Harbin food workshops provide job opportunities for poverty-stricken residents. [Photo/MY399.COM] 

Harbin city in China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province achieved remarkable results in poverty alleviation in 2020.

Statistics show that by the end of 2020, the national-level poverty-stricken Yanshou county and the provincial-level poverty-stricken Bayan and Mulan counties from Harbin city had all been lifted out of poverty.

All 163 impoverished villages and 71,683 registered poor people from 34,728 households had shaken off poverty.

Harbin city has completely eliminated absolute poverty and regional poverty.

In the past year, Harbin has helped residents get out of poverty by guaranteeing basic education, essential medical care, housing safety and drinking water security, and by developing industries to increase residents’ incomes.

In 2020, Harbin implemented measures to increase incomes for low-income households. Nearly 91 percent of poor families used courtyards to develop 8,519 mu (567.93 hectares) of characteristic plants such as hazelnuts, Chinese herbal medicines and edible fungi. They also used this space to raise 504,000 heads of chickens, geese, ducks, pigs, cattle and sheep.

Additionally, a total of 142 small workshops for tofu, wickerwork and shochu were established.

The per capita income of poverty-stricken households increased from 3,013 yuan in 2015 to 11,316 yuan in 2020, an average annual increase of 30.32 percent.

A supplementary mechanism to consolidate poverty alleviation results was formulated to ensure that previously impoverished people will not fall back into poverty due to disasters or illnesses.