Microcredit program aids post-quake reconstruction in Sichuan

By Zhang Shining and Huang Zhiling (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-05 13:58

After his house was built, Li helped other villagers affected by the quake to rebuild new houses earning at least 100 yuan a day. "I am optimistic in life," he said.

The initiative, designed to replicate the famous Grameen Bank program which has been practiced in Bangladesh for over 30 years and has released about 5 million Bangladeshi people from poverty, is popular because it is easy to apply for loans there.

"One does not need anything as mortgage. He or she only needs to find a warrantor. After one files the application, he or she can get the loan between three and seven days," said Li Jiaying, a customer manager of the Mianzhu Branch Office of CFPA Microfinance Management Co Ltd.

"Another reason is the interest cost for borrowing a loan is only 8 percent," she said.

Li, 33, is a farmer in Qinjiakan Village in Zundao Town, Mianzhu. When she learned last December that the Mianzhu Branch Office of CFPA Microfinance Management Co Ltd. would recruit customer mangers, she entered her name for the recruitment.

Since the initiative was launched in March, Li has helped 188 farmers borrow loans surpassing 3 million yuan.

Because each loan involves a relatively small sum ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 yuan and customer mangers of the Mianzhu Branch Office of CFPA Microfinance Management Co Ltd. are locals who are familiar with loan borrowers, Liu believes that 100 percent of the loans will be repaid by borrowers.

He said that the initiative will be implemented in other quake-hit regions in Sichuan.

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