'Credit cities' taking shape in China

HANGZHOU — After graduation, Zhang Hao, 28, found a job at a securities company in eastern China's Hangzhou city. On his mobile app Alipay, he saw an apartment he liked.

Alipay, the mobile payment service under e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba, rates its users' credit based on their consumption and investment habits on the app. Zhang had a high score and was exempted from the rental deposit of 2,600 yuan ($380) and the brokerage fee of 1,300 yuan.

The whole experience not only saved Zhang time and energy in renting an apartment, which is often complicated in China, but also gave him a fresh look at the city where he was about to build a career. It gave him a "sense of belonging."

In China, more and more cities have offered credit-based services to citizens. And more and more people, like Zhang, have begun to own their credit scores.

At a forum on credit system building in Hangzhou earlier this week, representatives from more than 300 Chinese cities jointly released a declaration, which aims to improve people's well-being by enhancing credit building in the country.

"The credit economy has kicked off in China," said Lian Weiliang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission. The central government has issued several documents encouraging and guiding the social credit system over the past three years.

Without any deposit, one can borrow a bike, power bank, library book or umbrella with the help of a smart phone.

"The building of a credit city has made urban life easier and city governance more efficient," said Zhu Dehai, deputy secretary of the city government of Huaibei in Anhui province.

"In Hangzhou, credit is cash," said Peng Lei, president of Alibaba's financial arm Ant Financial. She said citizens with good Alipay credit could enjoy privileges in various public services and urban living.

According to Ant Financial, Alipay has exempted over 38 billion yuan of deposits for its users, including 4 billion yuan in bike-sharing deposits.

Experts said that due to an unsound credit system in China, deposits were amounting to trillions of yuan, leading to heavy social management costs.

There are more than 3,000 public libraries in China. But most of them have few visitors. According to Guangzhou Library, local citizens visited the library just 1.15 times on average last year.

Thanks to the credit borrowing service, citizens in many cities can now visit digital libraries, place orders online and have their chosen books delivered to the door step.

A survey targeting over 100 city mayors and managers in China revealed that 81 percent thought almost 10 years was needed before China became a credit society in full, but more than half said their city had already started credit building.

Statistics from Ant Financial showed that nearly 300 million Chinese had enquired about their credit records or enjoyed credit services. Service before payment has become popular in fields such as medical, transport and government affairs.

In ten years, more than 90 percent of deposits will disappear in credit cities, and 80 percent of certificates will also disappear when credit is combined with bio-identification technology, said Jing Xiandong, CEO of Ant Financial.

Hu Jianbin, an official of Huizhou city government in Guangdong Province, said that in a credit city, citizens with a good credit record enjoyed all sorts of convenience, while those with bad records would find it difficult to live.

Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma shares this belief.

"The future demographic dividend lies in people's trust in one another. Credit city building brings unprecedented opportunities," Ma said.