In a fascinating and much-anticipated move, China has finally selected a province to begin a pilot project for financial reforms in the rural economy. Lishui in coastal Zhejiang will be the focus for the pilot program intended to help bridge the gap between the villages and the cities in terms of wealth. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has published guidelines for the pilot program with instructions to help the city of Lishui to build a financial infrastructure.
As the central bank said in a published statement on Thursday, "Through financial reforms and innovations, our goal is to set up a multi-layer, low-cost, wide-coverage modern rural financial service system in the pilot area."
China’s economy has a great deal of imbalance due to the financial differences in the urban and rural areas. The goal of the program is to help to create more economic stability by distributing the wealth more evenly and by helping those in rural populations to gain a better economic footing.