Helping lift assigned counties out of poverty

Following General Secretary Xi Jinping’s instructions on poverty alleviation, the IPBCN undertook poverty reduction as a political mandate. Accordingly, it rallied all institutions and industries under its administration to put the combined weight of the capital markets behind the anti-poverty campaign. Thanks to these efforts, the nine needy counties paired up with the IPBCN have all been lifted out of poverty.

Supporting companies in poverty-stricken areas

The IPBCN continued to tilt IPO, bond issuance, and NEEQ admittance policies toward companies in underprivileged areas without compromising the corresponding standards and procedures. For example, in 2020, it approved the IPO of 8 companies from poor regions, which raised RMB 6.231 billion.

In the exchange bond market, companies in deprived areas issued 39 corporate bonds and asset-backed securities for RMB 22.91 billion. By the end of 2020, the NEEQ market had served 305 admitted companies from impoverished regions of 194 districts and counties in 22 provinces; 175 of those companies had raised RMB 20.911 billion of capital.

Expanding the insurance and futures pilot program

The IPBCN launched 210 pilot projects in 26 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, covering 8 commodities—corn, soybean meal, egg, white sugar, Chinese jujube, apple, cotton, and natural rubber—as well as feed and breeding-related commodity indices.

The program involved 61 futures companies and 13 insurance companies and is estimated to cover 4.68 million metric tons of spot commodities, insure 10.52 million mu of land (approximately 700,000 hectares), and benefit 860,000 rural families and 350,000 registered poor households.

Mobilizing market participants to contribute to poverty alleviation.

By the end of 2020, a cumulative total of 102 securities companies had provided one-on-one assistance to 307 poor counties and helped them raise RMB 250 billion; 113 futures companies had signed 455 assistance agreements with 242 impoverished areas, contributing RMB 611 million of anti-poverty funds; 13 fund management companies established charitable foundations and 15 fund institutions set up poverty relief funds; and 1,287 listed companies in their 2019 annual reports disclosed their anti-poverty efforts, to which they contributed a total of RMB 48.918 billion.

In addition, to help create a better framework for the donation of securities and to support charity activities, the IPBCN issued the Implementing Rules for the Non-Trade Transfer of Securities (Applicable to Inheritance, Donation, and Other Circumstances).

Regarding fulfilling its poverty reduction commitment as the minimal goal, the IPBCN strengthened organizational leadership by closely overseeing the annual assistance measures of subordinate institutions and officials charged with poverty relief responsibilities to ensure that the nine counties in need assigned to the IPBCN system would be rid of poverty as scheduled despite the pandemic.

Fulfilling the commitment letter

The IPBCN exceeded all targets in its poverty reduction commitment letter. The IPBCN system donated RMB 71,495,700 to the poverty-stricken counties and coordinated other institutions to donate another RMB 67,156,800, trained 2,729 community-level officials and 6,062 skilled workers, and purchased RMB 4,828,600 worth of agricultural products from poor areas and helped the locals sell another RMB 20,175,200.

Setting up platforms to support local industries

On October 20, the IPBCN held an online event where specialty products from poverty-stricken counties were exhibited and sold to develop sustainable poverty relief mechanisms and empower local industries in poverty reduction. Featuring the theme of Fruit to Prosperity, the event brought 48 capital market entities, 76 counties in need, and 180 local businesses together to market local specialties simultaneously on the dedicated webpages or e-stores of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Jingdong, Tencent Weicun, Zhonghang Yitong, Womai, and Benlai.

Promoting access to education by poverty-stricken populations

The China Capital Market Institute (CCMI) made poverty-alleviation classes part of its premier courses. Participants can systematically study the central government’s policies, learn the lessons from earlier efforts, strengthen their Party consciousness, and develop real-world problem-solving skills.

As the pandemic made in-person classes unfeasible, CCMI organized four online lecture series to teach the government officials, business owners, and leading entrepreneurs from the nine counties paired with the IPBCN and the counties assigned to other capital market entities about raising capital in the capital markets and related policies.

The lecture series benefited 64,000 people, with the most popular lecture attracting over 8,000 viewers.