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从农村金融的角度研究如何加强我国农村减贫工作-指导essay INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
SHANGHAI POVERTY CONFERENCE – SCALING UP POVERTY REDUCTION
CASE STUDY
IFAD’S ASSISTANCE TO THE RURAL FINANCE SECTOR REFORM
IN CHINA
Date of submission: March 2004
Region: Asia and the Pacific
Country: China
Type: Country case
Authors:
Erik Martens, Officer-in-Charge, Asia and the Pacific Division, IFAD;
Thomas Rath, Country Programme Manager, IFAD;
Aira Maria Htenas, Consultant, IFAD
Contact details:
IFAD, 107 via del Serafico, 00142 Rome, Italy. Tel.: +39 06 54592327. E-mail: [email protected]
Scaling Up Poverty Reduction Analytical Case Study
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY iii
I. IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS 1
II. IMPACT ANALYSIS 3
III. DRIVING FACTORS 5
Commitment and Political Economy for Change 5
Institutional Innovation 6
Learning and Experimentation 7
External Catalysts 8
IV. LESSONS LEARNED 8
REFERENCES 9
Scaling Up Poverty Reduction Analytical Case Study
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
在中国，正式的农村金融农业是由中国农业银行，农村发展银行和农村信用社（农村信用社）提高。Formal rural finance in China is provided by the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), theAgricultural Development Bank and the Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs). The RCCs were established in the 1950s as legally independent cooperatives. They were set up at the township level,but their presence in villages through branches or representative offices renders them the financial institution with the widest outreach among rural populations. http://www.ukassignment.org/dxessay/
Their independent nature, however, has not been realized and, with some interruptions, they were integrated in the ABC and acted as its branches. The ABC also determined the operating modalities, and, notably, a high deposit-reserve requirement severely curtailed the profitability of the RCCs. With the separation of the ABC from the RCCs in 1996, the latter were brought under the oversight of the People’s Bank of China (PBC). The newly established China Banking Regulatory
Commission (CBRC) has played this role since 2003.
In 1996, after the decision of the Government of China to reform the rural finance sector,IFAD proceeded to identify and use RCCs to provide credit and other financial services to the rural poor. Whereas the PBC has welcomed the initiative, local governments have been less enthusiastic partially due to concerns over the insolvency risk and poor governance structure of the RCCs. Since 1996, IFAD has been mainstreaming financial services within the financial system of China and involving RCCs in the delivery of financial services for IFAD-funded projects. Following the early experiences of IFAD and a group-lending experience of the Desjardins
International Development Society, a pilot microlending scheme was undertaken by PBC in 1999 using RCCs as microfinance institutions. Combining these experiences and lessons learned from IFAD projects, the PBC formulated policy guidelines for microlending by RCCs and issued a revised set of guidelines in December 2001.
The experience with RCCs and the longstanding dialogue with the PBC have resulted in the preparation of a Rural Finance Sector Programme (RFSP) financed through an IFAD loan of about USD 15 million. The RFSP will be part of the ongoing RCC reform process. It will provide support opportunities for the introduction of good practices in microfinance, with a special focus on the rural poor.
实施过程 I. IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
1. Based on earlier experiences and a joint poverty mapping undertaken with the World Food Programme (WFP), IFAD prepared a new country strategy during 1998. This was approved in February 1999. Under this strategy, two projects have been approved and are being implemented in the Qinling mountains and West Guangxi areas, respectively. Appraisal of a third project, in Ningxia and Shanxi provinces, has been completed. A key aspect of all joint IFAD/WFP-funded projects in China is credit delivery to poor households, supplemented by advisory support services and social development.
2.财政援助相结合的互补性，农发基金和粮食计划署的任务和粮食援助，加强了宣传这两个组织的农村贫困人口，和联合运营为贫困者提供一个更可持续的发展方式。 The complementary nature of the IFAD and WFP mandates in combining financial assistance and food aid reinforces the outreach of the two organizations to the rural poor, and the joint operation provides a more sustainable development approach to the poorest beneficiaries.
