Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 3, No. 2, 2022 6 Research on the Construction of Long‐term Mechanism of Relative Poverty Governance in Anhui Province Meiju Zhang* School of Economics, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, Anhui, China *15755210472@163.com Abstract: Regional poverty has always been an important problem perplexing the development of human society. The comprehensive analysis of relative poverty is conducive to the further implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy. Based on the analysis of the new characteristics of the relative poverty governance stage in Anhui Province, this paper reflects the relative poverty degree of Anhui Province by measuring the level of economic development. The results show that the counties with high relative poverty degree are mainly distributed in most areas of Northern Anhui, and there are a few areas with potential poverty risk within the region. The counties with low relative poverty degree are mainly distributed in central and southern Anhui. On the basis of combing the practical problems of relative poverty in Anhui Province at the present stage, combined with the actual conditions of regional development, this paper puts forward the construction idea of long-term mechanism for relative poverty governance in Anhui Province, so as to provide reference for gradually realizing regional coordinated development. Keywords: Relative poverty, Long term mechanism, Spatial distribution characteristics. 1. Introduction The solution of the problem of absolute poverty does not mean that all the problems of poverty are solved. The vulnerability of poverty and the risk of returning to poverty still exist. The issue of relative poverty still needs extensive attention. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee proposed to "build a long-term mechanism for relative poverty governance". The governance of relative poverty has become a key issue that needs to be solved urgently on the road of Rural Revitalization and common prosperity. In the future, the core content of poverty alleviation will be transferred to relative poverty governance. Therefore, it is necessary to design a long-term mechanism to realize a new path of poverty governance. According to the existing standards, after all rural people are lifted out of poverty, there are still many uncertain factors, such as individual ability, external opportunities, natural disasters and other factors, which lead to the return of the lifted out of poverty population to poverty, and the rural difficult groups will exist for a long time. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the number of poor people in Anhui Province has decreased from 4.84 million in 2014 to 87000 at the end of 2019. The incidence of poverty has decreased from 9.1% at the time of filing to 0.16% at the end of 2019, with an average annual decrease of 1.49 percentage points. At the same time, as a province with a large population and an arduous task of poverty alleviation, Anhui Province still needs to take multiple measures to prevent large-scale return to poverty in the stage of relative poverty governance. It can be seen that the focus of the research on poverty reduction is to build a long-term poverty reduction mechanism. Based on the analysis of the new characteristics of relative poverty governance in Anhui Province, this paper measures the relative poverty degree of Anhui Province based on empirical data, and clarifies the problems that need to be paid attention to in the current stage of relative poverty governance in Anhui Province, in order to put forward reference countermeasures and suggestions for the construction of a long-term mechanism of relative poverty in Anhui Province in the post poverty stage. 2. Literature Review The academic research on relative poverty mostly focuses on the concept of relative poverty, setting standards, analysis of influencing factors and long-term governance mechanism. (1) Research on the concept of relative poverty. Tong Xing and Lin Mingang (1994) believe that poverty is the general term of economic, social and cultural backwardness. Absolute or relative poverty belongs to different degrees of poverty. Relative poverty refers to simple reproduction in solving the problem of food and clothing, but the overall level is still lower than the socially recognized standard [1]. Mao Guangxiong (2004) redefined the problem of poverty. The main problem faced by relatively poor groups is the further development after the problem of food and clothing is solved [2]. Sen (1976) introduced the factors of rights and abilities into the theory of poverty and put forward the theory of empowerment and anti-poverty. He believed that the root of poverty lies in the poverty or lack of rights and abilities, which should be reformed from the system, strive to realize that the poor people enjoy basic political and civil liberties, and ensure their smooth access to basic living, education, medical treatment and other rights. Based on this, he put forward the concept of multi-dimensional poverty [3]. The 2001 world development report further explained the connotation of poverty from a multidimensional perspective [4]. (2) Research on setting standards of relative poverty. Chen Zongsheng et al. (2013) believe that the average income of rural residents in the previous year can be multiplied by the mean coefficient as the setting of rural "relative poverty line", in which the mean coefficient can be taken as a reference [5]. Wang Sangui and Zeng Xiaoxi (2018) believe that