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Creating better lives sale by sale

By Song Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-11-10 10:53

Tao Yan, a villager in Yangzhong, Jiangsu province, received unexpected visitors at 10 am on Saturday an hour after he arrived home from Shenzhen, a booming southern city. His wife was busy cooking a big brunch for him in the kitchen.

The appetizing smells from his kitchen in his three-storey building attracted a group of young people coming from different parts of the country there exploring China's new countryside.

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The 42-year-old is a salesperson at his village-funded electrical equipment company, now called Huapeng group, which recorded more than 1 billion yuan ($146 million) in sales revenue and 110 million yuan in profits last year.

Tao exchanged his farming implements for a sales job when Huapeng Group was established in 1985. "I've spent most of my time in Shenzhen since 1989 to do sales promotion and seldom come back home," said Tao.

"It is rare to have him dinner at home," said his wife with a big smile on her face while cooking.

"It is common for men here to go out selling electrical products in big cities all over the country. They are among the first group of people in Yangzhong who become rich after China adopted the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s," said Zhu Xiaoyang, a local official.

In 1997, Tao earned enough for him and his wife to buy a new house, which cost him 1.3 million yuan. And he bought a Toshiba 54-inch TV set from Nanjing at the price of 40,000 yuan at that time.

"I am not the richest farmer in my village, maybe among the medium and top income earners, but I am very satisfied with my current situation,“ said Tao.

"Yangzhong's economic development is heavily dependent on farmers-turned-salesmen like Tao, especially in the earlier years of reforms," said Zhu, adding that "almost one-third of staff in Yangzhong-based companies are salespersons who have walked past mountains and rivers, and brought their products to thousands of families all over China."

Yangzhong, a county-level city in Jiangsu province, is the second biggest island in the Yangtze River Delta covering an area of 332 square kilometers and has a population of 300,000. At present, Yangzhong is only a 1.5 hours' drive to Nanjing Lukou International Airport and 2.5 hours' drive to Shanghai Pudong International airport.

The area didn't have much natural resources and its geographical location means lots of heavy rain and fog. Local residents lived off the land here, passed down through generations until the 1980s when township enterprises, mostly in the electrical sector, mushroomed in Yangzhong. This led to accelerated industrialization and urbanization, with richer residents and local governments built bridges and roads with the cooperation of enterprises from then on.

The island gets a 20 percent share in China's medium and low voltage electrical equipment market, which contributes nearly 60 percent to its gross domestic product (GDP).

Yangzhong's GDP is expected to reach 17 billion yuan this year compared to 108 million yuan in 1978. The figures show Yangzhong's economy will have grown 156 times, with an average annual growth rate of 18.4 percent between 1978 and 2008, said Ling Su, party chief of the island on Saturday.

The disposable income for urban citizens in Yangzhong is expected to exceed 20,000 yuan this year and that for rural residents will top 10,000 yuan. "This indicates Yangzhong will meet the target China has set for its farmers' income 12 years in advance," said Ling.

The news is encouraging, and more farmers in Yangzhong will follow Tao's lifestyle, moving into new houses and living a fairly comfortable life.

Last month, China set a target of doubling the per capita net income of farmers at this year's level by 2020. That means, through 12 years of development, the average disposable income of farmers will amount to 10,000 yuan by 2020, not including inflation-induced increments.