3. WFP food-for-training and food-for-work programmes provide for meeting the food gap among the hungry poor and building the productive capacity and increasing the creditworthiness of the hungry poor. IFAD loan funds help improve the operational capacity of extension services and the rehabilitation of rural infrastructure and health and education facilities. Farmers can use credit for income-generating activities and build up assets for further development, thus enabling them to meet essential needs and to graduate from the status of beneficiaries to that of creditworthy clients.
4. Three official financial services institutions operate in rural China, namely, the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the Agricultural Development Bank of China and the Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs). Non-official organizations and entities include Rural Credit Foundations, Mutual Savings Associations, the informal sector generally and microcredit projects that have been developed recently and aim at poverty relief.
5. It is a longstanding issue of IFAD/WFP-funded projects that they should enable existing financial intermediaries to deliver credit and other financial services to the target group. Up until 1996, however, the existing financial institutions were not included in the project design and implementation. The projects designed before 1996 under previous country strategies channeled credit through project management offices (PMOs), while the financial offices at the township level were
responsible for credit delivery.
6. From the purely credit disbursement perspective, the PMO model appears efficient where it has been implemented. It is endowed with relatively good geographical coverage compared to the RCC operations and is effective in targeting the poorer rural households. As a model, however, it is a short-term measure and is not empowered to deliver sustainable financial services after project completion. Two important weaknesses manifested themselves during project implementation: (a) the
inability to mobilize savings and recycle them through investment, and (b) the inability to eliminate a potential moral hazard, since borrowers may perceive that loans from government departments can simply be written off.
7. Gradually, project designs have been shifted so that projects are no longer entirely supply driven, whereby government offices decide on credit delivery and funds are allocated without due consideration of parameters such as loan appraisal, or repayment capacity and client credit history, but instead seek to use local financial service institutions, the RCCs. In fact, since 1996, when the Government of China decided that the RCCs would become the primary rural financial institution at
the township level, IFAD/WFP-funded projects have retreated from the unsustainable financial services delivered by PMOs.
8. The RCCs were established in the 1950s as legally independent cooperatives. Although they were created at the township level, their presence in villages through branch offices or representatives means that, of all financial institutions, they have the widest outreach among rural populations.
Scaling Up Poverty Reduction Analytical Case Study
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Despite their legal structure as independent entities, however, the RCCs were absorbed by the ABC and assumed the role of branches for it.
9. In 1996, the RCCs were separated from the ABC and found themselves in a national oversight and policy-making vacuum. They were first brought under the oversight of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and, specifically, of the Rural Finance Reform Office and the Department of Cooperative Finance. In 2003, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) took over this role. By the end of 2001, over 40 500 RCCs were in operation, with CNY 1 200 billion in loans outstanding (11% of the total banking sector) and CNY 1 700 billion in deposits (12% of the total).
Lending to township and village enterprises constitutes about half of all the loans outstanding, while household lending amounts to about a quarter, and private loans and loans to household enterprises account for the remainder.
10. Since the mid-1990s, RCC Unions (RCCUs) with status as legal persons have also been established at the county level. Township level RCCs are members of the county-level RCCU, which provides clearing house facilities, plans and supports staff training for member RCCs and carries out inspections and annual audits of member RCCs.#p#分页标题#e#
11. The use of RCCs as a credit-delivery mechanism in IFAD projects has been growing, though a number of issues have been encountered: (a) The PMOs regarded RCCs as weak and risky in terms of the recovery of the IFAD project resources provided to them. (b) The PMOs were very reluctant to transfer responsibilities to RCCs, as they were afraid of losing control. (c) 农村信用社没有得到一个独立的银行的自主权，因为他们大多提出给他们的客户服务PMOS，从而增加自己的风险。The RCCs were not given the autonomy of an independent bank as they mostly served clients that were proposed to them by the
PMOs, thus increasing their own risk. (d) The aggregate of the transaction commissions and charges at the provincial, prefecture and county levels rendered IFAD funds unattractive to and expensive for the RCCs up to the end of 2001, when the Ministry of Finance decided to extend IFAD loan funds to the province level at concessional terms.