the poverty standard in the later 2020 can be determined according to people's basic needs or minimum living needs, scientifically and reasonably determine the socially recognized basic demand level and convert it into the corresponding value, and adopt a higher poverty standard according to the rising level 7 of economic development and people's living standards, To meet people's basic needs or minimum living needs [6]. (3) Research on the influencing factors of relative poverty. Zeng Chenchen (2010) tried to explain the relationship between relative poverty and rural residents' health in the study on the impact of rural residents' health problems on relative poverty in central and Western China. He pointed out that residents' health status has a significant positive correlation with personal income, and personal health is an important factor determining the per capita income of families [7]. Luan Jiang, Ma Rui (2021) used re-centralization influence function regression to analyze the influencing factors of relative poverty of rural residents. The study found that the aggravation of rural population aging is not conducive to the alleviation of rural relative poverty. Education and health are two important ways to improve rural human capital [8]. (4) Research on the governance path of relative poverty. Scholars believe that the key to relative poverty governance lies in building a long-term mechanism for relative poverty governance from the aspects of institutional guarantee, industrial cultivation, capacity-building, humanistic development and psychological services. Representative studies include the papers of Tang Renwu (2019) [9], Zhang Qi (2020) [10], Jiang Yongmu (2020) [11] and other scholars. Academia has conducted a lot of research on the long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance, and has made phased achievements in the origin, core meaning and mechanism construction on this basis, which has laid a solid foundation for follow-up research. However, in general, the existing research on the long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance is less. There is a phenomenon of "fragmentation" in the research on the long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance, focusing on a short period of time and lacking the research on the combination of individual and whole, macro and micro, theory and practice. The definition of the connotation of building a long-term mechanism for relative poverty governance is lack of unity and systematic theoretical framework. Therefore, the research on constructing the long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance, as a new research object, has very important theoretical and practical significance. Based on the above analysis, how to build a long-term mechanism to solve relative poverty has increasingly become a major theoretical and practical problem to be considered and urgently solved by the academic and political circles. This paper takes Anhui Province as the research object, combines theoretical and empirical analysis, and makes thoughts and suggestions on the construction of long-term mechanism of relative poverty in the post poverty alleviation era of Anhui Province. On the one hand, it will help China's anti-poverty policies and other provinces to improve their anti-poverty policies in the future. The structure of the rest of this paper is as follows: the third part comprehensively analyzes the new characteristics of relative poverty governance in Anhui Province in the post poverty alleviation era. The fourth part introduces the measurement method and data source of relative poverty in Anhui Province. The fifth part analyzes the development status of relative poverty in Anhui Province from the achievements and shortcomings of rural relative poverty governance in Anhui Province. The sixth part analyzes the empirical results, explores the governance path of rural relative poverty in Anhui Province, and puts forward the idea of building a long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance in combination with the current situation of relative poverty governance in Anhui Province. 3. New Characteristics of the Relative Poverty Governance Stage in Anhui Province The list of national key counties for poverty alleviation and development released by the Poverty Alleviation Office shows that there were 19 national poverty-stricken counties in Anhui Province in 2012. Among them, there are 8 key counties in the national poverty alleviation and development work that belong to concentrated and contiguous areas with special difficulties. The specific distribution is shown in Table 1. Table 1. Key counties of national poverty alleviation in Anhui Province in 2012 Types of poor counties County name Key counties of national poverty alleviation Qianshan County, Taihu County, Susong County, Yuexi County, Yingdong District, Linquan County, Funan County, Yingshang County, Dangshan County, Xiao County, Lingbi County, Si county, Yu'an District, Shou county, Huoqiu County, Shucheng County, Jinzhai County, Lixin County and Shitai County Centralized poverty alleviation counties Xiao County, Dangshan County, Lingbi County, Si county, Yingdong District, Yu'an District, Shucheng county and Shitai County With the overall victory in the battle against poverty, all poverty-stricken counties in Anhui Province have taken off their hats. After the successful completion of the battle against poverty, poverty alleviation and poverty governance in Anhui Province showed the following three changes. 