'Transfusion' through donation only one part of poverty relief

Enterprises are expected to take poverty alleviation measures to impoverished counties by integrating "blood transfusion" with "blood making" to help these counties enhance their industrial capabilities, Liu Wenkui, vice-president of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, said on Sunday.

"Blood transfusion" poverty relief can temporarily solve problems for groups who can barely make ends meet, while "blood making" is an effort to generate their inner productivity, Liu said at a forum of the 18th China Entrepreneur Summit 2019 in Beijing.

As China is fighting to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020, the foundation works closely with enterprises to conduct poverty alleviation in two ways.

The first, targeted at children and seniors, is to perform corporate social responsibility through donations. The other, crucial way is to enable poor regions enter into the process of industrial development.

"For instance, an agricultural company can move its industry to impoverished regions to boost local employment. By building factories and training farmers, it not only supports the poor population, but also perfects its industrial chain in rural areas," Liu said.

Liu Jingjing, the founder of franchise Porridge Jiahe, said at the forum enterprises in catering can feed local people in a sustainable way.

"We cooperate with impoverished counties in Tibet and other remote areas where ingredients like fresh vegetables are of good quality. Before the vegetables are sold to market, we buy them directly from growers and in turn teach them planting skills to meet standards in catering service," Liu said.

Farmers, the local economy, enterprises and consumers all benefit from sustainable poverty relief, she added.

However, sometimes poverty alleviation projects launched by companies don't satisfy farmers' needs, which result in a loss of capital, according to Ai Luming, chief of SEE Foundation, a society of entrepreneurs and ecology.

"Some enterprises like to instruct farmers to plant something they regard as market-friendly and claim they will help with the sale, but actually farmers there just want to plant a rare kind of vegetable or herb," Ai said.

Entrepreneurs should respect traditions and consider the natural and economic conditions when cooperating with local government and residents, Ai said.

"Only in this way can companies 'transfuse blood' and stimulate impoverished people to 'make blood' when they really need it."