12. In 2000, the IFAD Office of Evaluation and Studies undertook a thematic study on rural finance that assessed both project managed credit (through PMOs and the Finance Bureaux) and RCC operations. The conclusions of the study were discussed at a meeting among the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, the PBC and IFAD, at which the recommendation was adopted that RCCs would be the main channels for the disbursement of IFAD funds allocated as credit and that IFAD would support the Government in restructuring the RCCs so as to render them cost effective and sustainable instruments, thereby emphasizing their potential in poverty alleviation.
13. Subsequently, the Rural Finance Sector Programme (RFSP) was developed by IFAD in close collaboration with the PBC, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture. The RFSP proposal was prepared during 2002 for further consideration by the Ministry of Finance and the PBC.
14. Two major considerations form the rationale for the RFSP: (a) 农村信用社构成了非常重要的在农村地区和拥有最广泛的网络和推广能力的金融服务供应商，通过信贷人员谁
提供服务。The RCCs constitute very important suppliers of financial services in rural areas and possess the most extensive network and outreach capacity through credit officers who provide services at the farmgate. Previous operations and present policies, however, have jeopardized the sustainability of the RCCs. The Government is therefore considering the development and implementation of a policy reform programme for the RCCs, and some reforms are already being tested at a pilot scale. (b) IFAD’s 2000 thematic study on rural finance confirmed the Fund’s strategy to provide loans to rural poor through the RCCs. It also recognized that policy changes were needed so that the RCCs could play an important role in future IFAD projects.
15. Within the framework of the rural finance reform process guided by the CBRC since 2003, the RFSP aims to support the Government in redefining the policies of RCCs and taking into account their impact on both poverty reduction and institutional sustainability. It also aims to demonstrate the usefulness of microfinance for poverty reduction. In supporting policy reform, the RFSP will focus on lending policies that allow increased access among the rural poor to RCC lending and on institutional and operational policies that will enhance the efficiency of the cooperative banking system. Hence, it will contribute to the financial sustainability of these institutions.
16. The RFSP thus follows up on the strategy to foster policy dialogue as proposed under IFAD’s country strategy document of 1999 and is in line with a strategic objective of IFAD, namely, to enable the rural poor to overcome their poverty by increasing their access to financial services and markets.
The RFSP will also enhance IFAD’s catalytic impact by “helping to establish institutional and policy frameworks in support of the poor”. Moreover, it represents the realization of aspects of IFAD’s strategy for Asia and the Pacific region, which announced a shift in emphasis towards projects and programmes that have the strategic potential to influence policies.
17. The goal of the RFSP is to render rural financial services capable of contributing effectively and in a sustainable manner to poverty reduction. The specific objectives of the RFSP are to ensure that:
(a) rural households, including the poor, have better access to financial services and effectively make use of them to improve their living standards;
(b) RCC policy reforms have been successfully tested and are implemented in ongoing IFAD/WFP-funded projects, as well as in future interventions;
(c) improved institutional and operational management capacities in RFSP RCCs are applied on a larger scale and help enhance cost effectiveness and profitability; and
(d) modalities for the solution of the problem of non-performing loans have been tested and are applied on a wider scale.
18. The RFSP will support the CBRC at the central level and the RCCUs and RCCs in two pilot provinces at the county and township levels. It has five components: policy development; institutional development; operational development; financing; and programme management.
19. The RFSP implementing agency will be the CBRC. The Department of Cooperative Finance at CBRC headquarters will establish a coordination and monitoring unit and appoint a director. In programme activities, the county RCCUs and the provincial RCCUs will ensure that the coordination of ongoing IFAD/WFP-funded projects with the PMOs is maintained.
20. In the support for reforms so as to render the RCCs more sustainable and efficient in the reduction of poverty, IFAD is nearly the sole external donor. In conjunction with the IFAD/WFP Wulin Mountains Minority-Areas Development Project, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation has been providing technical assistance in the training of RCC staff, but this project is being terminated. Other interventions of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, e.g. in Jiangxi province, have been of a similar nature. The World Bank is providing technical assistance for the reform of the financial sector, focusing on state banks.
