Alibaba Group donates $5 million to Grameen Trust for China initiative

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 24, 2009: Global online e-commerce solutions provider Alibaba Group has donated $5 million tp Bangaldesh-based Grameen Trust as initial funding for the creation of Grameen China, to provide microfinance loans to the poor in China.
In addition, Alibaba Group will advise in areas like technology-based support to help potential recipients access the program and Grameen China’s initial focus will be in Sichuan, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in May 2008 and Inner Mongolia, with plans to grow to other provinces with the help of additional partners.
In support of this effort, Grameen China will be built and managed by Grameen Trust using the microfinance model pioneered by Grameen Bank and employing Chinese staffers from each region. As Grameen’s lead partner in this effort, Alibaba Group will also help Grameen Trust attract potential supporting partners and other donors to the effort. Grameen China expects to begin making micro-credit loans available as soon as it receives regulatory approval from the authorities.
“We are pleased to join hands with Alibaba Group to create Grameen China and to spread the Grameen Bank Approach to help the poorest people by giving them microcredit to alleviate their poverty through the creation of small businesses,” said Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and Executive Trustee of Grameen Trust. “Using information technology to help Grameen China grow will help our borrowers establish businesses to support themselves, and perhaps eventually even sell their products internationally which will literally change their lives. If we can make micro-credit available to potential entrepreneurs in China then that will make a big impact for the whole world.”
“We are at the beginning of an Internet-driven revolution where small businesses around the world will be able to compete with larger companies for customers like never before,” said Jack Ma, founder, chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Group. “Micro-credit is the oxygen to make entrepreneurial dreams come alive. We are very pleased to join with Grameen Trust in this effort to create employment opportunities in these areas by helping tens of millions more small entrepreneurs create their businesses. We also welcome contribution from others and hope to build more partnerships in China.”
Although Grameen Trust has been active in China since 1995 supporting many Grameen Bank Replication microcredit programs, this will be the first time that Grameen Trust will directly implement microcredit program in China. Grameen China will be a social business. Initially, it will establish two Grameen Microcredit Companies in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia provinces with multiple branches in each area. The branches will be staffed by local employees recruited, trained and supervised by Grameen microfinance experts.
At the initial level of funding, Grameen expects to be able to make loans to more than 8,000 people in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia, with the average loan starting at US$400 per person, and growing to US$4,000 within the first five years of operation. With additional funding partners, the number of loans made will be more than double. In Sichuan specifically, Grameen’s microcredit company will support economic rehabilitation of the victims of the devastating May 2008 major earthquake.
Grameen plans that initially the microcredit company ’s four branches will serve more than 8,000 Sichuan borrowers within three years, impacting the lives of more than 24,000 people in the province alone.
Alibaba.com Limited is a global group in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, founded in 1999, It has more than 42 million registered users from more than 240 countries and regions. Founded in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba.com has offices in more than 40 cities across Greater China as well as in Europe and the United States.

Related Posts:

• Grameen Trust, Carlos Slim Foundation launch Mexico’s $45 million microfinance program
• ACCION begins operations in Inner Mongolia
• PlaNet Finance to provide microfinance support to Sichuan quake victims
• IFC to invest $700,000 in China bank to support microfinance
• Grameen Trust signs MoU with UNHCR to provide microcredit to refugees
• EU unveils microfinance fund for unemployed
• Grameen Foundation plans relief for Haiti quake victims through microfinance
• Grameen Trust partners with Otto group to set up clothing factory

© 2009, Microfinance News. All rights reserved. 2008-09