As the Lunar New Year approaches, the cultural hall in Linghu Town, Nanxun District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, is filled with a festive atmosphere. From the village Spring Festival gala to family banquets, and from wedding ceremonies to various other activities, the villagers are kept busy with one event after another. The rural cultural hall is not only a distinctive cultural feature of Zhejiang province but also the fruit of the “Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Renovation” project (hereinafter referred to as the Thousand-Ten Thousand Project), in Zhejiang.
Behind this lies the financial support and assistance from Industrial Bank. In 2022, Huzhou Lingshuo Agricultural Development Co., Ltd responded to the call of the Thousand-Ten Thousand Project and proposed to acquire the franchise rights of 25 rural cultural halls in Linghu Town, Nanxun District, Huzhou City, intending to transform them into rural five-star hotels. Industrial Bank Hangzhou Branch promptly responded and conducted on-site investigations, ultimately providing a loan of 270 million yuan for the project, ensuring the smooth progress of the renovation of 25 cultural halls and further enriching rural cultural life.
Recently, the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Learning and Applying the Experience of the Thousand Villages Demonstration and Ten Thousand Villages Renovation Project to Effectively Promote the Comprehensive Revitalization of Villages was issued. This is the 12th No.1 Central Document guiding the work related to agriculture; rural areas and farmers since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Earnestly upholding the spirit of the central document, Industrial Bank learns from and applies the experience of the Thousand-Ten Thousand Project, and promotes mechanism innovation, product innovation, and service innovation, creating distinctive rural revitalization models according to local conditions and injecting financial vitality into the construction of beautiful and prosperous rural areas. By the end of 2023, the balance of agriculture-related loans of Industrial Bank had exceeded 660 billion yuan.
Tamping the Ballast Stone of Food Security
Seeds are “chips” of agriculture. As an important crop breeding base in China, Hainan Province has bred nearly 30,000 new crop varieties, accounting for more than 70% of the approved new varieties in the country, and it is the “Silicon Valley of Southern Seed Breeding” that serves the nationwide seed industry. Seed R&D entails advanced technology, and is high value-added and capital-intensive. Due to high R&D risks, seed R&D enterprises generally only have light assets and lack in traditional collateral, facing financing difficulties.
Hainan Jiushenghe Agricultural Science Research Institute Co., Ltd. is a key leading enterprise of agricultural industrialization in Hainan Province. In order to support the R&D of the enterprise, Industrial Bank utilized the “flow of technology” evaluation system, focusing on evaluating the technological innovation capabilities such as the quantity and quality of enterprise intellectual property rights, patent intensity, strength of research teams, scientific and technological qualifications, and awards for technological innovation achievements. The bank has provided a loan of 22 million yuan to the enterprise, fully supporting the funding needs of research and development, production, and sales.
From seed security to food security, Industrial Bank’s financial services have covered the whole industry chain from seed research and development, land transfer, planting, warehousing and processing, distribution, etc. With the power of finance, it safeguards food security and continuously improves the quality and efficiency of financial services.
In Fujian, Industrial Bank and the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly launched the “Industrial Bank Grain Loan”, which provides up to 5 million credit limits and preferential interest rates for all entities engaged in grain production, distribution and services, such as farmers, family farms, farmers cooperatives, agribusinesses, agricultural social service organizations within Fujian Province.
In Henan province, the granary of Central China, Industrial Bank actively provides financial support for grain collection and storage, launching special loans for grain storage, ensuring “warehouses and money all ready for grain” and “cash on delivery”, to safeguard food security for the people. Seven years have passed since the first transaction. Over the past 7 years, Industrial Bank has consistently adhered to the principle of “early deployment, early action,” leveraged its professional advantages, continuously deepened its efforts, and has provided nearly 3 billion yuan in special loans for grain storage to grain collection and storage enterprises in Henan Province.
Injecting New Momentum into Industrial Revitalization
“Our cured meat is homemade and safe to eat, salty and flavorful, with a golden color and a satisfying chewiness. Now in our live-streaming, ordering 2 kilograms will get you six large bags of dried radishes for free.” During the live-streaming, the anchor of Hengyang Juweibaopen Food Co., Ltd. interacts with fans while cutting cured meat, attracting a large number of cured meat lovers to place orders.
With the rise of live-streaming e-commerce, the company faces the happy dilemma of not being able to keep up with production due to high demand. It urgently needs to expand its production, but a shortage of funds makes Mr. Zhang, the company’s leader, very anxious. After learning about the company’s situation, Industrial Bank immediately dispatched personnel to investigate and tailored a service plan for the company, opening a green channel that simplified procedures, and quickly issuing an agricultural loan of 8 million yuan loan. This solved the company’s funding gap, enabling it to expand production in a timely manner. As a result, its daily sales exceeded 600,000 yuan, and annual sales exceeded 200 million yuan.
Prosperous industries are at the core of rural revitalization. In August 2023, Industrial Bank established a Special Financial Staff system, having financial staff serve as financial advisers to governments and financial consultants to enterprises. This built a bridge between financial institutions, governments, enterprises, rural areas, and the rural people, helping to bridge the “last mile” of financial assistance for industrial revitalization in rural areas and exploring financial service models with Industrial Bank characteristics according to local conditions.
