Recently, nearly 200,000 boxes of crayfish flavored with minced garlic and 13 spices, all produced in Qianjiang, Hubei Province, arrived at the supermarkets in Shanghai and other major cities and sold well among local consumers. As the pioneer of crayfish farming in paddy fields, Qianjiang is known as China’s crayfish capital. Though the city is unmatchable in the country in terms of crayfish farming scale and crayfish processing capacity, the local crayfish industry is faced with a series of challenges, including limited business scale of crayfish companies, underdeveloped crayfish farms, and lack of a well-developed industry chain.
In 2018, CDB paid several visits to Qianjiang to gain a deep understanding of local rural development. Through an innovative financing model, the bank promised a total of 5 billion yuan in loans for a rural revitalization project focused on infrastructure construction for the local crayfish industry. Following completion of the project, Qianjiang will have 14,000 hectares of high-standard paddy fields for crayfish farming, an extended industry chain for crayfish farming, higher-quality rural infrastructure, and an improved natural environment. The project will also bring stable income growth to a total of 600 people registered as living in poverty in 12 poor villages.
Since the convening of the 18th CPC National Congress, while studying and putting into practice General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important theory on the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, CDB has been leveraging development finance to channel more resources to rural areas, serve the high-quality development of agriculture and rural areas, and promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, based on the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. As of the end of June 2020, the outstanding volume of CDB loans for agriculture, rural areas, and farmers had reached 1.76 trillion yuan.
CDB has been building closer cooperation with government agencies, while contributing to the development of financial policies. It has deepened cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in advancing high-standard farmland construction, ensuring the supply of live pigs, and reforming agricultural reclamation. Its cooperation with the National Development and Reform Commission has prioritized support for the building of national pilot zones for urban-rural integrated development. It has also signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources to provide vigorous support for priority areas, such as drinking water safety in rural areas and efficient and water-saving irrigation.
CDB has been strengthening financial support for priority areas. To support agricultural development, CDB has provided a total of about 10 billion yuan in loans for the construction of more than 130,000 hectares of high-standard farmland in Zhaodong of Heilongjiang Province, Zhangye of Gansu Province, and the former Yellow River flooded area in Henan Province. To close rural infrastructure gaps, CDB has been helping to address the lack of rural infrastructures for production and everyday lives, with a focus on road construction and electrical grid renovation, while promoting urban-rural infrastructure connectivity. In particular, by supporting the development of all-for-one tourism, CDB has been advancing the building of a mutually reinforcing relationship between rural land consolidation and rehabilitation, rural infrastructure improvement, and the development of local industries, such as tourism, health preservation, and cultural experience. It has also contributed to the establishment of several “Beautiful Countryside” construction models, such as the one adopted by Anji of Zhejiang Province. With a focus on fields such as eldercare, healthcare, education, and culture, CDB has been helping to improve public services in rural areas. It has supported the implementation of many projects, including the culture, education, and eldercare project of Taigu, Shanxi Province and the culture and education project of Lijiang, Yunnan Province.
CDB has been developing innovative financing models to improve its development finance services. It has created many new and duplicable models that highlight the areas of priority and weakness for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. In Anji, Zhejiang Province, with a focus on all-for-one tourism and industrial revitalization, CDB promoted the upgrading of the local rural infrastructure to help create a high-level “Beautiful Countryside.” In Qianjiang, Hubei Province, to exploit the advantage of the city in crayfish farming in paddy fields, CDB supported the construction of high-standard farmland and the building of a complete industry chain covering crayfish farming, processing, and marketing. The goal was to boost rural revitalization through industrial prosperity and invest the gains from industrial development in agriculture, rural infrastructure construction, and the improvement of the rural living environment. In Jinzhai, Anhui Province, CDB supported the construction of standardized tea-oil camellia planting bases covering a total area of 4,000 hectares. It promoted the inclusion of rural collective economic organizations and farmers in the industry chain by supporting the business expansion of market participants owning productive resources and by creating an interest-integration mechanism with a focus on proper division of labor and cooperation. In Meitan, Guizhou Province, CDB supported the construction of about 30,000 hectares of tea plantations adopting European standards. It helped to establish a complete industry chain covering tea farming, processing, and marketing as well as related cultural and tourist development, contributing to the high-quality development of the local tea industry.
Looking ahead, CDB will spare no effort to support the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers through financial means in line with the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. To be specific, CDB will continue helping to close gaps in rural infrastructures and public services, safeguard food security and the supply of major agricultural products, promote industrial integration in rural areas and urban-rural integration, and create more employment opportunities and sources of income growth for farmers.
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