Field Research | Rooting Down for Inclusive Finance Practices

Autumn is in its prime, with the clear sky and the cold dew marking the midpoint of the season.

Under the azure firmament, golden rice stalks sway gently in the breeze, whispering the joy of harvest.

It's another year of bountiful "abundance."

From the birthplace of rural reform and opening up, to the city of technological innovation and vitality, and then to the capital of Chinese brands, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) has carried out a series of vivid practices in the field of inclusive finance, playing harmonious music and bearing fruitful results.

On this vast land of Shenzhou, the "liaisons" of SPD Bank's inclusive finance take root and walk into the fields and factories, focusing on small and micro farmers, sowing seeds of hope, deeply nourishing the industrial and supply chains, helping them to grow strong and upward, and becoming towering trees in their respective fields.

As a pioneer of reform, the face of smart agriculture is renewed.

In the early autumn, the beautiful scenery of Hui and Wan is enchanting.

In Fengyang County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, visitors stop at the thatched cottage where 18 farmers pressed their "red handprints" and listen to the "spring thunder" of China's "reform and opening up."

In recent years, as the birthplace of China's rural reform, Xiaogang Village has actively explored the path of rural revitalization and the continuous increase of villagers' income through promoting land transfer, integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism, and developing modern agriculture.

The concept that "if the three industries are well integrated, the revitalization will be accelerated" has always been on the mind of Zhou Qun, the Party Secretary of Xiaogang Village.

In the agricultural greenhouses of Xiaogang Village, there are advanced semi-closed multi-span glass greenhouses, soilless cultivation, growth environment control, agricultural cloud big data management, and fully automated robotic packaging systems.

Here, efficient and healthy agricultural planting can be truly achieved, providing an innovative demonstration effect for promoting the transformation of traditional agriculture to modern facility agriculture.

High-quality fruit tomatoes are the main industry of the park, the "golden fruit" for farmers' income, and also the bearer of the happy life of the villagers.

"The quality of agricultural products has improved, and the benefits have also increased.

There is still hope in staying in the village."

The villagers of Xiaogang Village are overjoyed.

Riding the east wind of reform and innovation, and daring to be the first, the "golden fruit" is growing vigorously, and the picture of comprehensive rural revitalization is slowly unfolding on this field of reform.

Striving to be a pioneer of reform, financial support for rural revitalization is continuously shifting gears and accelerating.

In 2023, the Chuzhou Branch of SPD Bank provided more than 100 million yuan in financial support for the "Xiaogang Village Digital Greenhouse Project" of Fengyang Kai Sheng Digital Smart Agriculture Co., Ltd. From the beginning of the planning of the Kai Sheng project, the Hefei Branch and Chuzhou Branch of SPD Bank took the initiative to connect and deeply participate in the project planning, fully understanding the financial needs of the company at all stages of development, and established a green approval mechanism for rural revitalization projects, giving priority to assessment, approval, and allocation, providing support and protection, and effectively meeting the financing needs of key agricultural and rural projects.

The "golden fruit" is becoming more vigorous, and smart agriculture is deeply empowering rural revitalization.

Li Jian, the president of the Chuzhou Branch of SPD Bank, introduced that the project was implemented in time to solve the company's financial difficulties, helping Fengyang County to create a high-quality agricultural "Xiaogang brand," establish a provincial-level characteristic agricultural product advantage area and the Yangtze River Delta green agricultural product production and processing supply base, and achieve the strategic layout of modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

At the forefront of innovation, the technology chain is deeply cultivated.

"How many times was Sun Wukong recited the Tightening Spell in Journey to the West?"

"What are the differences between Sun Wukong's Golden Cudgel and Harry Potter's Magic Wand?"

At iFLYTEK Co., Ltd. in Hefei, visitors have an interesting human-computer dialogue with the Xunfei Spark model.

From being ranked outside the top 80 in economic output to becoming a regular in the top 20, Hefei has completed a magnificent turnaround in 20 years, leaping into the ranks of the fastest-growing cities in China.

Hefei's counterattack cannot be separated from technological innovation, and even more so from a group of high-quality science and innovation leading enterprises and their driven industrial chain development.

In the era of general artificial intelligence, China urgently needs to achieve a higher level of self-improvement and self-reliance in the global technology competition.

