Nation's poverty relief efforts bearing ripe fruit

Livestock boost

In the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, residents' lives in the Overseas Chinese Village in Kariz township, Qitai county, have been improving steadily.

This progress was achieved after the Overseas Chinese Office of the State Council and overseas Chinese offices at every level in the region took targeted measures in 2014 to alleviate poverty.

In the past two years alone, the Overseas Chinese Office of the State Council has invested more than 1.6 million yuan to build six new breeding centers, each occupying more than 300 square meters, in the village. It has also bought each household seven ewes to help them develop their livestock breeding business and increase their annual incomes.

All households are encouraged to become shareholders in a cooperative established to help them improve their lives and escape from poverty. Villagers are allowed a share of a year-end bonus, which the cooperative has promised to provide with at least 50 percent of its profits.

To increase employment, government departments have opened training courses for local women to learn traditional embroidery, and the village has established an embroidery association.

"Poverty alleviation efforts have achieved results, as the village can now develop by relying on its own industries and production, and local residents' lives have increasingly improved in the past year," said Yan Xiangsheng, Party chief of Kariz.

Zheng Caixiong, Zhao Ruixue, Li Lei, Mao Weihua and Shi Ruipeng contributed to this story.