The first Chinese Micro-finance Summit opened on September 22 in
Beijing. Professor Latifee, managing director of the Bengalis
Grameen Trust, addressed the meeting and said that Citigroup will
provide US$1.3 million via the organization to help 14,000 business
women in middle and western China to get small loans and business
training.?
The Grameen Trust is an international fund that brings forward
staff training, technology, software and financial aid to more than
119 micro-finance projects in 35 countries and regions. Owning
capital of US$540 million, the organization helps 1.4 million
people in poverty get small loans and provides over US$10 million
of loans in Asia through its micro-finance cooperators. Some 70
percent of the aiding projects have paid back 95 percent of their
loans.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences set up the Poverty Relief
Cooperative in 1993. In recent years, the cooperative introduced
and promoted the work model of the Grameen Trust into China's
poverty relief.??
Du Xiaoshan, head of the cooperative, said small loans will play
an important role in China's financial system. Their receivers are
usually not able to get aid from traditional financing. These loans
although within the amount of US$400, sometimes even decide whether
people can rid poverty or not.
According to Richard Stanley, president of the Citigroup China,
micro-finance will give a hand to the company's poverty relief
work. He added the company has been supporting micro-finance
projects to help people in China's poverty areas in the past 25
years.
(China.org.cn by Feng Yikun, September 26, 2003)