Tibet's 1st village with bank's golden credit card

14:32, November 25, 2009

Residents in Tongxar Village, Qamdo County, eastern Tibet's Qamdo Prefecture, have now become the holders of the "golden credit cards" of the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), a major state-owned commercial bank in China.

Earlier this year, the ABC Qamdo Sub-Branch extended a 1.5 million yuan (0.21 million U.S. dollars) loan to the village with 88 households, with each household receiving 30,000 yuan.

Tongxar has thus become the first "golden card village" in Tibet.

In recent years, the ABC Tibet Branch has intensified its effort in support of the development of agriculture, rural areas and rural residents.

Limited by natural resource shortages, farmers and herdsmen in the village were too poor to pay electricity bills, said Yunggyal Nyima, a leading official of the village. Now, with the substantial support of the small loans extended by the bank, villagers began to embark on the path of prosperity.

Loyar Tsering, president of the branch, noted that his bank has offered the village agricultural loans totaling 3.87 million yuan to date, with most being small-amount loans ranging from 3,000 to 200,000 yuan.

"Today, thanks to the housing project for Tibet's rural residents, our villagers have all moved into their newly-built houses. Many people even have bought their own motor vehicles," Nyima said.

With the bank's credit aid, the villagers have set up a construction team and engaged in agritainment tourism. In 2009, a brick and tile workshop was built with a 1.5 million yuan bank loan. In 2008, the village earned more than one million yuan, with a net per-capita income of 10,800 yuan per villager.

So far this year, 14 townships, towns and 182 villages have been included in the credit list of the bank's Qamdo Sub-Branch, according to Wang Hong, vice president of the sub-branch.

Ten years ago, the Xardo Tsering family was regarded as a typical poor family with five members and 0.8 ha of plateau barley farmland.

With a small loan from the ABC, the man started to do business and provide transport services. Following several years of hard work, he has built a two-storey Tibetan-style villa and opened a family-run hotel, earning an annual income of 40,000 yuan. He was upgraded as the bank's "diamond card" holder entitled to borrowing credit extension loans of 100,000 yuan.

In the first three quarters of this year, the Tibet Branch granted agricultural loans of 3.02 billion yuan, with a balance of loans hitting 5.07 billion yuan.

Of the 410,000 rural households in Tibet, 370,000 have received the Certificate of Loans for Farmers and Herdsmen " by the ABC.

Source: Xinhuanet