3.1. Transformation of Governance Objectives The fundamental task of winning the battle against poverty is to completely eliminate absolute poverty by 2020. Poverty alleviation after 2020 will open a new stage from eliminating absolute poverty to solving relative poverty. The main social contradictions in China determine the main task of poverty control at this stage. People's need for a better life is objective, which includes not only material or physiological needs (basic level of clothing, food, housing, transportation, etc.), but also social needs (social security, social security and social justice, etc.), but also psychological needs (spirit, value, morality, belief, ideal, etc.). When people's basic material needs are met through the elimination of absolute poverty, they will inevitably rise to the pursuit of social and psychological needs. Because "people's need for a better life is growing", this means that relative poverty is a historical and dynamic concept. The new governance objectives mean that the principles and policies of relative poverty governance in Anhui Province must be changed to a higher level with higher requirements and standards. 8 3.2. Transformation of Governance Field With the increasingly frequent flow of factors between urban and rural areas and the general trend of urban-rural integration and development, the problem of poverty governance is no longer a special situation only in rural areas. Urban and rural special groups (new citizens, urban low- income households, the elderly, etc.) have become the focus of poverty governance. Secondly, the acceleration of the new urbanization process means that a large number of rural people flow into cities and towns. Due to the differences in relative resource endowments such as knowledge, skills and capital, as well as institutional obstacles, this part of rural population groups flowing into cities and towns are generally at a disadvantage or even weak in income, identity and status in urban life. According to the data of the seventh census, among the permanent residents in Anhui Province, 35.595 million people live in cities and towns, accounting for 58.33%. The population living in rural areas is 25.432 million, accounting for 41.67%. Compared with the sixth census, the urban population increased by 10.018 million, the rural population decreased by 8.491 million, and the proportion of urban population increased by 15.34 percentage points. The influx of a large number of rural population into cities and towns has also impacted the lives of urban residents who were originally engaged in simple labor and low-tech jobs. The problem of relative poverty caused by the rapidly changing social structure will be more prominent among urban residents. Poverty control in Anhui Province should promote the transformation of poverty alleviation and development from mainly solving rural poverty to comprehensively solving urban and rural poverty. 3.3. Transformation of Governance Focus With the completion of building a well-off society in an all- round way in 2020, the overall absolute poverty in rural areas under the current standards will be eliminated in an all-round way, which indicates that the poverty governance focusing on poverty reduction will withdraw from the historical stage. First of all, the foundation of the new poverty relief groups is weak, and the developed industries have great risks in the initial operation. If they encounter market fluctuations a little, they may be unable to avoid the disaster and lead to poverty again. In 2021, the province's poverty relief areas invested 7.98 billion yuan in the development of agricultural characteristic industries, implemented 3526 village to village industrial assistance projects and 732000 household to household industrial assistance projects, covering 586000 poverty relief households. Anhui Province incorporated employment assistance into the post evaluation of the results of poverty alleviation and the performance evaluation of rural revitalization, and took multiple measures to promote the stable employment of the people out of poverty. Secondly, most of the original poor areas are limited by natural conditions. The market development in rural areas is not perfect. The insight of the poverty-stricken groups into the market still needs to be strengthened. There is still a certain gap between knowledge and skill learning and the modern market, which is easy to be marginalized. Therefore, the essence of consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation is to prevent the emergence of new poor people and the return of those who have been lifted out of poverty, and improve the quality and stability of poverty alleviation. According to the data of Anhui statistical yearbook, the per capita net income of the poverty-stricken population in the province was 13592 yuan in 2021, an increase of 16.58% over 2020. The average collective economic income of 3000 poor villages increased from 338000 yuan in 2020 to 444200 yuan, an increase of 31.3%. "Two worries and Three guarantees" and drinking water safety were further consolidated. We will strengthen the guarantee of compulsory education, consolidate the achievements in controlling dropout and ensuring school attendance at the stage of compulsory education, and do a good job in providing financial assistance to students from families with financial difficulties. In 2021, we will provide financial assistance to 1.411 million students from families that have lifted themselves out of poverty, with a total amount of 1.48 billion yuan. 4. Research Methods and Data Sources 4.1. Research Method