Guiyang improves people's livelihoods

Guiyang's Xiuwen county plants kiwi fruit on barren mountains, wasteland and sloping farmland. [Photo/ddcpc website]

Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, has been striving to improve housing, medical treatment, education, employment and the natural environment to improve people's living standards in recent years.

Guiyang is promoting the renovation of old neighborhoods and back alleys to make up for shortcomings in public services and promote "15-minute living circles" in the city.

In August of this year, Guiyang was selected as one of China's first pilot cities to create "15-minute living circles". Guiyang scoped out 140 living circles with amenities within a 15-minute walk after taking infrastructure, population density, administrative areas and communities into consideration.

Guiyang has also continued to improve public employment services and optimize the development environment for talent. On Dec 20, Guiyang and Guian New Area co-hosted a job fair, inviting more than 100 companies offering 2,970 jobs to university graduates.

The city also launched a talent recruiting app offering targeted employment services for companies and improving talent circulation and reward policies, leading to the employment of 151,300 people in the first 11 months of this year.

Guiyang has also been working to balance industrial development and environmental protection and has built a comprehensive industry system focusing on environmental protection, agriculture, commerce, culture and tourism so as to increase local people's incomes.

Guiyang's Xiuwen county is making full use of its barren mountains, wastelands and sloping farmlands to plant kiwi fruit, making the industry large-scale, standardized, characteristic and branded.

This year, the planting area for kiwi fruit in the county reached 167,000 mu (11,133.33 hectares), with its annual output of fresh fruit exceeding 70,000 metric tons. The comprehensive output value of Xiuwen's kiwi fruits has reached 2.22 billion yuan ($349.12 million), bringing in money for 54,000 farmers.

Huaxi district has turned strawberries into a characteristic agricultural product with geographical indication significance by expanding the planting scale, improving standards and quality and unifying the brand.

Huaxi is currently home to more than 3,000 mu of strawberry plantations with an output of 4,500 tons and an output value of about 250 million yuan, providing jobs to 130,000 local farmers.