ZHU Youkui is deputy director of a local government training center for officials of Guang Xi, a poverty stricken area; he is also a coordinator at the government micro-credit office where he designs programs to help alleviate the poverty of rural farmers. The training programs that he designs and implements for officials at the county and township levels aim to foster project-development skills (project identification, design and implementation) that take into account poverty reduction and sustainable development in poor communities.

He received training in project formulation by EDI in 1992, and attended a business administration workshop at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1994.