Women's Micro Loans: How to Leverage Billions with Just a Little Bit
Last year, the total amount of newly added micro loans for women with interest subsidies nationwide reached 24.962 billion yuan, with a cumulative total of 48.648 billion yuan in micro loans issued to women. The central and local governments allocated 1.846 billion yuan in interest subsidy funds, directly supporting over 1.1 million urban and rural women in their entrepreneurship and employment endeavors, while also creating nearly 4 million jobs for women. These micro loans with interest subsidies have become a "booster" for urban and rural women seeking employment, starting businesses, and developing further.
"At the start of my business venture, the hardest part? It was undoubtedly the lack of money. Without seed funding, even the best ideas cannot be realized," said Gu Yunyun, a villager from Balian Village, Wangdian Town, Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. In 2006, she secured a 10,000 yuan micro loan with interest subsidies through the Women's Federation of Jiaxing City and planted five mu (about 0.33 hectares) of open-field watermelons. With this initial capital of 10,000 yuan, she created a value of 20,000 yuan that same year, thus accumulating some primitive capital.
Subsequently, Gu Yunyun had new ideas. She decided to move her watermelon cultivation into greenhouses, allowing her to grow an additional season each year. The following year, she again obtained a 20,000 yuan micro loan with interest subsidies through the Women's Federation of the city, constructing two steel-frame greenhouses for growing watermelons. "The profit per mu of land reached more than 6,000 yuan, much higher than planting watermelons in the open field," she noted.
Today, Gu Yunyun has built 12 watermelon greenhouses. "We can produce two seasons of watermelons a year, with profits exceeding 10,000 yuan per mu of land. Not only is repaying the loan not a problem, but watermelon farming has entered a virtuous cycle," she explained.
Lu Ying, Chairperson of the Jiaxing City Women's Federation, stated that in 2000, during a survey conducted by the federation, it was discovered that insufficient funding was one of the primary difficulties women faced in their entrepreneurial pursuits. For this reason, the Women's Federation proposed to the municipal Party Committee and government the idea of providing micro loans with interest subsidies for urban and rural women entrepreneurs. The municipal Party Committee and government took this very seriously and decided that starting from 2001, the municipal finance department would establish a "Jinguo Competition" activity micro loan with interest subsidies amounting to 1 million yuan annually, increasing to 2 million yuan annually in 2006, and expanding to 5 million yuan annually starting from 2012.
Lu Ying informed reporters that after the trial implementation of micro loans with interest subsidies, they achieved remarkable results akin to leveraging billions with just a little bit. The Women's Federation seized the opportunity to push various county-level (city, district) Women's Federations to actively seek micro loan project funds from their respective fiscal departments. By 2007, micro loans with interest subsidies for women entrepreneurs covered the entire city, forming a favorable trend of upward and downward linkage, incrementally increasing amounts, and rolling development.
Reporters learned that in response to issues such as shortages of startup capital for urban and rural women entrepreneurs, Jiaxing City was the first in the province to introduce micro loans with interest subsidies and guaranteed loans for female entrepreneurs. Over ten years, a total of nearly 1.17 billion yuan in micro loans with interest subsidies were issued, benefiting 2,155 households of women.
Meanwhile, various regions of Jiaxing City explored distinctive credit support models and policies by leveraging existing resources. Xiuzhou District combined the creation of civilized families with microcredit, establishing credit loans for civilized families. In the pilot towns, credit loans totaling 4.13 million yuan were granted to 154 town-level civilized families. The Haichang City Women's Federation established entrepreneurial profiles for over 800 women, focusing on supporting the most excellent, most needed, and most potential entrepreneurial projects. By the end of 2010, 274 female entrepreneurial projects received a total of 59.95 million yuan in interest subsidies. Nanhu District explored new models of financial support, implementing a reward-for-subsidy model.
From nothing to something, from less to more, from point to surface, from single-form operation to multiple-mode parallelism, Jiaxing City continuously extended and expanded its financial support methods. Through "supporting at the start and sending them off for a distance," it provided tangible assistance for women's entrepreneurship and development.
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