China Energy Helps Qumalai County Shake Off Poverty

On April 21, the provincial government of Qinghai announced that Qumalai County in Yushu Prefecture had been officially removed from the list of poverty-stricken counties thanks to the pairing assistance from China Energy Investment Corporation. This marks another major victory of China Energy in the battle against poverty in Qinghai Province following poverty eradication in Gangcha County, Haibei Prefecture, in 2018, as well as a significant contribution to the poverty alleviation work in Qinghai Province.

Covering an area of 52,400 square kilometers and home to a population of 46,000 people, 98 percent of whom being Tibetans, Qumalai County is one of the counties with the most difficult conditions and the slowest economic development in Qinghai Province and even across the country. Due to its high altitude and alpine climate, the county features weak public infrastructure, insufficient space for development, a generally low level of education and a lack of skills among herders, homogeneous mode of production and a weak capacity of self-development. The incidence of poverty in the county was as high as 21.8 percent in 2015.

Since undertaking the task of poverty alleviation in Qumalai County in 2010, China Energy has made continuous efforts to implement targeted poverty alleviation strategies in such fields as ecology, education and training, e-commerce, industrial development and medical care. As of the end of March 2020, the group company had dispatched six outstanding young staffers to Qumalai County and invested nearly 70 million yuan in a number of poverty alleviation projects including ecological conservation at the source of the Yellow River, construction of teaching buildings and teachers’ dormitories at the county’s Nationality High School, construction of the dormitory building at the county’s Orphans School, establishment of the county’s entrepreneurship and employment center for farmers and herders, infrastructure construction in relocation settlements, and training for grassroots-level officials and technical professionals. All these efforts have helped the county make significant improvements in ecological protection, education infrastructure construction and people’s living standards.

In 2017 and 2018, China Energy was awarded the honorable title “Advanced Unit for Poverty Alleviation of Qinghai Province” by the provincial Party committee and provincial government of Qinghai. The China Energy-aided ecological conservation project at the source of the Yellow River and various education-based poverty alleviation efforts have been highly recognized by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and have been widely reported by domestic media.

In 2020, China Energy plans to invest 47 million yuan to implement key poverty alleviation projects in a sustained and more effective manner.