Xizang villagers see incomes, opportunities rise

Ngawang Lhamo, 27, and her sister-in-law sell homegrown fruits and homemade accessories on a market stall near a scenic area. Her brother, meanwhile, has opened a small company that offers excavator driving services for construction sites.

The family, including their parents, has an annual income of about 700,000 yuan ($108,220), nearly 70 percent of which comes from the village's year-end bonus.

Ngawang Lhamo is one of 476 villagers in 101 households at Drakyi village in Nyingchi, Xizang autonomous region.

The village committee has made great efforts in recent years to help its villagers become rich via innovative investment projects. In 2019, the village's total economic income reached 21.06 million yuan.

"We're having a better-off life and all households have built new houses. Although the village's dividends are sufficient to maintain our life, all villagers are hard-working and have a job, including self-employment," she said.

The villagers become shareholders by transferring use rights of collectively owned land to companies that provide funds, which helps them co-establish new corporations and projects such as a building materials market that offers a village year-end bonus of 4.5 million yuan.

"Villagers receive annual dividends per capita from collectively owned land rent and revenues of the newly established companies," the village's Party secretary Zhou Hao said.

He said these new companies offer villagers stable job opportunities. Also, when a new project starts development, villagers can undertake construction work to earn money.

The village also provides a 100,000 yuan fund for university graduates who want to start their own business.

In July 2019, the village and a company co-invested in a center of warehousing and logistics. Zhou's ambitions include making the village a busy logistics transfer hub to store and transport all kinds of goods, mainly within Xizang.

"The real economy plays an important role in boosting rural revitalization. The village committee has been working hard to lead villagers to become rich, and they are more willing to trust us when they see the great achievements," he said.

He said the boom of tourism in Nyingchi has also increased the locals' incomes. During the eight-month peak tourist season, a woman in the village staying at home earns an average 15,000 to 20,000 yuan per month.