"Microfinance" for the poor is an efficient way of fighting poverty, but it needs stronger government backing to thrive, an international seminar was told yesterday.

Government officials, bank regulators and researchers called for further restructuring of State-owned or supported financial bodies to expand and improve mini-loan services to the needy. Microfinance refers to giving small loans to low-income individuals and households at affordable but viable interest rates.

The concept has proven successful in many parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Seminar participants also asked the government to adopt policies to encourage domestic and overseas non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to take part in microfinance, while supervising their operations.

Microfinance programmes surfaced in China 10 years ago, and were brought into the government-regulated credit framework in the late 1990s.

With the main aim of creating jobs and increasing farmers' income, Rural Credit Co-operatives, one of the main players in the field, have lent 84.2 billion yuan (US$10.2 billion) to rural households. The Agricultural Bank of China, together with local governments, has lent 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion), according to Wu Xiaoling, vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank.

Trial projects funded by international donors and loans run by NGOs or community-based organizations, however, amount to only 1 billion yuan (US$120 million). They make up a tiny proportion of capital in the country, said Professor Du Xiaoshan, deputy director of the Centre for Poverty Research under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Liu Fuhe, director of the State Council Poverty Relief Office, said microfinance has run into difficulties in recent years as the government tightens control over financial practices to minimize loan risks.

Liu said his office is working with other departments on a set of policies to improve government-backed mini-loan services to low income families in poverty-stricken areas.

There are 28 million people living under the official poverty line in China.
Both Du and Liu said NGOs could play a much more prominent role in microfinance, as is the case in many countries. They said State-owned banks and formal financial institutions will not ultimately target the poor during their ongoing profit-oriented restructuring.