In Suzhou, Industrial Bank Suzhou Branch signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Crab Association, and Industrial Bank’s special financial staff has taken pains to visit all member units of the Association. “With Industrial Bank’s financial support, we can introduce advanced breeding technology and equipment to further enhance the breeding capability and efficiency, so that we can have bigger and better crabs and greater economic returns.” At the beginning of January this year, Zhang Jiawei, one of the special financial staff of Industrial Bank Suzhou Branch, went to Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Modern Agricultural Industrial Park Special Aquaculture Co., Ltd. several times to investigate its financing needs and aquacultural conditions. Later, Industrial Bank provided credit support of 50 million yuan, giving full financial backing for the company’s development, and earning praise from the company’s leaders.
Wholesale markets for agricultural products are the main channel and the main mode of distribution of agricultural products in China, connecting the fields at one end and the dinner tables of thousands of families at the other, playing an important role in connecting production and demand, promoting agriculture and increasing farmers’ income, and maintaining stable supply prices. Industrial Bank has issued special policies and innovated financial service models to support the development of wholesale markets for agricultural products and help the steady development of the “Vegetable Basket” project.
In Hubei province, in November 2023, the Hubei Shouheng International Agricultural Products Trading Center, known as the “Aircraft Carrier for the Distribution of Agricultural Products”, was officially put into operation. Industrial Bank provided loans exceeding 2.2 billion yuan for the project, fully supporting the construction of wholesale markets for agricultural products and ensuring the timely completion of this super “Vegetable Basket” in Central China.
At the same time, to address the shortcomings of low intensification, high workload, and lack of unified planning in traditional agricultural wholesale markets, Industrial Bank developed the “Smart Agricultural Wholesale System”, which provides a digital solution for market managers and merchants and facilitates the transformation of wholesale markets for agricultural products.
For industries to flourish, leading enterprises are the key. Industrial Bank fully leverages its advantages in “commercial banking plus investment banking”, continuously increases financial support for leading agricultural enterprises, improves product suitability, effectively drives the healthy development of the whole agricultural upstream and downstream industrial chains, and further accelerates the revitalization of rural industries.
In Gansu Province, recently Industrial Bank Lanzhou Branch, as a joint lead underwriter, underwrote 800 million yuan of rural revitalization notes for Gansu Yasheng Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd., a key national leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization, helping the enterprise to become bigger and stronger, and effectively driving the development of pasture planting and increasing the income of farmers and herdsmen.
According to reports, at present, Industrial Bank has established a modern agricultural financial service system covering key modern agricultural industrial parks, key advantageous industrial clusters with local characteristics, and key leading enterprises of agricultural industrialization. It has explored the “leading enterprises plus farmers” and other financial service models, increasing the financial support for agricultural groups contributing to regional integration and the industrial chains of leading food processing enterprises, and effectively encouraging farmers to increase production and income.
Financial Support After Poverty Eradication
Zhenghe County of Nanping City is located in the mountainous area of northern Fujian Province, which is a central Soviet county and an old revolutionary area. Its economic development was once trailing far behind in Fujian Province, making it one of the key counties for poverty alleviation and economic development among the 23 provincial-level poverty alleviation and economic development counties in Fujian Province. Today, industries in Zhenghe County are thriving, paving the way for achieving common prosperity.
Behind this progress is the support of Industrial Bank for over a decade. As the only national joint-stock bank rooted in Fujian, Industrial Bank has been assisting Zhenghe County since 2012, providing external support while helping it to achieve self-reliant development, with donations of nearly 50 million yuan and loans exceeding 1 billion yuan. After eight years of joint efforts, Zhenghe County achieved poverty alleviation in April 2020.
Getting out of poverty is not the end, but the starting point of a new life and a new journey. Industrial Bank strictly implements the requirement that though poverty has been eliminated, all of the related responsibilities, policies, support, and oversight remain in place, adheres to the public commitment of “four unchanged”, i.e. unchanged goals, unchanged policies, unchanged poverty alleviation teams and unchanged assessment, in order to consolidate the outcomes of poverty alleviation and ensure the smooth transition into rural revitalization.
At the end of 2022, Industrial Bank Zhenghe Branch was officially opened, serving as a new important channel for Industrial Bank to contribute to the development of Zhenghe County. Since its establishment, Industrial Bank Zhenghe Branch has actively served the economic and social development of Zhenghe County by becoming the “Red Partner” of the CPC Committees in Zhenghe Country, establishing the “Special Financial Service Station” etc., which promotes the integrated development of the Bank and companies in Zhenghe County and serves rural revitalization.
China’s No.1 Central Document in 2024 emphasizes the need to ensure no large-scale relapse into poverty occurs and that state-owned financial institutions should increase their financial support for the key counties designated to receive assistance for rural revitalization. As a domestic systemically important bank, Industrial Bank has always adhered to the people-centered development philosophy, taking rural revitalization and common prosperity as important political tasks and new strategic opportunities. It has established a “Leading Group for Consolidating the Achievements of Financial Poverty Alleviation and Promoting Rural Revitalization,” led by its top executives, set up the Rural Revitalization Department as a first-level department and drawn “planning maps” and “road maps” for rural revitalization with high-quality services. These initiatives aim to provide distinctive and high-quality rural revitalization financial services to achieve high-quality and efficient agriculture, create livable rural areas with economic vitality, and foster prosperity among rural communities.