In this process, in 2018, SPD Bank and iFLYTEK cooperated to establish a smart interactive joint laboratory, and both parties have established multiple project cooperations in the fields of mobile banking, intelligent customer service (voice navigation, intelligent outbound calls, intelligent quality inspection), intelligent document review, cross-border e-commerce customer service, etc.

As an important means of financial empowerment for industrial development, supply chain finance is of great significance for promoting the collaborative development of industrial chains.

Core enterprises such as iFLYTEK often have thousands of suppliers in their supply chain, including many small and micro enterprises, with stronger potential financial service needs.

For a long time, SPD Bank has also been continuously supporting core enterprises to stabilize, consolidate, strengthen, and supplement the chain by solving financing difficulties for small and micro enterprises in iFLYTEK's supply chain.

Supply chain finance is a powerful means to deeply cultivate the inclusive field.

On the basis of summarizing many years of experience in serving core enterprises, SPD Bank has been continuously accelerating the construction of the supply chain service system and product supply, and recently launched the "Pu Chain Link" digital supply chain "1+1+X" service system, including the supply chain financial service platform and a series of digital supply chain products.

For example, in the upstream of the supply chain, "Pu Order Link" is mainly aimed at enterprises that produce and stock goods for orders; "Pu Chain Link," "Pu Note Link," and "Pu Certificate Link" are mainly used for the core enterprise's acceptance, storage, and payment due process.

In the downstream of the supply chain, "Pu Letter Link" is mainly aimed at enterprises that win the bidding and sign contracts; "Pu Sales Link" and "Pu Car Link" are mainly aimed at dealers' orders, payments, or repayments to core enterprises.

How to deliver financial services to the front line and solve the problem of information asymmetry between banks and enterprises, and the imbalance of financial supply?

Wang Tong, a member of the Party Committee of the Hefei Branch of SPD Bank, mentioned that the Hefei Branch has created a "data-based, intelligent, and online" inclusive finance model, and built a "big inclusive" financial ecosystem with "joint construction and sharing."

At the same time, a special team for inclusive finance is established, and the "Inclusive Finance Online Training Certification" project is carried out to improve the assessment method of digital inclusive finance marketing personnel, and to motivate and enhance the team's service initiative.

In addition, the green approval channel for inclusive agricultural loans is opened to improve the professional operation ability of inclusive agricultural customers.

As the capital of brands, the breeding pioneer tells a new language.

At the end of the 1980s and 1990s, Qingdao was famous throughout the country and the world with "five golden flowers" such as Haier, Hisense, Tsingtao Beer, Aucma, and Double Star.

Today, in this beautiful coastal city, the seeds of inclusive finance are actively taking root and growing, writing a new vibrant industrial development picture.

This year's Central No.

1 document proposes to "improve the diversified investment mechanism for rural revitalization," and puts forward clear requirements for the role of finance.

The development of rural inclusive finance is conducive to promoting comprehensive rural revitalization and is of great significance for accelerating the construction of a strong agricultural country and promoting the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

Pingdu is located in the hinterland of the Shandong Peninsula, is an agricultural county full of "earth" atmosphere, and is also one of the top 100 counties in the country's economy.

New Hope Liuhe Co., Ltd. (000876.SZ) has many small and micro breeders and dealers upstream and downstream, and Gao Qingguo, a white feather broiler breeder in Pingdu County, is one of them.

Walking into the chicken farm, modern chicken houses are lined up in a row, and chicken cages are neatly arranged, with feeding and drinking that can be managed automatically.

"Our current annual shipment of commercial chickens is about 7 million, with an annual output value of more than 100 million yuan.

Raising chickens is a good business, but it is also a technical job with higher requirements."

Gao Qingguo said with a smile.

In October 2021, the Qingdao Branch of SPD Bank, in conjunction with New Hope Liuhe Co., Ltd., and guaranteed by Puhui Agricultural and Pastoral Financing Guarantee Co., Ltd., launched the "New Liuhe Feed Order Loan" project to provide financial loan service support for New Hope's dealers and breeding customers nationwide, achieving a "one-family national model."

Liu Jinjie, a member of the Party Committee and deputy president of the Qingdao Branch of SPD Bank, introduced that the project is based on the experience and digital capabilities of New Hope Liuhe and Puhui Agricultural and Pastoral, relies on the advanced online loan system of SPD Bank, uses big data and other technologies, and combines the past cooperation data and personal credit data of customers and partners to judge the borrower's operating ability, repayment ability, and repayment willingness, achieving rapid and effective risk decision-making.

