Considerate supports

In addition to encouraging migrant workers-turned-entrepreneurs to come back, Pingli in recent years also began to attract businesses from the outside. Despite being a poor county, it showed good faith through its policy kit: free workshop buildings for three years, conditional subsidies for water and electricity bills, 100,000 to 500,000 yuan in concessional loans to startups, and a subsidy of 1,800 yuan per employee for pre-employment trainings.

Gu Zhihong came to Pingli and set up a garment factory in May, 2019. "It is the entrepreneurial environment that makes my business thrive," Gu said. He said that, besides the rent and expense waivers, the county also offered epidemic prevention supplies as well as a stable supply of labor.

He is now running five community factories in the county, employing 400 people from several towns. Seeing the large demand for jobs, he is planning to open another factory.

"Although most of the community factories are small and micro enterprises (SMEs), the county puts a very high value on them as poverty alleviation rides on their development," the investment promotion official Tang said.

To help the factories stabilize employment, the Pingli county government has also set up nine daycare centers, and children of workers in nearby factories can go there after school free of charge.

With the policy support and the childcare and other services, 15 companies from outside Pingli have set up 38 community factories there. According to the county chief, these companies are all environmentally friendly SMEs with low energy consumption and little industrial pollution.

Pingli county was removed from the poverty list in February 2020.