This pioneering initiative will improve access to finance over the next five years, contributing to scale up digital financial solutions and piloting insurance to 500,000 low-income farmers, including women, youth entrepreneurs.

By addressing the need for improved access to financial services and support for MSMEs in agriculture, the project aims to contribute to the creation of jobs and the sustainable and inclusive economic development of the sector.

The general objective is to test a tailor-made and innovative agricultural product for smallholder farmers and expand the loan products to rural areas.

With the issuance of this Green Bond, Zuoli will finance, amongst others, green buildings and energy efficiency projects in the Zhejiang province.

Li told Reuters in an interview that in “traditional finance” investing in SMEs was rarely worthwhile for global institutions as the due diligence was difficult, risks were high and funding amounts small.

The annual survey on mobile payments showed 98 percent of respondents indicated mobile was their most commonly used payment method, up 5 percentage points from 2019.

Hong Kong-based HKT Financial Services, the Fintech division of the HKT Group, has launched another Fintech project, HKT Flexi, a digital or online financing platform that allows users to make payments via the HKT Flexi App.

As contactless payments become the norm amid the worldwide pandemic response, China rolled out its digital currency this month in four cities, setting it up to become the world’s first cashless society.