The People’s Bank of China (PBC), jointly with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), organized and held the National Video Conference on Targeted Poverty Alleviation by the Financial Sector on 24 April, 2020. Pan Gongsheng, member of the PBC CPC Committee and PBC Deputy Governor, and Zhu Shumin, member of the CBIRC CPC Committee and CBIRC Vice Chairman attended and addressed the conference. Officials from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development attended the conference.
The attendees earnestly studied the spirits of the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Symposium on Securing a Decisive Victory in Poverty Alleviation. The financial system was required to have a profound and accurate understanding of the core gist and spiritual nature of General Secretary Xi’s important speech, keep the momentum in fighting poverty with enhanced unremitting efforts in the final push, and refrain from standstill, negligence or slack at any moment. Steps should be taken to further enhance political stance, strengthen responsibility assumption, fully implement measures to boost financial support for poverty alleviation, and contribute to the complete victory in poverty alleviation and the accomplishment of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects during the special period of epidemic containment.
It was pointed out at the conference that the financial system had made a great deal of fruitful efforts in the battle of poverty alleviation. In recent years, the outstanding loans to the registered impoverished people and the population out of poverty have increased constantly with steady expansion in the coverage. Loans issued in the areas of extreme poverty including the “three regions and three prefectures” have maintained rapid growth, and basic financial services have been significantly improved.
It was stressed at the conference that financial institutions should continue to earnestly undertake the major task of providing financial support for poverty alleviation, focus on the areas of extreme poverty including the “three regions and three prefectures” as well as poor counties which have not yet been delisted, make full and effective use of policy tools such as central bank lending for poverty alleviation, further increase inputs of financial resources, and strive to achieve nationwide accessibility of basic financial services. Continued measures should be taken to promote the combination of financial support and poverty reduction by industry development. As for epidemic-inflicted enterprises that play a leading role in poverty alleviation, requirements of no recalling, discontinuing or cutting loans must be followed. The financial system should continue working to tackle problems identified in any inspection, strengthen work style governance, and detect problems in the implementation of policies of financial support for poverty alleviation such as insufficient responsibility assumption, inaccurate understanding of polices and the practice of formalities for formalities’ sake or bureaucratism, so as to ensure timely and thorough rectification. Meanwhile, the financial system should also pay particular attention to financing risks in poverty alleviation, enhance monitoring credit quality in impoverished areas and make further improvements to microcredit policies for poverty alleviation, in a bid to effectively manage and use microcredit for poverty alleviation and avoid risk accumulation.
It was required at the conference that the financial system should make coordinated efforts to promote the containment of the COVID-19 outbreak and targeted poverty alleviation by the financial sector, practically demonstrate the spirits for the final but the toughest stage of the battle against poverty, hold relevant parties truly accountable and ensure accomplishment of the annual targets and tasks for poverty alleviation. The support policies launched shall be well put in place, especially those regarding the temporarily deferred principal and interest payments for loans issued to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the extension of repayment periods of microcredit for poverty alleviation. Differentiated regulatory policies shall be implemented to boost the flexibility of credit policy as appropriate and strike a balance between credit supply and risks. The capacity of insurance protection should be bolstered to improve the system of poverty alleviation through insurances which center on the combination of agricultural insurance and serious illness insurance. The financial system should sum up best practices in targeted poverty alleviation efforts of the financial sector, sort and study the continuity and optimization of policies on financial support for poverty alleviation, improve support policies targeting areas of relative poverty after 2020, advance financial inclusion and ensure their connection to financial services for rural revitalization.
Chiefs of the Agricultural Development Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China, PBC Chengdu Branch and Kunming Central Sub-Branch, CBIRC Guangxi Bureau and Gansu Bureau shared their experience and practices in targeted poverty alleviation by the financial sector. Other attendees included senior managements from some Beijing-based national banking financial institutions and insurance companies as well as chief officials from relevant departments of the PBC and the CBIRC. Officials of relevant departments at all levels from PBC, CBIRC, CSRC and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, as well as chiefs of financial institutions within their respective jurisdiction, attended the conference at the parallel venues set in all provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the central government) as well as cities and counties in areas of extreme poverty, including three autonomous regions, i.e., Tibet, four prefectures in southern Xinjiang, and the Tibetan areas in four provinces and three autonomous prefectures, i.e., Linxia in Gansu, Liangshan in Sichuan and Nujiang in Yunnan. (End)