Based on the relevant documents on poverty alleviation fund management issued by Anhui Province and combined with the actual development situation, this paper selects three economic indicators: per capita regional GDP, per capita disposable income of rural residents and total retail sales of social consumer goods to calculate the economic development level of Anhui Province, and measure the regional relative poverty. The specific formula is as follows: (1) In the above formula, F is the economic development level of each county in Anhui Province, that is, the relative poverty degree. The greater the F value, the better the economic development of the county. At the same time, it also means that the lower the relative poverty degree, and vice versa. yij represents the j-th index value of county i in Anhui Province after correction; wi is the index weight; n represents the number of county units. The normalization method is adopted for the standardization of index data to eliminate the relationship between variables. The specific formula is as follows: (2) 4.2. Data Sources As of September 2021, Anhui Province has jurisdiction over 45 municipal districts, 9 county-level cities and 50 counties, with a total of 104 county-level divisions. Considering the relatively developed economy, high level of urbanization and insignificant poverty, this study ignores the current situation of economic development in the municipal area. The study area is 59 counties (cities) other than the municipal area in Anhui Province. Data source: Anhui Statistical Yearbook and China County Statistical Yearbook in 2011 and 2021. Some data are supplemented by the statistical yearbooks of prefecture level cities. 5. Empirical Results and Analysis The relative poverty degree of each county in Anhui Province in 2010 and 2020 is obtained from formula (1). The spatial distribution characteristics are analyzed with the help of ArcGIS software, and the relative poverty degree is divided 9 into five categories: low level, low level, middle level, higher level and high level by using the natural breakpoint method (Fig. 1). Since the relative poverty degree is calculated by economic indicators, the higher the value, the better the county economic development and the lower the relative poverty degree. The quantitative characteristics of relative poverty in Anhui Province are as follows: There are significant differences in the number of relative poverty among counties in Anhui Province in 2010 and 2020. In 2010, the average relative poverty degree of Anhui Province was 0.3684, of which the lowest was 0.7844 in Ningguo City and the highest was 0.0917 in Shitai County. There were 33 counties with relative poverty degree lower than the average. There are 11 counties at high level (0.4730 ~ 0.7844); In 2020, the average value of relative poverty in Anhui Province was 0.3465, of which Dangtu County had the lowest value of 0.8135 and Shitai County had the highest value of 0.0481. There were 37 counties with relative poverty lower than the average value and 5 counties with high level (0.6451 ~ 0.8135). In 2010 and 2020, there were 30 counties whose relative poverty levels were lower than the average level of Anhui Province in that year, such as Dangshan, Linquan, Dongzhi, Yuexi, Dingyuan, Qimen and other counties, which shows that there is a gap between the lagging economic and social development and people's growing social needs, and it is a key area in the era of preventing poverty return. (a) Poverty in 2010 (b) Poverty in 2020 Figure 1. Spatial distribution of county relative poverty in Anhui Province in 2010 and 2020 6. Suggestions The counties in Anhui Province are relatively calm, and the spatial distribution difference is gradually significant. The counties with high relative poverty are mainly distributed in most areas of northern and southern Anhui, and the counties with low relative poverty are mainly distributed in some areas of eastern and central Anhui. Based on the results of empirical analysis and current situation analysis, this paper puts forward 10 the following suggestions for the construction of long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance in Anhui Province: First, while consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation, we should pay attention to the improvement of the standards, quality and level of poverty alleviation in the relative poverty stage. Based on the Rural Revitalization policy, build a long-term mechanism of rural relative poverty in Anhui Province. Under the guidance of the government, combined with market operation and focusing on infrastructure construction, the infrastructure of relatively poor rural areas in Anhui Province has been basically improved. However, there is still a big gap compared with other more developed areas, and the construction of infrastructure construction mechanism is not firm and stable. In addition to the financing and planning of infrastructure construction, although the basic problems such as the reconstruction of rural housing and dilapidated houses, the difficulty and cost of going to school, and the rural "three links", namely water, electricity and network, have been basically solved, they have not achieved high-quality and high-level continuous development. It is not enough to solve the problem of relative poverty in rural areas only on the basis of "two worries and Three Guarantees". There is no trivial matter about the basic livelihood of rural people, which needs policy follow-up and continuous assistance and monitoring mechanism. In the next stage, the