Thousands of grassroots "micro projects" have been completed throughout Zhuhai at the request of residents and even more will be taken care of next year, Li Xiaodong, deputy director of the Civil Affairs Bureau, announced at a Dec 22 press conference.

Li reported that 6,865 issues costing 396 million yuan ($62 million) had been approved by local governments since February. Among them, 1,809 are related to engineering, 3,279 for goods, and the rest for services. Requests for additional parking spaces and installing elevators in old neighborhoods are typical among the 6,111 that have been fulfilled.

A fund of 330 million yuan ($52 million) has been dedicated, including 169 million yuan ($27 million) at the municipal level and 161 million yuan ($25 million) from districts. As of this month, 312 million yuan ($49 million), 94.5 percent of the total, was distributed by districts to timely solve "trivial, urgent, and difficult things" concerning the community.

Li said Zhuhai residents now have a greater sense of hope, happiness, and security with active grassroots involvement on livelihood issues. The project was given Number 1 priority among the Top 10 Livelihood Projects for 2021 in early February.

Li Xiaodong, center, at press conference [Photo courtesy Zhuhai Daily]

"All residents, including islanders and those from Hong Kong and Macao, are eligible to participate in the project, especially elders living alone, children in need, women living in rural areas, the disabled, and immigrant workers," Li said. 

They can submit proposals for engineering projects with a budget of up to 500,000 yuan ($78,490) and needs for services and goods of up to 200,000 yuan ($31,400) to village (community) and town (sub-district) governments for approval.

Grassroots livelihood improvements will become a long-term project. The budget will reach 350 million yuan ($55 million) in 2022 and 50 percent of it will be municipal funds, the Finance Bureau announced during the press conference.

Companies, charity organizations, community funds, and outstanding individuals are encouraged to join the project. Social capital of 8.8 million yuan ($1.4 million) has already been raised. 

As for 7,639 issues currently unresolved, all were delegated to relevant government departments. The satisfaction rate was 95.7 percent for 4,591 issues taken care of by mid-December. 

Zhuhai also carried out door-to-door promotion of the project to 555,000 households, accounting for 90 percent of the city's total. Overall satisfaction reached 94.9 percent according to an online questionnaire survey by the Statistics Bureau. In addition, experiences of 31 outstanding projects from a competition will be promoted citywide.