Since September 2017, Maoming in Guangdong province has been partnered with Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, to support its poverty alleviation efforts.

At the end of 2015, Nanning had three national-level impoverished counties in Shanglin, Mashan, and Long'an, as well as an autonomous region-level impoverished district in Yongning. It also had 421 poverty-stricken villages and more than 406,000 registered impoverished people.

Maoming has invested 411.32 million yuan ($62.25 million) to help the three national impoverished counties in Nanning since September 2017, implementing a total of 72 poverty alleviation projects.

An agricultural alleviation poverty project in Shanglin county, Nanning. [Photo/WeChat account: maofabu]

By the end of 2019, all of the four impoverished counties and district in Nanning reached the standard of being lifted out of poverty, while 418 impoverished villages had also been lifted out of poverty, along with 374,700 impoverished people.

A total of 5,861.41 kilometers of roads have been built to connect impoverished villages in Nanning. The city has also implemented 2,971 drinking water safety projects, benefiting 3.89 million people, as well as renovated 30,154 dilapidated houses, including 20,454 houses belonging to registered impoverished families.

The city has built 118 standardized township hospitals and 1,323 village clinics by the end of 2019. All of the registered impoverished people in the city were covered by the basic medical insurance program.

The maximum amount of the minimum subsistence guarantee for rural residents has been increased from 3,500 yuan per person per year to 5,500 yuan, while the old-age pension in rural areas has increased from 95 yuan per person per month to 126 yuan.

Poverty alleviation industries like vegetable cultivation, featured fruit plantation, and poultry breeding have seen rapid development in Nanning in the past few years.

The per capita disposable income of rural residents in the city increased from 11,398 yuan in 2016 to 15,047 yuan in 2019. The collective economic income of the 1,559 villages or communities in the city exceeded 50,000 yuan, including 421 impoverished villages.

In May 2020, the three national impoverished counties were approved to be officially lifted out of poverty by the autonomous region government.