Super Zoo

The difficulties in poverty alleviation work mainly focus on two aspects.

The first is establishing a sustainable industry. The government has money, but poverty alleviation is by no means about just handing out cash. Yangchuan City, no matter how poor, can still come up with tens of millions in funding; in fact, the city allocates special funds every year for poverty alleviation. The problem lies in how to use this money effectively, so that the poor can truly find a long-term, viable solution, to support the impoverished households and help them "get rich," or at least escape poverty.

If we simply "hand out money," what will happen next year after people have taken money this year and their average income seems to have increased? And what about the year after that?

Not only does it create a bottomless fiscal pit, but it can also backfire by making the recipients develop a dependency, leading to a distaste for work and laziness.

The second difficulty is "inclusivity."

In poverty alleviation work, it is often frustrating to see that when poverty reduction shows results and average income increases, only a minority actually profit from it. A very few of the impoverished households make a lot of money from the policies, while the vast majority remain poor. The investment in poverty alleviation has not only failed to be truly widespread but has even widened the wealth gap.

In one of the impoverished counties under Jiangjin City, there were eight thousand impoverished households. Their average annual income increased from eight thousand to twenty-five thousand; however, the number of impoverished households only dropped from eight thousand to six thousand five hundred. In other words, although the "average" data seemed to indicate that poverty had been eliminated, in reality, the vast majority of impoverished households were still struggling to meet their basic needs. The state's poverty alleviation policies and investments had been monopolized by a few.

Wang Jian She, who had not been in his position as the Vice Mayor in charge of the economy for long, had a clear understanding of the difficulty of poverty alleviation work but had not yet found many effective solutions.

In his performance assessment, poverty alleviation was a rigid criterion. Not only did the average income of the impoverished households need to reach the threshold to be classified as out of poverty, but the number of impoverished households also had to decrease.

He was worrying about this issue when Su Ming's report arrived like timely rain, providing a very good approach.

Actually, Su Ming's method was quite simple, nothing extraordinary.

It involved collaboration between the government and enterprises, with the government supporting enterprises with policies and financial aid, and enterprises including the poor in their production and sales chains to resolve poverty issues in the course of their operations.

Specifically, Taoyuan Tourism Company, responsible for the protection and tourism of Taoyuan Group and Orgrimmar Sanctuary, was tasked with buying all the fruits, vegetables, and saplings planted by the poverty-stricken highlanders of Yangchuan City each year at market price. Some of these would be used to feed animals in the Sanctuary, while the rest could supply Great Sage Liquor Industry as raw materials for production.

If the purchase was made at market price, it would be a considerable burden for the enterprise, so the government would provide financial subsidies and preferential policies.

Fiscally, a portion of the annual poverty alleviation funds would be allocated to directly subsidize the enterprise based on the purchase price proportion. For instance, if the tourism company buys from the fruit farmers for a hundred dollars, the government would subsidize the company fifty... Of course, the actual subsidy ratio cannot be that high and requires discussion and confirmation;

In terms of policy, the focus would be on giving Da Sheng Liquor preferential treatment, including a series of supporting policies such as tax reduction and exemption, designating Da Sheng Liquor as the key liquor construction project of Yangchuan City.

Since there are no other large-scale distilleries locally in Yangchuan City, Da Sheng Liquor can be considered the "city liquor" of Yangchuan in a sense.

This approach brings several benefits.

The tourism company could meet the food needs of the animals in the Sanctuary without being dragged down by the enormous expenses. Even though Taoyuan Travel Company and Great Sage Liquor Industry both fall under the industries of Su Ming, their finances are separate; when Da Sheng Liquor buys grain and fruits from the tourism company, it has to pay.

In fact, with government subsidies and the acquisition cost from Great Sage Liquor Industry, the travel company hardly had to spend any money.

For the distillery, they needed to purchase raw materials for brewing to begin with.

In the initial stages, Suming planned to plant in the three Taoyuan orchards behind the mountain to provide raw materials for the distillery. However, this was simply not feasible—the three Taoyuan orchards were limited in area, making large-scale planting unlikely, and the fruit and grain harvested could not meet the demands of the distillery.

What's more, the primary purpose of the three Taoyuan orchards was "tourism," and their layout and planning were meant for tourism services. It was impossible to completely convert them for planting.

After tourism got underway, the mountain's pure, pollution-free, and harmless varieties of fruits and crops were in such demand by visitors that there were none to spare for the distillery. The same products, branded with Taoyuan's name, sold to visitors, earned incomparably more than if they were used as raw materials for the distillery.

Therefore, Great Sage Liquor Industry had to procure its brewing raw materials from local and other regional markets for the time being.

To outsiders, what made Da Sheng Liquor stand out, besides the unique method of "monkey brewing," was the careful selection of raw materials.

In reality, the main reason, known only to Suming, was the Tai Sui water.

Therefore, it didn't make a big difference where the raw materials were purchased from—the Qinling region was conducive to all kinds of crops, and the grains and fruits grown by the mountain people were of good quality to begin with.

Purchasing locally also saved on transportation costs.

Additionally, with tax relief and other policies, Great Sage Liquor Industry was able to reduce expenses and expand its scale to some extent.

For poor households, there was even less to say—their days continued as before, with guaranteed purchase of their annual yield, door-to-door procurement, and no excess worries to bear. As long as they weren't too lazy, they just had to wait for the end of the year to count their money.

In the eyes of the government, this poverty alleviation fund was well spent and warranted policy support. It killed two birds with one stone by providing a long-term and effective path to prosperity for poor households, while simultaneously supporting local enterprises.

In Suming's view, it wasn't as simple as killing two birds with one stone. The travel company, the distillery, the government, and the poor households all benefited; it was like shooting several birds with one arrow.

Of course, all this was predicated on the smooth operation of Great Sage Liquor Industry and the sanctuary needing a large amount of various fruits and crops every year.

In other words, if this report were approved after review by the municipal government, Suming and his various companies under his name would see another leap in significance for Yangchuan City.

Wang Jian She read the report carefully three times, identified a few inappropriate word choices and immature opinions, had his secretary make minor revisions, and then personally approached several relevant leaders in the city.

A simple preliminary meeting was held, and the conclusion came swiftly: they agreed to the Taoyuan Travel Company's report proposal, to be implemented as soon as possible. They aimed to see initial results by the end of the year, reducing poverty by over 50%.

"A company that performs well and has a sense of social responsibility isn't just about tax revenue for local governments. It also significantly enhances the living standards of the local people. In my view, for Taoyuan and entrepreneurs like Comrade Su Ming, we should offer even more support and assistance..." At the end of the meeting, the top official of the city praised by name and said.