Beijing, April 18, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Dingyi Venture Capital (HK) Ltd. launched a partnership today to help improve access to financial services for micro and rural enterprises so that they can grow their businesses and benefit from the country’s economic growth.
Dingyi will provide a $3 million grant to IFC to fund various initiatives and studies, including an assessment of existing financial services such as lending, saving, payments, and remittances, for micro and rural enterprises in China. The funds will also be used to promote international best practices and propose solutions and recommendations for addressing key challenges in expanding access to financial services for micro and rural businesses.
“Rural families can prosper if they have access to funds to grow their businesses,” said Li Kwong Yuk, Chairman of Dingyi. “A partnership with IFC enables us to increase our support for the disadvantaged in China.”
Dingyi has supported a number of developmental initiatives in China including establishing a 10-million-yuan scholarship for poor college students with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, the largest nongovernmental organization focusing on lifting more people out of poverty in the country.
Chinese government figures indicate that lending to rural households, which made up nearly half of the country’s population, accounted for only 5.4 percent of all outstanding loans as of the end of 2012, and bank loans to small and micro enterprises only made up 30 percent of total loans in the system as of December 2013. A report released during the 2013 Boao Forum for Asia revealed that round 62 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises have no access to any form of loans.
“Universal access to financial services is key to eradicating poverty and boosting shared prosperity,” said Jin-Yong Cai, IFC Executive Vice President and CEO. “We are mobilizing resources and expertise from public and private partners to address this enormous developmental challenge.”
IFC has been promoting rural, micro and mobile financing globally through its investment and advisory services. IFC is one of the world’s largest microfinance investors. Cumulatively, IFC’s microfinance investments reached $3.3 billion with 214 microfinance clients in 73 countries as of December 2013.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in more than 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. In FY13, our investments climbed to an all-time high of nearly $25 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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