21. The implementation of the RFSP will represent an occasion to involve, as much as possible, national and international expertise from the microfinance sector. Frequent consultations, to which bilateral and multilateral donors will also be invited, will be held so as to benefit from available expertise and disseminate as widely as possible any positive results from the pilot activities supported through the RFSP.
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II. IMPACT ANALYSIS
22. Because many RCCs are still weak, the PBC has been implementing a national programme for RCC capacity-building and restructuring, culminating in the recent publication of definitive guidelines for RCC operations and management. 农发基金已经成功地与合作中国人民银行农村信用社提供技术和管理支持，并监督和保证其良好的
性能。此外，所有农发基金资副农村信用社贷款管理，以这样一种方式，不好的影响降到最低。 IFAD has been successful in collaborating with the PBC to provide technical and managerial support to the RCCs and to supervise and ensure their good performance. Moreover, all IFAD-financed sub-loans to RCCs are administered in such a way as to minimize the impact from old, non-performing parts of the RCC portfolio.
23. The approach of the RFSP in support of policy reform is to assist in ongoing or already planned policy adjustments, help in the refinement of modalities of implementation and promote the idea that new policies should have clear gender and poverty dimensions. In this respect, RFSP support will focus on the liberalization of the interest rate, microfinance, group lending, and lending to women. At a later stage, support for the development of other new products will be provided.
24. The RFSP will generate important benefits both in terms of improved access of households, especially poor households, to formal rural financial services and in terms of the strengthened efficiency and sustainability of the RCCs. These two benefits will be closely monitored during RFSP implementation.
25. The RFSP will be implemented at the national level as a programme allowing the CBRC and the RCCUs/RCCs to test good microfinance practices, with a special emphasis on the facilitation of the access of the rural poor. In line with China’s incremental reform strategy, this will initially be undertaken in a selected, limited geographical area at the county level. Once the results are conclusive, the reforms will be translated into policy and institutional reforms for application on a larger scale.
26. The main objective of the ongoing credit initiatives under IFAD projects has been to improve the access of poor households to microfinance, which has also included group lending and special loan programmes for women. Also, support was provided for capacity-building among RCCs so that they become sustainable financing institutions that would benefit mostly the poor for whom the RCCs are the only avenue for formal deposits and loans in rural areas. The RFSP, however, by virtue of its#p#分页标题#e#
sectoral nature, will benefit all potential clients of the RCCs and RCCUs by improving the policy environment and the institutional and operational modalities of the RCCs and RCCUs in the programme area.
27. At the household level, credit delivery remains a strong instrument for the improvement of year-around food-security and for increasing the income of poor rural households. Individual households will benefit from the collateral-free loans provided under the new policies. The strategy of combining food-for-training with credit for productive on and off-farm activities has exhibited significant positive results. Those households that were not able to access formal credit became eligible for access through technical and business training. Furthermore, project reports reveal an increase in agricultural production and the establishment of various off-farm activities, such as grocery shops and restaurants, as well as an increase in agriculture production-livestock rearing, fruit tree plantation and greenhouse-based, intensive vegetable production. According to the thematic study, 50-80% of RCC loans drawn by households in 1999 were used for investments in crop and livestock production. The return on such investments is high, as evidenced in the project impact analysis, which is presented in each project completion report.
28. Considerable progress in credit awareness has been achieved. Especially women have demonstrated a high degree of confidence in their ability to use externally borrowed funds productively. In the Wulin Mountains Minority-Areas Development Project, for instance, about 50% of the credit allocations were explicitly directed to women. In reality, however, 90% of all credit funds were actually used by women. Most of the loans for productive activities by women are medium and short-term credit of up to CNY 2 000.
29. Nevertheless, as the RFSP is a sectoral programme, the benefits will transcend the RCCs and RCCUs directly involved in implementation as the positive results spread to RCCs and RCCUs in the same provinces or beyond. Where necessary, ongoing IFAD/WFP-funded project resources will be allocated to implement the new, proven policies.
