By Justin Zhang

A growing number of minority rural women in Xinjiang’s Hetan and Kashi left their impoverished hometowns to work in the coastal areas such as Tianjin and Hangzhou this year. The journey helped them learn working skills, enrich their knowledge, and more importantly, boost their confidence in the pursuit of a better life.

In recent years, governments at all levels in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have attached greater importance to channeling excessive rural labor force to various places across the country. Economically, the move helped the villagers fatten their wallets and increase the coffer of local governments. More importantly, it was conducive to enhancing the overall quality and competitiveness of these migrant workers, who had gradually developed a modern mindset through their work in urban cities.

This is a good trend, which well reflects a change in the approach of the economic advancement. In the past, overwhelming priorities were given to the economic development of the urban areas. But now striking a balance between rural and urban areas has become a major pursuit of policy-makers. Outflow of excessive rural labor to urban areas is exactly one of the ways to realize a rural-urban balance.

Working and living in developed cities offers a golden opportunity for these farmer-turned workers to increase their exposure to advanced technologies and modern lifestyle. The experience also helps a group of them - those who are relatively better educated - obtain their first bucket of gold and foster a business savvy, which can play a big role when they begin investing back in their rural hometowns.

This is the essence of how labor outflow benefits the development of human resources in rural areas.