primary and effective task of Rural Revitalization to solve and alleviate relative poverty is that the strength of policies and support should not be reduced, and the endogenous development power of rural subjects should be increased to prevent the phenomenon of returning to poverty. Whether in terms of capital investment or social security, certain policy preferences are still needed for rural areas in need. Based on this, we can consolidate and expand the key achievements in poverty eradication and lay the foundation for alleviating relative poverty and Realizing Rural Revitalization in Anhui Province. Second, the construction of long-term mechanism to alleviate rural relative poverty goes hand in hand with green ecological and high-quality development. The poverty relief areas in Anhui Province are endowed with unique resources. Most poverty relief areas in Anhui Province are distributed around the Dabie Mountain Area and the Huaihe River ecological economic belt. The ecological resources in these areas can show their value through the long-term mechanism of relative poverty control. Anhui Province should take the following development path: Green poverty reduction, Ecological poverty alleviation -- Green Ecological assistance -- Green Ecological revitalization. With the introduction of relevant policies on the value of green ecological products, the asset, capitalization and marketization of the value of green ecological resources products in poverty-stricken areas of Anhui Province are gradually realized, so that the value of green ecological resources assets can be well reflected through evaluation, mortgage, transaction, securitization and capitalization. This paper holds that the road of green revitalization should be organically combined with the long- term mechanism of relative poverty governance. Third, bring rural education security into the category of relative poverty governance. Whether it is the poor areas in the past or the areas that have been lifted out of poverty now, such areas have only reached the minimum standard of not dropping out of school in the compulsory stage in terms of basic education. For poverty relief areas, education has always been one of the weakest weaknesses, including the lack of educational resources and teacher talent resources. Rural education security is a key step in building a long-term mechanism for relative poverty governance. The government needs to actively promote the equalization of educational resources in poverty-stricken areas, the fairness of educational resources between urban and rural areas, the flow of talents to areas lacking educational resources, and strengthen investment and preference in compulsory education and vocational education. Fourth, the long-term mechanism of relative poverty governance is built on the poverty alleviation policy and the advanced experience of poverty governance in the past. It mainly includes the establishment of poverty governance system, the basic strategy of targeted poverty alleviation, the establishment of long-term assistance mechanism for low- income population and underdeveloped areas, and so on. For different types of underdeveloped areas, formulate differentiated policies to alleviate relative poverty. The rural areas of Anhui Province are divided into different regions from the perspective of income orientation, low income and economy. Measure different indicators of the whole underdeveloped region from different angles and dimensions, and formulate corresponding policies for the problems and shortcomings shown in the indicators. For example, some regions have low economic development level, low residents' income and preferential key policies. Anhui Province should strengthen dynamic monitoring and assistance for low- income people such as rural minimum living security objects, extremely poor people, marginal families, monitoring objects to prevent poverty return, and families with expenditure difficulties, and establish a mechanism of "farmers' declaration, systematic early warning and grass-roots verification" to find and include them in time. We will improve the mechanism for overall resource planning and classified policy implementation, coordinate policies for minimum living security, assistance and support for rural people in extreme poverty, temporary assistance and social assistance, and carry out assistance at different levels and categories. We will use social policies to support and treat groups in need, reduce polarization and achieve inclusive development. Rural social policies are becoming more and more perfect. In addition to targeted poverty alleviation policies, including rural subsistence allowance policy, rural cooperative medical care policy and rural old-age security policy, they work together to alleviate relative poverty. Acknowledgment This study was funded by Graduate Research and Innovation Fund Project of Anhui University of Finance and Economics (No. ACYC2020240). References [1] Tong Xing, Lin Mingang. Study on the standard line of rural poverty in China [J]. Chinese social sciences, 1994, (3): 86-98. [2] Mao Guangxiong. Rural relative poverty in the process of urbanization of "Southern Jiangsu model" [J]. Population and economy, 2004, (6): 7-36. [3] Sen A. Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement [J]. Econometrica, 1976, 44(2):219-231. [4] World Bank. World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty [M]. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 11 [5] Chen Zongsheng, Shen Yangyang, Zhou Yunbo. 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