Workshop held in Yilong county for inclusive finance development in China

Representatives from government, institutions and local communities exchanged their views and research findings on the Yilong Model during a workshop co-hosted by International Center for Economic and Technical Exchange, United Nations Development Program and the government of Sichuan’s Yilong county on March 28 and 29 in Yilong. They summarized Yilong’s successful experience in poverty alleviation and sustainable development and discussed further measures to optimize the model. 

Devanand Ramiah, deputy country director of UNDP in China, delivers a speech at the workshop on March 28. [Photo by Chen Lufan / Chinagate.cn]

“Yilong, one of the pilot counties in our microfinance programme, has established community-based revolving funds among farmers, which have had a positive social and economic impact,” said Devanand Ramiah, deputy country director of UNDP in China in his remark at the workshop. “The role played by the local Rural Sustainable Development Service Center, which was introduced in 2014, has further enriched and reinforced the Yilong Model. Through a participatory approach, this model has offered an excellent example of microfinance innovation and poverty alleviation to China and to the rest of the world.”

The local Rural Sustainable Development Service Center is a social organization that promotes the establishment and development of local farmers’ cooperatives, contributes to building expertise within the cooperatives, and provides other management services.

Bai Chengyu, head of Division Ⅲ of UN Programmes, delivers a speech at the workshop on March 28. [Photo by Chen Lufan / Chinagate.cn]

“The center is an institutional innovation that helps local government manage farmers’ cooperatives in a standardized way,” said Bai Chengyu, head of Division Ⅲ of UN Programmes. “Taking the cooperatives as the main element, the center focuses on providing services to farmers—especially poor farmers—through improving the service capacity of farmers’ cooperatives, and their performance and management. The center supervises the financing of farmers’ cooperatives to maintain the security, liquidity and profitability of their funds. The center is also responsible for standardized management of the cooperatives.”  

 Sun Zhonghua, president of China Society of Cooperative Economics delivers a speech at the workshop on March 28. [Photo by Chen Lufan / Chinagate.cn]

Discussing further measures to optimize the Yilong Model, Sun Zhonghua, president of the China Society of Cooperative Economics, emphasized that the cooperatives should form a “three-in-one” system that combines production, supply, and marketing and credit. 

The number of poor households in Yilong fell by 31,400 from 2014 to 2018, and the county’s poverty incidence rate went down from 0.82 percent in the beginning of 2018 to 0.04 percent by the end of the year. Yilong therefore met its poverty-alleviation goal in 2018, and the Yilong Model—initiated by UNDP and ICETE—provides experience in rural revitalization and inclusive finance for other regions.