Recently, the results of the selection of outstanding alumni of the Open University of China (OUC) were announced, recognising 328 alumni from various industries across the country.

These individuals, with accomplishments as their foundation and technology as their wings, demonstrate resilience, confidence, and a pragmatic, enterprising spirit, writing a unique chapter of progress of the OUC people. From today on, the stories of some alumni will be selected for sharing. By reviewing their outstanding deeds and listening to their life insights, the OUC’s achievements in talent development over the last 45 years are highlighted.

Bayar, a Communist Party member, studied in the Administrative Management major at the China Central Radio and Television University (now known as the Open University of China, OUC) in the spring of 2006.

Currently, he serves as the first secretary in Beinao Village, Shandai Town, Tumote Zuoqi, Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and as the director of the Hasuhai Park Wetland Management Centre. He has won multiple honourary titles, such as the National Advanced Individual in Poverty Alleviation, Inner Mongolia's "Most Beautiful Poverty Alleviation Fighter", and Inner Mongolia's "Most Beautiful Veteran".

In 2014, China began to comprehensively deploy and implement the construction of beautiful villages. In the spring of that year, Bayar volunteered and was selected to serve as the first secretary in Bingzhouhai Village, Tumote Zuoqi.

Focus on "Small Problems" and Improve "Overall Public Well Being"

During his tenure in Bingzhouhai Village, once the former village secretary talked to him about the situation in the village: "It's difficult for the villagers to travel! The Jinshan Avenue has been extended to the southern entrance of Bingzhouhai Village, but the city buses can't reach here." Bayar took the old secretary's words to heart and went to the city the next day to contact the leaders of Hohhot Public Transport Company and stated the difficulties of the local farmers. After several negotiations with the bus company, the bus company decided to extend the bus terminus five kilometers westward, and finally the villagers could take the bus to the city 20-li away!

After the travel problem was solved, Bingzhouhai Village still faced water shortage problems. In 2016, Bingzhouhai Village suffered a severe drought. Due to the continuous decline of the water level over the years and the long-term disrepair of electromechanical wells, groundwater could not be pumped out, and the land beside the railway in the south of the village basically had no harvest.

However, building water conservancy facilities requires funds. Where could the money come from? Facing this problem, Bayar contacted and communicated with several superior departments and applied for development funds for the construction of water conservancy facilities in Bingzhouhai Village. After that, the irrigation channels were repaired and electromechanical wells were equipped, basically realising water-saving irrigation and forming certain water conservancy conditions. As a result, the per-capita income of villagers reached more than 12,000 yuan in 2017.

From 2014 to 2017, Bayar completed his two-term tenure as the first secretary in the village. In April 2018, Bayar took the initiative to apply to the organisation to serve as the first secretary and the head of the poverty alleviation work team in Beinao Village, Shandai Town, Tumote Zuoqi, thus starting his third tenure as the first secretary in the village.

Beinao Village means "a place with water" in Mongolian. However, due to severe soil salinization, it has become a water-scarce place. Starting from April every year, due to insufficient pressure in the water plant and narrow water pipes, the difficulty of drinking water for people and livestock lasts for about five months. After field research and repeated deliberations by Bayar, village-stationed cadres and joint assistance units, they decided to carry out the tap water pipeline upgrading project. On 10 November 2018, clear tap water flowed out of the approximately 10.5-kilometer-long tap water pipeline, solving the "difficulty in getting water" problem in five villages along the line, and tens of thousands of people benefited from it.    

Industry-Driven, Eradicating the "Root of Poverty" in Poor Villages

To help farmer households such as Cui Yinfeng and Chen Yaoting, who became poor due to illness, get out of poverty through breeding, Bayar proposed a plan to introduce social capital to reduce the breeding costs and risks of poor households. He contacted the Volunteer Service Team of the taxi industry in Hohhot, which invested 30,000 yuan to build family farms for Cui Yinfeng and Chen Yaoting. With the help of public welfare organisations, government support and the assistance of the poverty alleviation work team, these two poor households built family farms. In the same year, Cui Yinfeng's breeding income was 15,000 yuan, and Chen Yaoting's breeding income was 5,000 yuan.

In Bayar's view, the key to poverty alleviation lies in industry. If a village has no industry, it is impossible to completely get out of poverty. Under the demonstration of breeders such as Cui Yinfeng and Chen Yaoting, some poor households who were originally unwilling to engage in breeding were motivated. They came to Bayar one after another and proposed to join the family breeding team. Taking this opportunity and leveraging Cui Yinfeng's successful experience, Bayar began to build a love-based poverty alleviation livestock farm. By the end of 2018, all 30 registered poor households in the village had shaken off poverty.

In July 2019, Bayar implemented two projects in the village --- the Simmental cattle fattening project and the mushroom greenhouse planting project to realise the sustainable development of the collective poverty alleviation industry and establish a long-term mechanism for sharing and win-win economic benefits of the village collective economy. In 2020, Bayar obtained more than 900,000 yuan of poverty alleviation funds from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for Beinao Village, which were used for waterlogging drainage and small-scale photovoltaic public welfare projects in Beinao Village, changing the situation of low-lying terrain and flood prevention stress in Beinao Village.

Serve with Heart and Emotion, Always Put the Affairs of the Masses First

Bayar has firmly established himself at the grass-roots level and always regards the concerns, annoyances and heart-wrenching matters of the masses as "his own matters".

In April 2021, Bayar served as the director of the Command and Coordination Centre for Immediate Complaint Handling in Tumote Zuoqi. "Mass satisfaction" has always been the only standard for Bayar to measure whether his work is well-done. In his view, only when there is a response to everything can everything be settled, and then the common people will be satisfied.

Over the past three years, Bayar has led the cadres in the centre, with the assistance of relevant departments, to coordinate and solve nearly 120,000 appeals from the masses in Tumote Zuoqi, such as heating and water supply, housing ownership, property management, city appearance and municipal services, and unpaid wages. He sympathizes, understands, respects and cares about the masses, puts himself in the shoes of the masses, always keeps in a good working state, and timely solves the problems and difficulties for the masses with true feelings.

All along the way, Bayar has been down-to-earth and conscientious, winning unanimous recognition from superiors and the masses. He integrates his ideals into the great trend of realising the Chinese Dream in the new era and lives up to the expectations of the Party and the masses.

By OUC News Network