Sichuan Yingshan: People's Livelihood Follows Public Voice, Practical Matters Touch Hearts

In recent years, Yingshan County in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, has consistently adhered to the principle of "coming from the people, going to the masses, and satisfying the public" in its people's livelihood projects. The county has actively established a working mechanism for improving people's livelihoods, led by the Party committee, dominated by the People's Congress, implemented by the government, and participated in by the public. This has significantly enhanced the sense of gain, happiness, and security among the people.

Project Initiation: Gathering Public Wisdom

In recent years, the western urban area of Yingshan has expanded rapidly, with a variety of businesses and complete supporting facilities such as schools and supermarkets. Residential complexes like Phoenix New City and Luhu Palace have seen a continuous increase in occupancy rates. However, the infrastructure construction of municipal idle plots has not kept pace with the development of the western urban area.

"The idle land is overgrown with weeds, the pedestrian paths are not paved, and some streets are pitch - black at night," said Ms. Tang, a resident of Phoenix New City. In November 2023, Liu Yan, the director of the People's Congress Working Committee of Langchi Subdistrict, collected this feedback during a visit to local residents. Subsequently, he conducted a site visit with relevant personnel and found that the situation was indeed as the public had described, with a strong demand for improvement.

The earnest expectations of the people are the driving force for the work of the People's Congress representatives. During the information collection for the people's livelihood projects, Liu Yan suggested including this feedback in the information collection database. In 2024, at the Fourth Session of the 18th People's Congress of Yingshan County, the renovation project mentioned in the feedback was successfully passed by a vote.

Recently, the author revisited the western urban area and saw that the previously idle plots had been tidied up, planted with trees or turf, and the pedestrian paths had been paved. The area now complements the nearby Xinglong Lake Park and has become a beautiful landscape in the western urban area.

According to Yi Wenjun, the director of the Representative Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yingshan County, since the implementation of the people's livelihood project voting system, every October, the county government widely collects project suggestions from all sectors of society. The collected projects are sorted and selected to form a project database. After evaluation and screening, preliminary projects are selected and submitted to the Standing Committee of the People's Congress for consultation. They are then submitted to the county Party committee for review to determine the candidate projects. These candidate projects are submitted to the People's Congress for differential voting to determine the formal implementation projects. The implementation of the projects is subject to supervision and satisfaction assessment by the People's Congress representatives and the public.

"Including public - welfare and inclusive projects in the voting system truly realizes the transformation from 'doing things for the people' to 'letting the people decide,'" Yi Wenjun explained. By promoting democracy and gathering public wisdom, the system not only focuses on major livelihood projects but also addresses small, urgent, and difficult issues in people's daily lives. The entire process involves democratic consultation, decision - making, management, and supervision, ensuring that good deeds are well - done and practical matters are effectively implemented.

Departmental Coordination: Solving Back - End Worries

On January 17th, after a busy day at work at Taile Cable (Sichuan) Co., Ltd. in the Yingshan Economic Development Zone (EDZ), Kan Xueming stopped by the Mini Service Area in the EDZ (also known as the "Entrepreneurship Station") to buy some daily necessities. He then had dinner at the Yingshan Hexuan Double - Innovation Base Catering Service Center located in the "Double - Creation" Base and rested in the county's guaranteed rental housing upstairs.

According to staff from the Yingshan County Housing Administration, the county's guaranteed rental housing project is a people's livelihood project selected through the People's Congress voting system in 2024. It effectively addresses the housing issues of young people, new citizens, and especially employees in the Yingshan EDZ. Last year, 600 units of guaranteed rental housing were renovated in Yingshan, all of which have now met the standards for occupancy.

Accompanied by the county housing administration staff, the author visited the guaranteed rental housing. The staff introduced that the rooms, about 40 square meters in size, can accommodate one or more people and are equipped with water heaters and lighting facilities. The author randomly entered a room and saw that it was fully furnished, exuding a sense of "home."

"Most guaranteed rental housing is rented to enterprise employees at low prices, reducing the housing burden on those in need and helping enterprises retain talent," said the county housing administration staff. "As a systematic project, we have now built more than 2,000 units of guaranteed rental housing in various urban areas, providing housing security for more than 3,000 workers in Yingshan."

After solving the workers' housing problems, the Yingshan EDZ Management Committee took the initiative to provide "support services" by attracting Sichuan Hexuan Property Management Service Co., Ltd. to set up a catering service center in the "Double - Creation" Base to address the daily meals of the workers.