"While providing suitable financial services for farmers, we also need to improve the technical service ability of agriculture and animal husbandry, help farmers further improve their ability to make money, reduce their default costs to the lowest, and thus effectively control financial risks."

Guo Yongsheng, the general manager of the Inclusive Finance Department of New Hope Liuhe, emphasized.

This year, Gao Qingguo applied for credit online through the mobile banking of SPD Bank, and after approval, signed an electronic contract.

The bank realized the loan within 5 minutes, greatly improving the financial service efficiency for rural breeders.

He said in an interview, "SPD's online system is very convenient to operate, and the loan speed is also very fast, which effectively helps us solve the financing difficulties such as the continuation of materials during the breeding process."

As of the end of July 2024, the New Liuhe Feed Order Loan project has provided credit support to more than 4,000 breeders, with a total loan amount exceeding 4.2 billion yuan.

The key town of industry and agriculture is working hard for rural revitalization.

Walking into a flour mill in Jiaozhou City, Qingdao, in the roaring production workshop, machines are running at full speed, tens of thousands of "wheat grains" fall into the crushing equipment, and go through several processes such as grinding, screening, and flour cleaning, repeating in cycles...

Entering the warehouse, bags of flour are piled up high and full, with a strong wheat fragrance coming.

The grain industry is an important support for achieving China's agricultural power strategy.

Starting from a small oil shop in Jiaoxi Town, Jiaozhou City, to products sold in more than a dozen countries and regions at home and abroad, Qingdao Pinpin Hao Grain and Oil Group Co., Ltd. has developed into a benchmark enterprise in the grain and oil industry in Shandong Province.

The grain and oil industry is related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

In the view of Wang Chao, the general manager of Qingdao Pinpin Hao Grain and Oil Group, the key to rural revitalization is industrial revitalization, and in the revitalization of rural industries, grain and oil is undoubtedly a big article.

In this process, the Qingdao Branch of SPD Bank cooperates with agricultural leading enterprises such as Pinpin Hao to jointly create an agricultural supply chain financial ecosystem and promote the collaborative development of the agricultural industry.In 2022, the Qingdao branch partnered with Pinpin Hao Grain and Oil Group, providing the corporate group with a comprehensive credit of 120 million yuan, which strongly supported the group's scale expansion and business structure adjustment.

Currently, the Qingdao branch has become the main credit provider for the group, collaborating in areas such as supply chain finance, international business, and treasury system construction.

In the first half of 2024, upon learning of the company's plans to enter overseas markets, adjust product structures, and expand production facilities, the Qingdao branch proactively engaged with the company.

After a comprehensive assessment of the group's overall business situation, the branch increased the company's international trade financing limit by 50 million yuan.

Small and medium-sized enterprises often face numerous challenges in the financing process, including limited financing channels and high costs.

The emergence of supply chain finance has brought new hope to these enterprises.

Based on the real transactions between Pinpin Hao Grain and Oil Group and its upstream and downstream trading chain enterprises, the Qingdao branch provided online supply chain financing services for the group's suppliers, issuing 60 million yuan in supply chain financing.

How to continuously improve the professionalism of inclusive financial services?

Gao Rui, a member of the Party Committee of the Qingdao branch of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, introduced that the branch actively builds an inclusive marketing team "1+N" integrated operation mechanism, forming 16 inclusive finance guidance teams with more than 100 instructors.

At the same time, relying on core enterprises, the inclusive financial services are extended to upstream and downstream small and micro farmers and agricultural enterprises.

Through supply chain financial services, it has promoted the increase of farmers' income and the development of rural economy.

In addition, by strengthening technological empowerment, through big data analysis and intelligent risk control models, online service platforms, etc., new momentum has been injected into the modernization of agriculture.

In recent years, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has focused on the digital intelligence strategy, taking inclusive finance as one of the strategic development tracks of the entire bank, and creating an innovative "Smart · Benefit · Number" inclusive financial service system.

As of the end of June 2024, the balance of inclusive loans of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank increased by 449.8 billion yuan, and the number of small and micro loan households increased by 328,800.