Chapter 460 Bangladesh Rural Bank

Yang Xing's statement not only sounded deafening to leaders of Central Plains like Li Guozhu, but also a novel theory for theoretical economic teachers in urban universities. The center of his speech was that Central Plains Province was not only a province with scarce resources, but also a province with extremely rich resources, and the biggest resource was abundant labor.

At this time, for the domestic economic community, because they have always accepted a large number of Western economic theories, many economists believe that the so-called demographic dividend is a double-sided blade, and it is very likely that they will hurt themselves before they have benefited. In this world, all the work that deals with people has never been easy, and can be said to be the most troublesome job in the world. What troubles economists in developed Western countries now are not how to increase the economic growth rate, but to solve the rising unemployment rate in the country. Many European countries have implemented a high welfare model that would rather the country borrow money to support idle people in society than to eat and wear, than to eat and do laziness, than to reduce social welfare at will, because the election requires votes, and no ruling party dares to risk a series of problems brought about by the soaring unemployment rate by voters.

In contrast, due to political system reasons, the concept of unemployment was not even willing to quote in China. In recent years, a large number of employees who have left the enterprise under the name of "laid-off" and other names, are actually unemployment without changing the medicine. The central government is not unaware of the danger of a large number of laid-off workers entering society, so it also proposed "reemployment training", exempting taxes for laid-off workers from entrepreneurship, and providing policy support for reemployment, but for Central Plains, it is still a drop in the bucket and the effect is not imperfect. In addition, Central Plains itself has a problem with a large number of idle rural labor, so the province has always been troubled by the huge population base, and has never regarded it as a burden, but never as a resource.

"It's interesting. If you mess up my good things, you must give some compensation." Li Guozhu looked at Yang Xing's confident analysis, and the dark clouds in his heart were dispersed a lot. As Cheng Canghai's "Little Zhuge", his fame has spread in the officialdom. Since he could say this, the sparks of his ideals to revitalize the Central Plains have not been extinguished.

"Actually, I initially discussed with Bill Gates of the United States how to do good to help the poorest people. At that time, I thought he was a computer-made software, so he naturally focused on information IT products. Unexpectedly, he shook his head and denied it. He said that he and his wife had visited many poor areas in Africa and found that the people there had not even solved the minimum food problem, lacking medical treatment, no medicine, and no culture. In this case, it was meaningless to provide them with a latest laptop, which was far less valuable than giving them a full meal or a life-saving antibiotic injection. I was very touched at the time, so I felt that the key to revitalizing the economy of the province was to work hard on the vast number of grassroots people." Yang Xing's words were obviously not just about compassion. Li Guozhu sighed with emotion.

He had known the special relationship between Yang Xing and Bill Gates for a long time. During the flood control in 1998, Yang Xing and Bill Gates jointly donated one billion US dollars, which is the largest private donation received in China. Although it was secretly disclosed for various reasons in China, it is not a secret among his leadership at this level. Yang Xing's special political status in China was probably determined at that time, so many people in China wanted to touch him, but they couldn't do anything about him. This timely help is indeed great. But I didn't expect that Bill Gates, a foreigner, could see so clearly the essence of charity and understand that only by meeting the most fundamental needs of most civilians can he be freely thinking about higher needs such as online computers. Compared with this, he is indeed a bit desperate to make ends meet and be eager for quick success.

"Actually, I have heard of a 'micro loan' business abroad. I think it is more suitable for the province to support rural and urban residents in starting businesses." Yang Xing said with a smile. There are many scholars studying economics in the city universities present. A vice president whispered: "Is it a poor bank?"

Yang Xing nodded and said, "I saw that Principal Fang is very clear about this, so why not explain it to everyone." When Principal Fang heard Yang Xing dot the general, even the nerd knew that Yang Xing gave him the opportunity to show his face in front of Governor Li. He was grateful to Yang Xing for his gratitude and cleared his throat and told him quickly.

"Everyone knows that our neighbor Bangladesh is recognized as one of the least economically developed countries in the world, but this country has produced a world-renowned economist who put his economic theory into practice and changed the fate of two-thirds of the poor in Bangladesh. He is Mohamed Yunus."

At this time, Muhammad Yunus was only well-known in Asia, but when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, his deeds became well-known. Yunus was originally an ordinary Bangladesh economist. In 1974, a devastating famine occurred in Bangladesh, thousands of miles away and hunger were everywhere, which shocked Yunus, who was still teaching economics in college at that time, completely changed his practice of hiding in the ivory tower to study economic theory, and went to the poorest villages in Bangladesh to find practical solutions to poverty.