"Breakfast costs 5 yuan, and lunch and dinner each cost 8 yuan. The meals are balanced with meat and vegetables and include soup. The menu changes daily to ensure that workers are not only fed but also well - nourished," said Wei Guiqing, head of the Yingshan Hexuan Double - Innovation Base Catering Service Center. The number of people dining at the center is generally stable at around 130 per day. "As a company under Yingshan Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., we focus on public welfare and service. After covering costs and expenses, there is almost no profit."

"The representatives also included the construction of the Yingshan EDZ Mini Service Area in the voting system to provide convenient living services for employees in the park," said a relevant person in charge of the Yingshan EDZ. The construction of the Mini Service Area includes three mini - supermarkets and public restrooms, located at the entrances of densely - packed factories. The goods sold are mostly daily necessities.

"The factory is far from the city's supermarkets, making shopping inconvenient. Now, with the Entrepreneurship Station, we can buy goods on our way to and from work without having to go to the urban area," said Kan Xueming.

"We also coordinated with the county transportation management bureau to launch a bus service in the park, solving the travel difficulties of employees in the EDZ and completely eliminating their worries about work and life," said a relevant person in charge of the Yingshan EDZ Management Committee.

Putting in Efforts to Handle Practical Matters for People's Livelihood

"The road used to be full of potholes and dust, and I didn't dare to open the car windows. Now, the road is wider, the slopes are gentler, and driving is safer," said Li Minghua, a resident of Longgu Community in Anhua Township, who has long been engaged in the transportation industry, while driving on the rural road from Xindian Town to Anhua Township.

The rural road from Xindian Town to Anhua Township in Yingshan County is nearly 10 kilometers long and was built in the 1950s. Although it has been paved, it has many bends, is narrow and steep, and due to its long service life, the road surface is severely damaged, with poor traffic conditions and safety hazards.

To address this, Xindian Town and Anhua Township organized county and township People's Congress representatives to collect opinions from the public on multiple occasions and jointly requested that the project be included in the 2023 annual candidate projects for people's livelihood projects voted on by the People's Congress representatives. After rigorous screening and repeated论证, and a vote at the Second Session of the 18th People's Congress of Yingshan County, the project was finally determined to be a county - level people's livelihood project voted on by the People's Congress representatives in 2023.

After the project started, the supervision group for county - level people's livelihood projects voted on by the People's Congress representatives regularly visited the project site to conduct supervision and guidance, solve problems, and urge construction. "We implement a monthly supervision and quarterly reporting system to ensure the quality of the project and construction progress," said Xie Hui, the director of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yingshan County and the head of the supervision group. The supervision group fully mobilized local residents to participate in quality supervision through methods such as "counting bags," "pulling ropes," and "measuring with rulers," while actively coordinating to solve problems in the project to ensure its smooth progress.

After several months of hard work, the rural road from Xindian Town to Anhua Township - the Yingshan County Y333 Fresh Fish Stone to Tianchi Xindian Town to Liaoye Town Happy and Beautiful Rural Road Construction Project - was successfully completed.

The project has a wide range of public participation, a large beneficiary base, good social benefits, and a good reputation. It is a typical, representative, and exemplary high - quality project. In the collection of "100 Excellent Cases" of people's livelihood projects voted on by county and township People's Congress representatives by the Office of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, the project stood out and was included in the "Compilation of Typical Cases of Work by People's Congress Representatives in Sichuan Province" in May 2024.

To carry out the work of people's livelihood projects voted on by the People's Congress representatives, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yingshan County has made great efforts. It promptly established a working group led by the vice - chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress, which visited counties (cities, districts) both within and outside the province to learn from their experiences. The group also collected a large amount of first - hand public opinion data from the grassroots level. A "work roadmap" was drawn up, dividing the work into five stages and focusing on ten key links. A package of plans and policies was introduced to clarify the work ideas and tasks. Mobilization and training meetings were held in a timely manner to empower the voting system accurately. A supervision group for county - level people's livelihood projects voted on by the People's Congress representatives was established to safeguard the implementation of the projects.

In accordance with the principles of necessity, feasibility, public welfare, inclusiveness, urgency, maturity, and selecting the best among good projects, the entire process of people's democracy is practiced. Since 2022, Yingshan County has implemented 15 people's livelihood projects voted on by the People's Congress representatives, with a public satisfaction rate of 100%.

Author: Guo Ming