Collectives alleviating livelihood worries

Yang Xiquan, a farmer in the village of Longmen, Shanxi province, recently received the last 90,000 yuan ($14,140) in reimbursement of his medical expenses from the village committee.

Two years ago, Yang's father was hospitalized with lung cancer, which resulted in a huge amount of medical expenditure for the family. Yang could hardly imagine what would have happened without help from the local committee and relevant national policies.

"The daily cost could exceed several thousand yuan, far from what a farmer can afford. All I could do was borrow money from others," Yang recalled.

Hearing of his plight, officials in Longmen informed Yang of the village's collective reimbursement system.

"As long as you are our villager, you can present your expense invoices to the village. Apart from the expenses covered by the national new rural cooperative medical scheme, your remaining expenditure on medical treatment can be reimbursed by the village collective," said Yuan Juanzhen, the village's deputy Party secretary.

Yang received a total medical reimbursement of more than 400,000 yuan thanks to the village collective.

The only expenses he had to cover himself were for travel and accommodation during his trips to the hospital.

The local village collective not only prioritizes attention to financial burdens caused by the process of treating diseases, but it also has the same approach to other livelihood needs including education and pensions.

Yuan said that students from the village receive at least 3,000 yuan in scholarship funds if admitted to a university, and the village has spent over 40 million yuan on education funding over the past two decades. Meanwhile, seniors aged 60 and above can receive pension subsidies ranging from 500 yuan to 650 yuan per month.

All such policies and relevant subsidies stem from the burgeoning collective economy of Longmen.

Since 1996, the village has blazed a trail of eco-friendly and integrated industrial development based on multiple pillar industries including coking, construction materials, fine chemicals and tourism.

By the end of 2021, the village's fixed assets surpassed 3.2 billion yuan, there were job opportunities for more than 1,600 local people, and the per capita net income per person was 37,000 yuan.

On Jan 10, Wang Jiechen and his family received last year's collective dividend of 51,000 yuan.

"This year marks the 26th year of handing out dividends to the locals," said Wang.

To achieve rural vitalization, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has proposed that relevant departments study and formulate preferential tax policies to support the development of village-level collective economies and strive to support the development of about 100,000 villages by 2022.

Local governments are also expected to plan industrial development for villages and diversify the development paths of village-level collectives.

Yuncheng, Shanxi province, has announced that the city aims to see the annual income of all its administrative villages reach more than 100,000 yuan within five years, and half of the villages will even notch an annual income of over 300,000 yuan.

"Developing and expanding the village-level collective economy can help villagers alleviate their livelihood worries in terms of medical care, education and elderly care, while synergizing efforts to improve work efficiency and fuel rural vitalization," said Zhu Qizhen, a professor at China Agricultural University.

"It is also an important way to lead the villagers to achieve common prosperity," Zhu added.