Internet firms contribute to poverty relief

By Guo Yiming
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, December 05, 2017
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Internet tycoons reiterated their commitment to shouldering social responsibility in the ongoing drive to lift another 70 million people out of poverty, during multiple forums at the ongoing 4th World Internet Conference from Dec. 3 to 5.


Yao Jinbo, CEO of 58.com [Photo provided to China.org.cn]


Yao Jinbo, driving force behind 58.com, the country's classified online marketplace, said his company had been pushing for targeted poverty alleviation through providing information, job recruitment services and vocational training to unskilled rural residents.


The company, known as "China's Craigslist," has a business feature called "58 home" that is a multi-category local service platform providing online information and access to high-quality offline services such as cleaning, moving, babysitting and beauty care. 


It is currently available in more than 40 Chinese cities and has almost a million certified workers in its housekeeping service sector alone.


Chen Xiaohua, CEO of 58 Home, said: "Many non-skilled rural workers, who cannot even speak fluent mandarin, don't know how to get around the city through public transportation and master the fine points of social etiquette. Our job is to train them to be skilled in at least one field and get hired in a reasonable position."


After training, an ordinary blue-collar cleaner in Puyang, Henan Province, can become a skilled maternity matron (woman responsible for taking care of mothers and newborn babies) with a monthly salary of 18,000 yuan (US$2,720.3) in Shanghai. This compares to a salary of about 5,000 yuan for a human resource manager in a third-tier city like Hefei, Chen said, adding: "That's amazing."


So far, 58 Home has founded 16 training bases across the country, providing knowhow in general housekeeping services for would-be migrant workers. In Puyang alone, the company has trained over 6,000 rural workers since April this year. 

Liu Qiangdong, founder and CEO of JD.com [Photo/Chinanews.com]


Liu Qiangdong, founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, said one of the key reasons for rural poverty was bad transportation and backward logistics, which blocks agricultural products from massive commercial use in big cities.


Besides a huge logistics network nationwide, JD.com is also developing the latest drone logistical technology that can partly replace and complement land shipment of agricultural goods, thus greatly cutting transportation costs.


Last year, the company signed a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement on Precision Poverty Alleviation through E-commerce" with the State Council's Office of Poverty Alleviation to help the cause through production, entrepreneurship, and employment.


According to a People's Daily report last August, more than 100,000 impoverished households have benefited from the project.


Poverty alleviation has always been a focus of JD.com ever since the company's founding almost 10 years ago, Liu said. He vowed continuous efforts in the poverty alleviation campaign and hard work toward the goal of common prosperity.


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