Greater support for key areas and weak links in agriculture, rural areas and farmers
The 2015 No. 1 Central Document took agricultural modernization as its theme, focusing on agriculture, rural areas and farmers for the 12th consecutive year. A relevant official of Agricultural Bank of China said that from a financial perspective, the implementation of the No. 1 Document contains both opportunities for rural financial development, such as accelerated agricultural development, increased state investment, and further deepening of rural reform, and also new requirements for financial institutions to shift their support priorities, optimize policies and systems, and innovate products and services.
The official said that this year Agricultural Bank of China will, in accordance with the requirements of the No. 1 Document and relevant state departments, promptly issue an implementation plan for comprehensively advancing the reform of the Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers Financial Services Division, and steadily expand the scope of the division reform to all county-level branches. Previously, the State Council approved Agricultural Bank of China to carry out pilot reforms deepening the Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers Financial Services Division in 8 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), including Gansu and Sichuan. At present, the pilot has been expanded to county-level branches of 20 tier-one branches in 19 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country. In the pilot branches, lending to agriculture, rural areas and farmers increased significantly, the depth and breadth of financial services for agriculture, rural areas and farmers continued to improve, the cost-to-income ratio of the agriculture, rural areas and farmers business kept declining, and the capacity for sustainable commercial development gradually improved.
It is understood that Agricultural Bank of China has continuously increased support for key areas and weak links in agriculture, rural areas and farmers: vigorously supporting new types of agricultural business entities. By the end of 2014, it supported more than 140,000 large specialized households (family farms), with loan balances reaching 17.4 billion yuan; in response to the financial demand characteristics of leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, it actively provided integrated financial services combining credit business, investment banking business and international business, and currently supports nearly 18,000 leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, with loan balances of 168.2 billion yuan; and it actively explored agricultural machinery financial leasing business. In 2014, the agricultural machinery leasing pilot jointly carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and ABC Leasing Company of Agricultural Bank of China landed in Xinjiang, and the first transaction supported 17 cotton pickers to be delivered and put into use before the cotton-picking season, enabling China's agricultural financial leasing business to take a substantive step; and it focused on carrying out bank-guarantee cooperation, establishing long-term cooperative relations with 854 guarantee companies. Among guaranteed corporate loans, 52% were to small and micro enterprises; among guaranteed personal loans, 52% were farmer household loans, achieving a “double majority” in the proportion of agriculture-related guarantee business.
In recent years, Agricultural Bank of China has actively supported farmers in starting businesses and has continuously carried out financial poverty alleviation work. Since 2009, Agricultural Bank of China has actively strengthened cooperation with the Women's Federation, the China Disabled Persons' Federation, the Communist Youth League Central Committee and others, launching products such as the Women's Entrepreneurship Loan, the small guaranteed loan for rural women's entrepreneurship, and the rural personal production and operation loan, actively supporting rural youth, rural women, people with disabilities and others in starting businesses. At present, the balance of Agricultural Bank of China's rural personal production and operation loans has reached 70.6 billion yuan. Agricultural Bank of China issued the "Ten Measures of Agricultural Bank of China for Financial Poverty Alleviation" and the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Financial Services for Farmer Households in Contiguous Destitute Areas", formulated comprehensive financial service plans for 10 areas including the Wumeng Mountain area, and launched village-based assistance work. By the end of 2014, the bank's loans in contiguous destitute areas stood at 440.2 billion yuan, an increase of 78.5 billion yuan from the beginning of the year.
The official also said that next Agricultural Bank of China will carry out the "Scale Agriculture · Ten Thousand Households and Ten Thousand Cooperatives" special activity, selecting 500,000 large specialized households (family farms) and 10,000 national-level demonstration farmers' professional cooperatives nationwide for key support; carry out the "Leading Enterprises · Ten Billion and One Hundred Enterprises" special activity, focusing on 100 leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization with sales revenue exceeding or approaching 10 billion yuan, and providing comprehensive financial services; and carry out the "Huinongtong, Huinongdai" special activity, further expanding the coverage of "Jinsui Huinongtong", promoting standardized pro-farmer loan products, and striving to build a group of typical branches for poverty alleviation and pro-farmer loans. At the same time, Agricultural Bank of China will further strengthen cooperation with relevant national ministries and commissions as well as government-backed guarantee companies, and use various forms to solve the problems of difficult and expensive loans for agriculture, rural areas and farmers clients.