By Liang Xiaomin & Long Haibo, Center for International Knowledge on Development

Research Report, No.313, 2021 (Total 6378) 2021-10-27

Abstract: The labor export industry in Guyuan County has gone through three stages, including passive dispatching the working poor, gradual increase in their motivation to work, and endogenous development of the labor export industry, which comprehensively displays China’s poverty reduction experience from external intervention to endogenous development. In the first stage, the government seized the opportunities brought by the development of the national labor market and adopted nanny-style services to provide direct support for migrant workers. In the second stage, under the Fujian Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region cooperation mechanism, the two governments carried out extensive labor service collaboration, and the enthusiasm of various market entities continued to surge. In the third stage, the government gradually withdrew from the labor export market, and the industry achieved endogenous development. The practice of labor export in Guyuan County shows that external intervention is a necessary means to get rid of poverty in resource-poor areas, but the government needs to adjust its role constantly to adapt to the changed conditions. Effective integration of policies is helpful to transform external resources into sustainable development drivers. Industrial development needs to be based on local reality to truly achieve synergy between external intervention and independent development.

Keywords: external intervention, endogenous development, poverty elimination, labor service export, Guyuan County