III. DRIVING FACTORS
30. A suitable political and economic environment is a critical precondition for the testing and implementation of innovative approaches. The decision to move away from the PMO-based credit system towards private rural financial providers was triggered through the successful tests in the stepwise approach embedded in the integrated rural development strategy that IFAD has been pursuing in China.
31. The close collaboration and strong support of governmental institutions for an effective participation in rural financial sector reform culminated in IFAD’s involvement in China’s National Reform Programme so as to ensure the inclusion of the experience obtained through IFAD/WFPfunded projects.
Commitment and Political Economy for Change
32. China has made remarkable strides in the improvement of the standard of living of its people and in the realization of sustained economic growth during the past two decades. Especially praiseworthy is the sustained economic growth, combined with the sharp reduction in the proportion of the population defined as poor. The rural poor population – based on the official poverty line – fell from 250 million in 1978 to 36 million in 1999, or from 30.7 to 4.2% of the total rural population.
33. The Baqi (8-7) Poverty Reduction Plan was instituted by the Government in 1994 with the objective of lifting 80 million rural poor out of poverty by the year 2000. Having missed the deadline, the Government is faced with the urgent question of how to put current unsustainable credit delivery methods onto a sustainable footing. It has realized the importance of the integration of credit services in the services of the local financial infrastructure as practiced in IFAD/WFP-funded projects and views the reform of the RCCs as critical for the improvement of the delivery of sustainable financial services to poor and low-income households.
34. The ability of the RCCs as a whole to serve rural production, regularize household consumption and achieve poverty alleviation has been negatively affected by the deteriorating financial situation of the RCCs. Efforts are now afoot slowly and steadily to restructure the RCCs.
These efforts depend on the speed with which the restructuring is undertaken of the township and village-owned enterprises to which the RCCs have granted substantial loans in the past.
35. Some loss-making RCCs in small townships (mainly in poor areas of China) have been closed or merged, putting poorer rural households at a disadvantage. Many RCCs provide loans only to those who can provide certificates of deposit as collateral for loans over CNY 1 000 (USD 120). The RCCs are the only financial institutions with the outreach necessary to serve rural households. Improving their performance and incorporating poverty alleviation-oriented financial products into their portfolio
remain the key for the development of sustainable rural financial services in China.
36.农发基金/粮食计划署资助的项目已整合项目为基础的金融服务输送到农村信用社进行定期活动。 The IFAD/WFP-funded projects have been integrating project-based-financial-service delivery into the regular activities of RCCs. Despite the favourable environment, however, the use of RCCs has been hampered by the de facto interest margins imposed by the Ministry of Finance. As a result, the RCCs have a small margin, and their creditworthiness has suffered.
37. The practice of ‘dictating’ interest rates has now been suspended, and these new circumstances should allow for the widespread introduction of microfinance institutions. This also offers the opportunity gradually to change the composition of the RCC portfolios so as to include a larger share of longer term lending, in addition to the seasonal components, which, however, remain dominant.
38. In recent years, the Government has repeatedly shown strong signs of a political commitment to the reform process in the banking sector. A major impetus for reform was given in April 2003,when the banking supervision function of the PBC was handed over officially to a new banking regulatory body, the CBRC. The CBRC is expected to introduce innovations in the areas of regulatory methodology, systems and technologies to modernize and upgrade financial supervision to a more professional level, while the PBC will maintain its focus on monetary policy-making.
39. The PBC has actually been instrumental in many innovations that are currently being tested on a pilot basis. In the rural finance sector, these include the liberalization of the lending rate, the introduction of an incentive scheme for staff and the re-examination of the legal status of the RCCs.
In addition, the introduction of microlending and joint-liability group lending have been tested on the basis of the experiences with microcredit in IFAD/WFP-funded projects. For each of these innovations, pilot counties have been selected to test these policies. The first outcomes seem to be positive and are under application on a larger scale.
