Rural vitalization program flying high with Air China

Company is investing in both facilities and the local people. Luo Wangshu reports from Sonid Right Banner, Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Duan Changming has been working as a street cleaner in a village in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region since 2019.

Every year, the 55-year-old, who once lived in poverty, receives a stipend of 7,200 yuan ($990) for doing the work.

The money comes from a photovoltaic power station in Sonid Right Banner, a county-level area in the region, which was once classified as impoverished.

The power station was a poverty alleviation project operated by the local authorities, but it is currently being upgraded to a rural vitalization program.

The facility, which covers 20 hectares, stands on land provided by 34 villages that were once officially classified as poverty-stricken. Total investment in the station was about 50 million yuan, with about 12 million yuan coming from China National Aviation, a State-owned enterprise that is the parent of Air China, the national carrier.

Construction of the station began in September 2018 and was completed the following December. Now, the electricity it produces is sold to a local electric company and the profit is distributed among the 34 villages.

As of April, the station had generated a profit of 10.12 million yuan, and after the money had been divided, each of the 34 villages set up charitable posts, such as street cleaning jobs, and hired impoverished local residents, who each receive a stipend, according to Guo Mu, director of the banner's development and reform commission.