Dianbai, Maonan and Jinxiu Build Industry and Services in Yao Villages

What changed

A ten-year assistance partnership between Guangdong’s Dianbai and Maonan districts and Guangxi’s Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County has moved from basic support toward industry, training, jobs, education, healthcare and tourism. Since 2017, the programme has invested ¥452 million in fiscal assistance across 144 projects; Dianbai joined Maonan in joint support in 2021.

Why it matters

The clearest change is that Jinxiu is building systems around what it already has: medicinal herbs and high-mountain tea. The medicinal-herb sector now covers 210,000 mu, with 21 industrial-chain companies and more than 500 business operators involved. The partnership has helped connect planting to processing, research, healthcare and tourism, while enterprises from eastern China have invested more than ¥10 billion in Jinxiu over the decade.

That matters because support is becoming less about delivering projects and more about creating ways for money and skills to circulate locally. The programme reports more than 50,000 rural-worker job placements, including more than 20,000 for people lifted out of poverty. Training for roles such as healthcare tourism and Cantonese cuisine has allowed some residents to work closer to home, while sales channels have taken Jinxiu products to trade fairs and online buyers. Agricultural-product sales have exceeded ¥450 million, and three consumer-support outlets report annual sales of about ¥7 million.

The same shift appears in public services. Jinxiu’s Tongmu Middle School is an AI-education pilot with smart classrooms, recorded lessons and an innovation lab. Medical staff have also moved between the two areas for support and training. Tourism promotion has brought more visitors to the Yao villages, with local businesses reporting stronger Guangdong demand and fuller peak seasons.

My reading is that the partnership’s real test begins now. The next phase is supposed to strengthen the medicinal-herb chain, ordered vocational training, Greater Bay Area tourism and sales networks. Those priorities make sense if the reported gains are to last, but the account offers no independent comparison, profitability data or household-income breakdown. The headline achievement is therefore not a finished transformation; it is an attempt to make cooperation generate its own momentum.