40. The second impetus for reform came in June 2003 when the Government issued the Pilot
Scheme for RCC Reform and then, on 18 August 2003, when it formulated a pilot programme in eight provinces. Through the relevant governmental institutions, i.e. the Ministry of Finance, the PBC and the CBRC, the Government has exhibited a strong commitment to the development of the RFSP as a response to the challenges posed by the ambitious reform process in the country. In light of IFAD’s continuous and successful support for the RCC system in the past, it is reasonable to assume that
IFAD-funded operations have been instrumental in triggering the Government’s pilot scheme. As previously mentioned, the RFSP will be implemented as part of the pilot scheme in two counties in each of the eight pilot provinces. It is expected that the successful outcome of these activities will trigger the scaling up of the experience to the national level.
Institutional Innovation
41. The first institutional innovation (already mentioned above) has been the establishment of a specialized regulatory commission, the CBRC. The commission will be responsible for the introduction of the innovation that are to modernize the financial sector and render it more professional and efficient. The Department of Cooperative Finance, which is formally under the PBC, but has been transferred to the CBRC, continues to play a leading role in the RCC reform and to ensure the supervision function of the CBRC for the RCCs. The department will be responsible for all cooperative institutions in rural and urban areas. Its functions include the standardization of
management structures; the drafting of regulations for supervision; risk control; the quality of assets; and the interest rates for loans and savings. It will also carry out investigations and take up any necessary actions in case of delinquencies. The department will also be the implementation agency of the RFSP.
42. The RFSP will provide the opportunity to test a number of institutional innovations. These include the change in the legal structure of the RCCs and RCCUs and in the staff incentive scheme.#p#分页标题#e#
43. Legal structure: The RCCs have been isolated entities at the township level and have thus been unable to access higher level support for technical issues, product development and staff training. Moreover, they lack the benefits of economies of scale that would allow them to continue expanding their operations and overcome eventual crises. The RFSP will foster the current pilot consolidation of the RCCs as branches with RCCUs at the county level. National and international technical expertise will guide the process through the provision of analysis and advice in terms of strategy development and the operational and institutional implications inherent in the change in legal
structures. It is expected that the new legal structure will stimulate further development at the RCCU
level beyond core functions and assist the RCCs so that they can evolve into strong institutions.
44. Staff incentive system: As indicated above, the RCCs and RCCUs have recently introduced a staff incentive system that has been applied by the ABC since the mid-1980s. The scheme is simply a distinction in total salary, with about 60% of the income consisting of a fixed, minimum salary and the remaining 40% of bonuses. Regular staff meetings are used to maintain and improve staff qualifications. The RFSP aims to enhance the effectiveness of the scheme through an analysis of the
incentive effects, the impact on cost effectiveness of operations, on overall financial results and on staff motivation and morale. Further recommendations will be analysed and proposed for implementation.
45. Although the impact of these innovations cannot be predicted at this stage, a positive effect on efficiency and outreach is widely anticipated.
Learning and Experimentation
46. Microfinance: The learning and experimentation process has been initiated through the inclusion of the RCCs as financial service providers in IFAD/WFP-funded operations. The provision of technical skills and functional literacy training financed through either IFAD cash funds, or WFP food-for-training has enhanced the skills of the target group, consisting of poor and very poor rural households. In turn, the RCCs have considered the advanced skills of trained project beneficiaries as collateral for good loan performance and, hence, have provided small loans for productive activities to those who previously could not access formal credit. This strategy has been tested and gradually refined in five projects since 1996.
47. The women’s ‘window’: IFAD has supported its projects in such a way as to provide specific assistance for the economic activities of women. Experience elsewhere has demonstrated that women tend to be better than me as quality borrowers and thus represent a lower risk for financing institutions. In spite of this, most lending is administered to men, even when the funds are used for investments operated by women. Moreover, men, who are traditionally viewed as the heads of household and are thus responsible for signing any legal document, including loan contracts, are migrating to urban centres, while their spouses have been left to tend to on and off-farm activities and to the families. Therefore, it is only logical that the RCCs should recognize women as loan contractors.
48. In addition to RCC services, the recent IFAD/WFP-funded project included a special women’s ‘window’ (in the sense of a counter at a bank or credit institution) that has been entrusted to the local branch of the Women’s Federation. The special women’s window provides small loans for productive activities, in conjunction with functional literacy training, to very poor and disadvantaged rural women. This programme has been successful in helping women achieve access to formal credit channels like the RCCs.
