A multimillionaire returns to his hometown to serve as village Party secretary, leading a poor village out of poverty toward prosperity
"The country paths used to be muddy and impassable, but after Secretary Yang came, roads were built and bridges constructed, making travel convenient." "We used to live in three tile-roofed rooms, now we have three new houses." These are the words villagers of Desheng Village constantly repeat. The Secretary Yang they speak of is Yang Hengjun, village Party secretary of Desheng Central Village, Xinqiao Town, Jingjiang City.
Yang Hengjun started out with 300 yuan. Several years later he owned two trading companies and more than 100 chain supermarkets, with assets reaching ten million yuan. Yet in 2009 he returned to his hometown to serve as village Party secretary, determined to change the backward conditions of his native place. In 2014, Desheng Central Village achieved a total social output value of 480 million yuan, more than 9 times that of 2008; the village's collective operating income reached 2.8 million yuan, 100 times that of 2008.
Five years ago, when Yang Hengjun was appointed village Party secretary, his own company was booming, with turnover reaching 50 million yuan in 2009. At that time, the disposable income of the 2,300-household village collective was only 23,000 yuan, while its debts amounted to as much as 480,000 yuan. "This land gave me life and raised me; this is the best way I can repay it," Yang Hengjun said. Once, when Yang Hengjun visited Hengjing Town in Gaoyou City on an inspection tour, he found that the town's salted duck eggs were green and environmentally friendly, but sales were not ideal. Subsequently, the village, with the Desheng Planting and Breeding Cooperative as the main entity, applied to register the "Desheng Brand" trademark, and through methods such as farmer-supermarket partnerships and farmer-enterprise partnerships, sold "Desheng Brand" salted duck eggs under its own label to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, generating 400,000 yuan in additional income for the village collective within two months. In 2011, Yang Hengjun also brought in Wuxi Yangshan honey peaches, creating "Desheng Brand" honey peaches. Next, the village transferred 300 mu of land to plan and build the Desheng organic rice planting base; it revitalized existing land resources and built more than 1,000 sq m of standardized factory buildings, successively attracting 12 industrial enterprises; it encouraged villagers to set up their own "farmhouse gardens" for fruit picking, fishing and other activities, developing Desheng rural leisure tourism projects. Today, 8 Desheng brands cover the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, contributing an ever-growing share to the village's collective economy.
Village committee member Wu Shimei said that the village's financial system is very strict: every cent spent is discussed at a meeting. Yang Hengjun said, "In ordinary grassroots positions, there are thousands upon thousands of people like me. As long as the common people become prosperous and live comfortably and conveniently, it is what a village Party secretary should do to work a little harder."