the development of ethnic minority undertakings, speed up the improvement of the production and living conditions of Yao compatriots, and ensure that they build a moderately prosperous society in all respects in step with the rest of the country. In recent years, the Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County Party Committee and County Government, standing at a strategic height of politics and the overall situation, have fully recognized the great significance of doing ethnic work well, led the broad masses of cadres and people throughout the county to seize opportunities and strive for strength, and actively promoted accelerated economic and social development.
Since May 2015, when the General Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and the General Office of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Accelerated Development of Ethnic Regions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), Ruyuan, as one of the three ethnic minority autonomous counties in Guangdong Province, has firmly grasped the favorable trend, seized the momentum, and turned various policies into advantages for Ruyuan's development. The whole county has united hearts and minds, forged ahead with gratitude, and vigorously implemented policies, integrating the strategic pursuit of accelerated development of ethnic regions into the great tide of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in step with the rest of the country, and promoting the development of Ruyuan's ethnic minority undertakings to achieve major phased results.
Building Roads in Yao Areas to Solve Travel Difficulties
Some Yao village settlements in Bibei Town, Youxi Town and Dongping Town of the county are distributed on high mountains at an altitude of 800 to 1000 m. Yao compatriots have to climb over mountains and ridges to cultivate the hills and plant trees, and cross valleys and gorges to buy oil, salt and fertilizer... Some villages are 40 to 50 km away from the county seat, and a round trip to the county seat takes Yao compatriots more than half a day, seriously affecting their production and life and also hindering local economic development.
In order to change the current situation of difficult transportation in Yao townships, the county, in accordance with the requirement in the "Opinions" to strengthen transportation, water conservancy, and urban and rural public infrastructure construction, actively seeks higher-level transportation infrastructure construction funding projects, vigorously improves transportation conditions in ethnic minority areas, and gives priority to arranging hardened road surface projects for transportation roads in ethnic minority areas. It plans to newly build or rebuild 5 roads in Yao areas. Up to now, the roadbed works of the Daliakeng to Jinzhufeng section and the county seat to Wukeng section have been opened, the actual measurement of the Gongkeng to Laoyouxi section has been completed, the actual measurement of the Gongkengwei to Dacun section is underway, and the county seat to Wukeng section is preparing for bidding for hardened road surface. The construction of roads in Yao areas will greatly improve the travel difficulties of Yao compatriots.
Building New Resettlement Villages to Improve Living Conditions
In recent years, the Ruyuan County Party Committee and County Government have paid great attention to the renovation of rural houses, especially the renovation and rebuilding of housing for poor households, and have invested a large amount of manpower, material resources and financial resources to build new villages and new houses and improve farmers' housing conditions. In the past three years, more than 1000 rural households in alpine limestone mountainous areas and Yao areas that lack production and living conditions have had their rural houses renovated or built, and a total of more than 20000 people have moved into new houses and started a new life.
In order to improve the quality of rural house renovation for poor people, especially poor Yao households, expand production channels, broaden employment opportunities, and improve the quality of life, the county, with long-term planning, a high starting point, high standards, multi-level and all-round efforts, has built the Wucai Yao Township provincial-level new rural demonstration area among the areas of Rucheng Town, Dongping Town, Yiliu Town, Youxi Town and Guitou Town in the county. More than 1.5 billion yuan has been invested to build 62 projects. Among them, one of the key projects, the relocation and resettlement project for villages "lacking two conditions", mainly relocates the Yao population living in deep-mountain Yao villages that lack production and living conditions. In 2015, a total of 14.38 million yuan in renovation funds was invested, and the housing renovation of 719 low-income and disadvantaged households was completed. The centralized relocation and resettlement work for 1047 households and 3713 people is being advanced in an orderly manner, and the resettlement new villages are also being accelerated.
Developing Characteristic Industries to Boost Farmers' Income Growth
The "Opinions" proposed to strengthen characteristic industries, vigorously develop characteristic agriculture and forestry, ecological and cultural tourism, and characteristic industry, and strengthen ecological environmental protection. Based on the county's actual conditions, the Ruyuan County Party Committee and County Government actively applied for policy support projects. For example, in 2015 they applied for the central government finance agricultural technology promotion project--the Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County intelligent greenhouse and Internet of Things technology application project; applied to the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Department of Finance for the 2015 soil testing and formulated fertilization subsidy project; and applied for the 2015 central government subsidy fund project for cultivated land protection and quality improvement, and respectively obtained corresponding funding support.
Based on the actual conditions of each township in the county, the county vigorously develops planting bases for vegetables, tea, and so on. For example, it introduced Jianong Company and Lvyao Company to develop 5000 mu and 1000 mu of pollution-free and green vegetable bases in Daqiao and Yiliu; introduced Huayao Company to develop a 500 mu tea planting base in Bibei and Luoyang, and Yaoxiang Tea Company to plant 600 mu of tea in Dongping, and Guangzhou Jingxiutang (Pharmaceutical) Co., Ltd.'s 3000 mu Luoyang Jiujie tea base; and an 8000 mu yellow tobacco base, mainly distributed in Daqiao, Rucheng and Yiliu Towns. In March this year, the county's Agriculture Bureau issued support policies for the fruit industry to vigorously develop the fruit industry. At present, 14124.5 mu of newly added fruit planting area has been added. Among them, the large-scale orchard base is 8750 mu.
In the process of developing industries, the county integrates various agriculture-related funds, improves the utilization rate of cultivated land, forest land, mountainous land, and so on, promotes agricultural efficiency, drives farmers' income growth, ensures that the financial sources for increasing income are guaranteed, and vigorously promotes the development of ethnic minority areas.