Pingnan promotes microcredit finance to reduce poverty

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-04-08

Pingnan is promoting a microcredit finance scheme to reduce poverty, and its efforts are helping poor farmers increase their average revenues by 3,000 yuan ($483), Ningde Net reported on March 6.

The Pingnan Association for Microcredit Loans - which was established by Pingnan's government in December, 2007 - was the first rural financial service platform in Fujian province. The Association helps farmers to apply to banks for loans under 100,000 yuan and provides guarantees for the loan. The total loan amount has so far reached 7.3 million yuan.

Since the beginning of this year, the association has developed a new loan model- the specialized farmers’ cooperatives can use their own deposits to apply for mortgage loans 10 times that of the deposit. The rate is 2 percentage points lower than average interest rates.

"We have successfully allocated 3 million yuan with the help of specialized farmers' cooperatives," said He Yunhui, who was the head of mushroom growers' specialized farmers' cooperatives. Their new project is now construction, thanks to the new loan model.

The association has helped approve 7,600 applications for secured loans of 17.3 million yuan, and increased the household revenues of poor families by 3,000 yuan on average.

By Peng Juan from China Daily Fujian Bureau

Edited by Wang Yifei and Brian Anthony Salter