Huzhou has been playing an active role in poverty relief in Keping county, Aksu prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The city has since 2010 been paired with Keping under the East-West program for poverty relief that was launched by the central government.

To date, the city has allocated a total of 800 million yuan ($123.07 million) to support Keping and sent 189 cadres and professionals to help the county develop sectors such as medical care, education and agriculture.

Efforts have been also made to help with the sales of Keping's agricultural products in Huzhou.

One such example is Zhejiang Maibafu Agricultural Products Co Ltd from the city, which is dedicated to the sales of Xinjiang agricultural products. In the past six months, the company's sales volume on an online platform to sell agricultural and other products have surpassed 20 million yuan.

In addition, nearly 300 canteens from government departments and enterprises have become buyers of Xinjiang's fruits, vegetables and raw poultry.

Meanwhile, the city has also initiated a program to help farmers in Keping raise sheep native to Huzhou. Last year, a total of 3,000 sheep from the city were transported to the Xinjiang county.