Two years later, Yunus met an extremely poor woman who made bamboo stools in a countryside. Because she was exploited by lenders, she could not even earn two cents a day. Yunus reflected deeply: "During my university teaching, I conducted theoretical analysis of the amount of thousands of dollars, but here, right in front of me, the issue of life and death is displayed in the unit of 'division'. Where is my theory wrong? Why can't my university course reflect such a reality of life?" So he resolutely took out $27 and lent it to 42 women with the same situation in the village. Starting from this, he began to establish the "Bangladesh Rural Bank" which serves the poor.

The operating model of "Bangladesh Rural Bank" is different from that of most international financial institutions. Although it also requires profit, it is more of a public welfare nature. Banks do not require mortgages during the loan process and have established a banking system based on mutual trust, responsibility, participation and creativity. Banks do not have office environments such as luxury offices that are usually owned by banks. Bank employees take the initiative to go to the fields and lands, and do not sign loan contracts most of the time because most borrowers are ignorant and borrowing depends entirely on personal integrity.

Banks charge customers a fixed interest, usually 20% per year, which is not low, and most customers are locked in rural Bangladesh women, who are more cautious about loans. Loan applicants must have a clear understanding of how banks operate so that they are eligible to borrow.

Loan repayment usually starts from the second week of the loan. Although it is a bit urgent, it alleviates the pressure of letting borrowers bear the annual repayment of large loans. The borrowers form a "unity group" of 6-8 people to supervise the repayment of loans. If someone in the group fails to repay the money within the deadline, the entire group will be punished. The loan issuance and repayment are publicly carried out every week through a "central meeting". In the political environment where corruption is rampant in Bangladesh, the openness and transparency of rural banks is extremely alternative and rare, but it is incredible that the "Bangladesh Rural Bank" maintains a good operating level, and the bank debt repayment ratio is as high as 98%, which is enough to make any commercial bank feel jealous.

"Bangladesh Rural Bank" has now become the largest rural bank in Bangladesh, with 6.5 million borrowers, providing credit services to more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh, becoming the main financial means to support the rural economy of Bangladesh. The bank also provides each borrower with an untransferable bank share. The holder of 92% of the bank's shares (the balance is held by the government) is a vast majority of poor people. "Bangladesh Rural Bank" is indeed worthy of being the name of the poor's own bank.

Yunus' success has made many third-world countries competing to follow suit. The Philippines, India, Nepal and other countries have promoted his experience, and provinces such as Yunnan in my country have also selected regions for pilot projects. After listening to Vice President Fang's introduction, everyone is obviously interested in this unique micro-loan mutual banking model. Only Li Guozhu nodded first and then shook his head. Obviously, he felt that this credit model that is very suitable for the economic status of the province and is convenient for supporting a large number of rural and urban small and medium-sized enterprises is very attractive. However, he also thought that this involves changing the current national poverty alleviation model and conflicting with the central government's policy of implementing financial institutions reform, which is very difficult.

Yang Xing saw Li Guozhu's difficulties and helped him out: "Yunus' success cannot be separated from the political environment he is in. The province should not copy it as it is. However, as a new poverty alleviation idea, the province might as well carry out a certain degree of financial innovation in supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises." Hearing this, Li Guozhu and Kan Dongtian couldn't help but take out their notebooks, and they subconsciously felt that Yang Xing's next words were the focus.

"The large industrial projects in Zhongyuan Province have always been the most eye-catching. Just like a person's mind and heart are always the most concerned, but a person cannot survive by relying on his mind and heart alone. A complete person also needs bones, muscles, capillaries and other organizations. Similarly, the successful experience of coastal provinces tells us that economic growth is not achieved by just building a few more airports and building a few high-rise buildings. Their success depends more on small social and economic cells such as small family workshops and township enterprises throughout the city and countryside. A social environment for free entrepreneurship has been formed along the coast. It can be said that in the past 20 years of reform, our country's greatest achievement is to make a group of township entrepreneurs who come out of the farmland the mainstream of society!"

Yang Xing's words were concise and pointed to the core. Li Guozhu showed a clear expression in his eyes, and obviously had some understanding. "We should not raise our heads too high. We should bend down and pay more attention to the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises, and even small economic units such as self-employed enterprises. The province can refer to the model of "Bangladesh Rural Bank" to establish a financial institution that specifically serves small and medium-sized enterprises, lowers the mortgage threshold, and issues loans based on credit."
Chapter completed!