49. Experience shows that women have been successful in establishing microenterprises that provide sustainable income to households. Moreover, a recent gender assessment study has demonstrated that the creation of successful businesses in rural areas tends to reduce the out-migration of husbands, which is a significant indication that there has been a positive impact on rural poverty.
Building on this positive experience, the women’s window will be further developed under the RFSP. Women will take out individual or group loans from RCCs in their own names. Where required, the RFSP will provide funds for functional literacy training and allow women to sign with their own seals.
50.鉴于疲弱的经济在农村地区的西部省份，农村信用社经营过程中面临难以活的足够的收益的严重困难，同时覆盖他们的风险和他们的运营成本和固定成本。 Interest rates: Given the weak economy in rural areas of the Western provinces, the RCCs have been facing serious difficulties in obtaining enough returns from their operations, while covering their risk and their operational and fixed costs. External lines of credit were opened to assist the RCCs in extending loans to poor rural households. When the interest rate ceiling was reduced, however,external lines of credit provided by donors like IFAD became too costly. Only in 1999, when the Ministry of Finance reduced on-lending interest rates, were external lines of credit deemed sufficiently attractive so that RCCs could on-lend to poor rural households.
51. The RCCs have been applying a interest rate ceiling determined by the PBC, typically within a 50% margin above the PBC base rate. Recently, on a pilot basis, some RCCs have been given the authority by the PBC to increase their margin on interest rates to 100% of the PBC rates. Although this flexibility is welcome, it does not address the core challenge in the setting of the interest rates for RCC operations: the need to retreat from administered interest rates towards a system of loan pricing based on the actual costs for the delivery of services to poor rural households.
External Catalysts
52. Most of the credit schemes of international donors and non-governmental organizations have been project-based and, hence, unsustainable. Some international agencies and donors have recently begun to operate pilot projects to explore ways to transform project-based credit support to sustainable institutional capacity-building.
53. Following initial experiments of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994, several international institutions, including the Ford Foundation, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation and OXFAM, and domestic institutions have introduced microfinance models, mostly based on the Grameen Bank model. Dissatisfied with subsidized poverty lending and eager to meet poverty alleviation targets, local governments took the initiative to establish microfinance programmes. The striking results include the improved performance of non-governmental programmes in targeting poor households and in achieving high repayment rates.
54. In 1994, experimentation in PBC/RCC microcredit in Hebei province led to the formulation of policy guidelines for microlending by the RCCs. In December 2001, these guidelines were issued.They included lessons learned in IFAD/WFP-supported projects.
IV. LESSONS LEARNED
55. Influencing policy in China is an extremely challenging exercise and a very complicated process. The most practical approach has been to undertake pilot interventions to demonstrate good practices and to attempt to trigger the interest of local governments and the central Government in innovative approaches. Long-term processes require exceptional patience in building up a reiterative approach, whereby experiences are accumulated in pilot activities. Lastly, collaboration with likeminded partners and networking with resource people in the country are critical to the success of any project.
REFERENCES
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). 1990. China: Rural Credit Project:
Completion Evaluation Report. IFAD, Rome.
___ 2000a. China: Qinling Mountain Area Poverty-Alleviation Project, Hubei Province: Appraisal
Report, Main Report. IFAD, Rome.
___ 2000b. China: West Guangxi Poverty-Alleviation Project: Appraisal Report, Implementation
Edition, Main Report. IFAD, Rome.
___ 2000c. China: Wulin Mountains Minority-Areas Development Project: Appraisal Report. IFAD,
Rome.
___ 2001. China: Rural Financial Services in China: Thematic Study, Main Report and Annexes.
IFAD, Rome.
___ 2002. China: Environment Conservation and Poverty-Reduction Programme in Ningxia and
Shanxi: Appraisal Report. IFAD, Rome.
___ 2003. China: Rural Finance Sector Programme: Appraisal Report. IFAD, Rome.
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