On the afternoon of February 27, 2017, China Association of Microfinance (hereafter referred as CAM), in cooperation with Grameen China and China Association of Social Value Investors (hereafter referred as CASVI) held a seminar named the China’s Financial Inclusion driven by Grameen Model, by borrowing the opportunity of the visit of Professor Yunus who is the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the founder of Grameen Bank. Professor Yunus took a full participation in the seminar, in addition, the founders of microcredit and senior microfinance practitioners from both Bangladesh and China were gathered together to attend this seminar, including Professor Latifee, Former Managing Director of Grameen Trust, Professor Du Xiaoshan, Chairman of CAM, Mr. Bai Chengyu, Secretary General of CAM, Mr. Gao Zhan, CEO of Grameen China, and Mrs. Bai Hong, Secretary General of CASVI. 

Professor Yunus delivered an important speech and gave a detailed answers to questions raised by the audience. He pointed out that resources are allocated by the capital under today’s capitalist system, resulting in the concentration of social wealth in the hands of a few people that causes social polarization and poverty issues. He advocated for social business that will not distribute dividends to shareholders but should reinvest the profits in developing social undertakings. Grameen Bank is just one of those successful examples with regard to social business, which solved the problem of the poor in terms of financial exclusion. Moreover, he described credit like financial oxygen, which is a necessity for human being to live. However, the formal financial institutions refused to supply the “oxygen” to the poor, while some moneylenders took this opportunity to exploit the poor. Nevertheless, Grameen Bank is the banker to the poor by providing credit services for the poor and returning the profit to the poor. Furthermore, Professor Yunus also promoted family solar system through his social business to meet the demand of farmers for electricity in Bangladesh.    

Professor Du Xiaoshan spoke highly of the value of Grameen Bank in his speech, and he argued that there are five key points to understand the Grameen Model, including, 1. The advocate for social business reflects the needs of financial inclusion development; 2. Stick to original mission and move forward with innovation; 3. One feature of financial inclusion is to achieve a sustainable growth with a small profit after covering the cost; 4. Financial inclusion requires the government to play a correct role; 5. We must take great efforts to solve the problem of lack of depth in terms of financial services.

Mr. Gao Zhan, CEO of Grameen China introduced the experiences of his pilot project of replicating Grameen model in China by cooperating with Grameen Bank. He emphasized that the established social and economic goals can be achieved only if we strictly follow the operation of Grameen Model.  

Other speakers also expressed professional opinions in the field of financial inclusion and poverty alleviation.

The main purpose of Professor Yunus’ visit to Beijing was to promote the development of social business in China. During his stay, he visited the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and also attended the inauguration ceremony of Yunus Center of the Renmin University of China as well as the social business forum organized by the Renmin University of China.