Three key provinces promote rural revitalization

Banking and insurance regulators in Guizhou, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces guided financial institutions to consolidate their achievements in poverty alleviation and promote rural revitalization through financial services, said regulatory officials.

Li Huatao, head of the Guizhou Office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said the provincial regulator has promoted effective connection of the achievements in poverty alleviation and rural revitalization amid its efforts to increase and improve the supply of financial products and services to key fields of the economy.

As of the end of June, the balance of agro-related loans in Guizhou province reached 1.65 trillion yuan ($238.29 billion), more than five times the figure at the end of 2012. In terms of agriculture insurance, the sum insured was 148.78 billion yuan in the province, 48 times the amount at the end of 2012. Small loans newly granted to the people lifted out of poverty stood at 4.05 billion yuan.

In Guizhou, the balance of project loans granted to 12 competitively distinctive agricultural industries was 92 billion yuan at the end of June, and the insurance coverage provided to these industries was 13.1 billion yuan, said Li at a recent news conference held by the CBIRC.

Similarly, Guangdong province improved and adjusted the structure of its rural financial services system, boosted rural infrastructure construction, and promoted agricultural and rural modernization, said Pei Guang, head of the Guangdong Office of the CBIRC.

As of the end of July, the balance of agro-related loans in Guangdong reached 1.88 trillion yuan, up 57 percent from the end of 2018. The sum insured regarding agriculture insurance was nearly 700 billion yuan between 2012 and 2021. The balance of its infrastructure loans in eastern, western and northern Guangdong reached 315.3 billion yuan, rising nearly 200 percent in the last 10 years.

In addition, the provincial government and a few State-owned financial institutions jointly established an equity fund to revitalize the development of eastern, western and northern Guangdong, leveraging investment totaling more than 120 billion yuan.

Guangdong also conducted pilot programs on different subjects, including a combination of agriculture insurance and futures as well as loss and disaster prevention of agriculture insurance. In terms of agriculture insurance, the average annual growth rate of the sum insured was 80 percent in the province over the last two years, and the major types of insurance exceeded 200, said Pei.

The Jiangsu Office of the CBIRC guided financial institutions to promote integrated urban-rural development. Local banks extended 95.4 billion yuan of credit to support farmhouse renovation projects in northern Jiangsu in the last three years and have so far helped complete renovation of 300,000 farmhouses, said Xiong Tao, head of the provincial banking and insurance regulator.

Banking institutions in the province extended credit worth 26.5 billion yuan to support 397 key agricultural and rural projects in the first half. Major agro-related banking institutions have granted loans for developing 131,333 hectares of high-standard farmland. Currently, the balance of credit for agricultural industrial parks exceeds 15 billion yuan, and 14 national modern agricultural industrial parks have been built in the province, Xiong said.

The provincial regulator further promoted the development of pig farming, guiding banking institutions to carry out innovation pilot programs on live pig loans and a combination of live pig insurance and futures.

It also promoted banks to offer collateral-free and interest-free loans worth up to 50,000 yuan per borrower over a maximum period of three years to the low-income rural residents who meet regulatory requirements.

As of the end of June, banks in Jiangsu extended small loans for people lifted out of poverty to 137,000 low-income households, and the balance of such loans amounted to 4.9 billion yuan, he said.