Old Qiu, an ordinary farmer in Wufeng County of Central China's Hubei Province, has earned an additional 20,000 yuan (US$2,400) by annually growing seven mu (0.46 hectares) of konjac, a taro-like vegetable popular in Japan and South China, since 1997.

Wang Jinzhi, a sales director of a supermarket in Beijing, makes 4,000 yuan (US$482) monthly, which is 10 times what she earned several years ago at a vegetable market that was on the verge of closing down.

Both Qiu and Wang owe their better lives to the Guangcai (Glory) Programme, which has been carried out all over the country for the last 11 years.

Initiated in 1994 by 10 private entrepreneurs, the programme was designed to provide financial support through the private sector for China's poverty-stricken central and western regions in their struggle to improve conditions.

Like Qiu and Wang, more than 4.6 million people have shaken off poverty under the same programme.

It was in 1994 that the Chinese Government declared war against poverty among 80 million poor people. At the same time, poverty relief work had also raised concern among some successful private entrepreneurs.

"Those of us who had become rich early had and have a responsibility to help the poor reach prosperity," said Zhou Jinfeng, chairman of a high-tech business, Midwest Group.

On April 23, 1994, Zhou, Liu Yonghao, then-president of Hope Corp, China's flagship private business, and eight other private entrepreneurs proposed an initiative to eliminate poverty through commercial operations.

In a written proposal drafted then, they said the "private sector will launch projects in poverty-stricken areas each year to help local people learn latest agricultural techniques and expand market shares for their products."

"By the end of 2000, we will have trained 7,000 personnel, operated 700 anti-poverty projects and tapped 70 kinds of resources to bridge the gap between the poor and rich," it said.

Several months later, the Hope Group, an animal-feed business, invested 30 million yuan (US$3.6 million) to open a feed plant in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, which was regarded as the first project under the Guangcai Programme.

"By setting up factories in remote areas, we created job opportunities for local people and helped them rid themselves of poverty," said Liu Yonghao, now chairman of the New Hope Group.

"More important, we have changed the local people's mindset and helped them build up confidence that they could make themselves wealthier through hard work."

The programme thrived so rapidly that it went beyond the imagination of the 10 entrepreneurs who began it.

By now, the programme has seen actual investment of 52.3 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion), with 9,765 projects created in the country's remote areas.

That led to more than 5 million job opportunities, said Liu Yandong, chairwoman of the China Society for Promotion of the Guangcai Programme (CSPGP).

Different projects

Different from other poverty relief projects, the Guangcai Programme encourages and facilitates private entrepreneurs to invest in sustainable development projects in the country's less-developed areas, noted Liu Yonghao, also vice-chairman of the programme.

These work to improve living conditions and create additional job opportunities.

The effort is funded by more than 16,500 entrepreneurs from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province, and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, officials said.

In 2000, the Chinese Government vowed to improve the lives of approximately 28 million rural people who currently live in extreme poverty all within a decade.

"Being a non-governmental agency, the Guangcai Programme has integrated social responsibility of the private enterprises within their market practises," said Hu Deping, a vice-chairman of the CSPGP.

"Disadvantaged groups are thus able to enjoy the fruits of economic development through such practises."

From 1994 to 1996, the Guangcai Programme and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce organized 13 large-scale investigative trips to Tibet, Inner Mongolian and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, and Gansu, Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan provinces.

Through on-the-spot investigations, private entrepreneurs saw real impoverishment in these areas as well as business opportunities they could help local residents explore.

For example, in 1995, Zhang Zhiting, chairman of Guizhou Shenqi Pharmaceutical Co, donated 290,000 yuan (US$34,900) to purchase 1,500 black sheep for 38 poor families living in the mountainous Yaoshan area of Guizhou Province.

Participating in SOE reforms

Apart from the programme's anti-poverty efforts in the countryside, helping urban residents with low incomes and reforming debt-staggered State-owned enterprises (SOE) are also on its agenda.

For example, Chongqing-based Lifan Group participated in reforming five State-owned enterprises by investing 290 million yuan (US$34.9 million) and helping settle more than 20,000 laid-off employees.

It was a new trend of China's industrial reforms to blend the sector of State-owned enterprises with that of private ones, said Yin Mingshan, chairman of Lifan, China's largest private business in motorcycle manufacturing.

In Liaocheng of Shangdong Province, Shenyang of Liaoning Province, Zhumadian of Henan Province and many other cities, projects initiated by the Guangcai Programme have created new methods for re-employment of laid-off workers in urban areas, officials said.

As the Three Gorges project is under way, many old enterprises in the areas closed down. Many private businesses are invited to join in projects to create market niches and job opportunities for resettled people.

The Zhejiang-based Junyao Group invested a total of 200 million yuan (US$24.1 million) to set up a dairy base that combines cow breeding, processing and sales in Yichang and Dangyang, areas of the Three Gorges Dam project in Central China's Hubei Province.

So far, private entrepreneurs have helped more than 5,000 people in the areas rid themselves of poverty.

"We raise 150 cows," said Huang Huizuo, a farmer who breeds cows for a dairy. "From the trade, I can earn 150,000 yuan (US$18,000) each year."

Statistics indicate that 126 private enterprises launched 132 projects in the region under the Guangcai Programme framework.

"The private enterprises that participate the Guangcai Programme are playing an irreplaceable role in the region," said Zheng Chao, head of the office in charge of resettlement of the Three Gorges area.

They not only help resolve the unemployment of local people but also speed up industrialization process in this area, he said.

Entrepreneurs highly honoured

As a return for their devotion, CSPGP honours and awards private entrepreneurs who make prominent achievements in annual events.

By the end of 2004, 156 entrepreneurs have won "Guangcai Programme Medals" and another 66 groups and individuals were rewarded for their excellent organizing efforts.

Approved by relevant international organizations, a minor planet newly found by Chinese scientists was named "Guangcai" in 1999.

(China Daily 04/13/2005 page5)