Strategy helps secure jobs and integrate industrial development
A bird's-eye view of Huichang, where a rural vitalization base was established in Xijiang township in 2017 to promote economic development. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
After giving birth to her second child in late 2013, Liang Lijing didn't take a job in her hometown until 2019, when she started work at a company making sneakers at a rural vitalization industrial base, earning a good salary to support her family.
Liang, 36, a native of Xijiang township, Jiangxi province, worked in Guangdong province for seven years, before returning home in 2013 when she became pregnant. After having her second child, she decided to take care of her offspring at home.
"I could not find a proper job to support my family. I once grew rice, looked after orchards for others, and worked as a supermarket saleswoman, but the pay was low. The burden of supporting our family fell on my husband, who worked in the household decorating industry," she said.
To promote the township's economic development, Xijiang, in Huichang county, established the rural vitalization industrial base in 2017, for which funds totaling 65 million yuan ($9.7 million) were raised by villages under the township's jurisdiction.
Initiated by President Xi Jinping in October 2017, the rural vitalization strategy has been highly emphasized by governments at all levels. In February, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, the nation's Cabinet, released a guideline to advance the strategy.
Local governments were told to continue promoting the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. They are tasked with vigorously developing industries at county level that have obvious advantages and can drive agriculture in rural areas and create a large number of jobs, according to the guideline.
County governments should speed up improvements to industrial services and promote enterprises based in industrial parks, making leading companies stronger. They should also guide qualified towns in developing specialized clusters of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, the guideline stated.
New houses stand in Zikeng village, Bai'e township, Huichang, Jiangxi province. (ZHU HAIPENG / FOR CHINA DAILY)
After her family struggled for several years, Liang joined the sneakers manufacturer in Xijiang after companies at the industrial base began recruiting staff members. The company gives its employees a basic salary rise every year and pays them based on piecework.
Liang earns 4,500 yuan a month, which is a good salary in the county. Most of the company's workers are women who used to be in a similar situation to her.
"The boss takes good care of us and understands the difficulties of middle-aged women in rural areas who need to look after their children and support their families. The company pays us a relatively high salary and has a relaxed time management structure, which allows us to balance work and life," Liang said.
Li Jiuchangsheng, a manager at the base, said it is home to 19 pollution-free, labor-intensive enterprises involved in making clothing, shoes, hats and electronic products. It employs more than 1,500 workers, and an additional 500 or so employees are engaged in auxiliary production work at home.
"Many residents used to find work elsewhere because there was no industry in their hometown, but as their living costs were high, they saved very little each year," Li said.
He added that due to a shortage of young people locally, there were problems with children's education and support for the elderly. The industrial base has solved such difficulties to a large extent and promoted the economic development of towns and villages.
Since the base began to operate, it has effectively promoted the collective economic development of local villages. Each village in the township receives 130,000 yuan each year for managing the base, Li said.
In November 2020, the Huichang county government announced a plan to expand the base. The second phase, which is under construction, will host about 40 labor-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises from neighboring towns and villages, providing employment for 5,000 people.
Women work at a factory in Huichang. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In addition to establishing labor-intensive industries, Huichang has made full use of its rich mineral resources to build chemical industry clusters during the past decade. It now plays an important role in manufacturing lithium batteries, in tandem with the rise of the new energy industry.
According to the county government, proven local fluorite mineral resources have reached 2.63 million metric tons, and rock salt mineral reserves amount to 1.9 billion tons, making Huichang the only area of China to boast rock salt and fluorite oresļ¼¨offering advantages for the development of fluoriteļ¼¨and salt-related industries.
Fluorite, an important industrial mineral composed of calcium and fluorine, is used in a wide variety of chemical, metallurgical and ceramic processes.
Yang Fubin, president of Shilei Group, a fluorine company at the fluorite-salt new materials base, said salt is a daily necessity and one of the basic raw materials for chemical industries.
"In today's fierce market competition, enterprises must enter this industry at the top level, and to survive, they must be irreplaceable. As a practitioner and promoter of the development of the fluorine and new salt material industry in Huichang, I am pleased to see we have changed from exporting and selling our own mineral resources to importing fluorite mineral resources and exporting high-value-added products."
As more fluorine and salt chemical enterprises arrive in Huichang, the pace of construction at the new fluorine salt material industry base is accelerating. This base currently occupies about 400 hectares, according to Liu Jiashun, Party chief of the chemical industrial base.
"Through years of efforts, Huichang's fluorite-salt new materials industry has formed an industrial system covering lithium new energy materials and polymer materials, with a relatively complete industrial chain. With continuous expansion of market demand for new energy storage, Huichang's fluorite-salt new materials are developing rapidly," Liu said.
This base has 36 enterprises, employing a total of more than 5,300 people. The output value of the cluster reached 10 billion yuan in 2019, rising to more than 20 billion yuan last year.
Huichang county has built a whole industry chain of electrolyte lithium electric new energy materials, with the capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate and electrolytes respectively reaching 10 percent and 8 percent of the national total. Lithium hexafluorophosphate is the most widely used salt in the electrolytes for commercial lithium-ion cells.
Huichang is an important base for the new fluorine salt material industry. (ZHU HAIPENG / FOR CHINA DAILY)
Technology updated
Relying on these rich mineral resources, the formerly State-owned Jiangxi Jiuer Salt Industry Co in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, has continuously updated its technology and extended its industrial chain since restructuring to promote rural vitalization.
The company's fluorine and salt chemical industrial base is situated in Huichang. Its predecessor was founded in 1970 after rock salt mines were discovered in Zhoutian township, Huichang. Jiangxi Jiuer Salt Industry Co was founded to develop these resources.
As a designated national salt production company, it is also involved in the comprehensive development of salt-related chemical industries.
As traditional salt production technology had difficulty meeting the needs of large-scale and refined output, and also caused pollution, the company struggled to make revenue in 2004.
The following year, the company was reformed. It raised 270 million yuan to launch a vacuum salt production project, which adopted an advanced salt-making technology and control system to improve output and the quality of salt.
In 2014, the company became the holding subsidiary of the listed Snowsky Salt Industry Group. Since then, it has continuously expanded the salt chemical industry chain. It has also completed and launched caustic soda, hydrogen peroxide and cogeneration projects. Cogeneration is basically the production of energy and usable heatļ¼¨generally in the form of steam and hot waterļ¼¨in the same plant.
At the end of last year, the company had 642 employees and revenue of 627 million yuan.
Its chairman, Yang Lishu, said: "Overall development momentum in the salt chemical industry is very good. Relying on the salt mines in Huichang, where proven rock salt deposits amount to 1.9 billion tons, dozens of enterprises have arrived at the county's chemical industry park to form an industrial chain, saving companies a significant amount in costs and making their products more competitive.
"Provincial, municipal and county governments have given strong support to the development of the industry in all respects, and we clearly sense that the business environment in Jiangxi is rapidly improving. Even during the COVID-19 epidemic, production at our company was not disrupted."
Promoting output at the industrial park and offering a variety of channels to help rural residents find work are important parts of the rural vitalization strategy.
Yang Lishu said: "I think the best way to support relatively poor families during rural vitalization is to help each individual grow, and to offer proper jobs. Our company has continued to hire as many employees as possible, and 90 percent of them come from Huichang, which is a way to support local economic development."
He added that per capita income at the company was about 67,000 yuan last year, and if a family has one member working for the company, then the family's livelihood is basically guaranteed.
"After an enterprise achieves a certain scale, its social responsibility increases, and we will also make every effort to promote local vitalization," Yang added.
Contact the writers at yangzekun@chinadaily.com.cn
