Shanxi grants 640m loans for poverty relief
DATE:2015-09-11 SOURCE:China Daily
As of June, Shanxi has loaned 640 million yuan ($100.54 million) to 58 poverty-stricken counties to alleviate local poverty and increase farmers' income, according to the province's poverty alleviation and development office on Sept 2.
Shanxi launched a finance-driven poverty alleviation project last September, aiming to maximize the function of financial poverty relief funds. According to the project, the government deposits funds as risk compensation to financial organizations, who then grant poverty alleviation loans eight times greater.
The project is one the province's ten key policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers. To date, the province has accounted for 241 million yuan from the provincial budget and 13.86 million yuan from local governments.
In the province's Linfen city, 10 poverty-stricken counties have contracted to cooperate with banks, with 38.5 million yuan of deposits and 190 million yuan of loans, while 323 impoverished villages have set up mutual-aid funds to help solve financing problem in the development.
Xixian county in Linfen is a demonstration for micro-credit, which is already in place for financial services and management systems. The county has granted 55.09 million yuan in total, involving 834 poor households.
Fifty-eight counties have sign cooperative agreements with financial organizations in the province.
The policy will carry on and guarantee the poverty-striken households receive funding and use it efficiently, said an official of Shanxi Poverty Alleviation and Development Office.