I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 643 Emergency Meeting Held in the City for Small Loans to Benefit Farmers

Fang Qingye spent two days in Hangzhou and was preparing to take a bus to Shanghai. Today was Thursday, and he planned to stay in Shanghai for three days to spend with his wife before returning to Nanxin for work on Sunday afternoon.

However, at four o'clock in the afternoon, before Yue Kai had even left Hangzhou in his Mercedes-Benz, Fang Qingye received a call from Director Ma of the General Office of Jinghai Bank.

"Fang Xing, I have received a meeting notice from the Municipal Financial Office. A citywide meeting to promote microcredit for farmers will be held at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow in Conference Room 5 of the Municipal Government. Key leaders are required to attend."

“Deng Xing can go,” Fang Qingye replied.

"No, the Municipal Financial Office specifically instructed me that this leave must be requested from the principal responsible person. Anyone who needs to ask for leave should ask Mayor Zhang directly!"

Huh? Asking for leave directly from the mayor, the top leader?

"Is Mayor Zhang also going to participate?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Yes, Executive Mayor Hu and Mayor Liu, who is in charge of finance, also participated."

Such high specifications?
Both the mayor and the executive vice mayor are required to attend?

The fact that such a simple microcredit program for farmers attracted so many key city leaders to attend suggests something extraordinary.

"Okay, I'll be there on time."

Fang Qingye hung up the phone and said to Yue Kai, "I'm not going to Shanghai. I'm going back to Jinghai. I have a meeting at the municipal government tomorrow morning."

"Boss, aren't we going back to Nanxin?"

"Forget it, I'm too lazy to go. I'll just stay in Jinghai tonight, and I'll have Hu Lingling bring my laptop over tomorrow morning."

"Okay, then let's stay at the Wenjing Hotel? It's closer to the city government."

"can."

Fang Qingye sent Hu Lingling a WeChat message, asking her to deliver her laptop to the hotel before 8 a.m. the next morning, and then called Bai Ou to explain the reason.

"I came directly to Shanghai after the meeting," Fang Qingye said.

"Don't come back. Peach said she's going to Nanxin this weekend, and she's bringing her classmates with her."

"And what about you? Aren't you coming back together this weekend?" Fang Qingye asked again.

"It's inconvenient for me to travel right now, so I won't be coming back. You just enjoy your time with them," Bai Ou said on the phone.

"Okay then, I'll come to Shanghai next weekend."

"Ah."

Huang Tao's classmate, Lily, is from the University of Chicago. She invited Huang Tao to visit Shanghai, but unexpectedly, she also came to Nanxin.

Fang Qingye arrived in Jinghai around 7 p.m. and checked into the Wenjing Hotel. The next morning at 7:30 a.m., she received a call from Hu Lingling saying that she had arrived at the hotel.

"Haven't had breakfast yet? Come to the restaurant on the second floor with the driver," Fang Qingye invited.

"Master Li has already eaten, but I haven't eaten yet."

"Then come up."

Fang Qingye and Yue Kai went downstairs to the second-floor restaurant, where Hu Lingling was already waiting at the door, holding Fang Qingye's usual briefcase.

After finishing breakfast, Fang Qingye prepared to go to the municipal government for a meeting and said to Hu Lingling, "You go back first."

Unexpectedly, the girl said, "Fang Xing, can I stay a while before going back?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to go shopping, hehe."

Fang Qingye then noticed that Hu Lingling wasn't wearing the bank's gray-blue OL uniform today; instead, she was wearing a white blazer and a short skirt, giving off a JK (high school girl) vibe.

Fang Qingye was a little puzzled. "Going shopping so early in the morning? Besides, don't you often go to Shanghai? What's there to shop in Jinghai?"

“It feels different! I heard that a new shopping center opened in Jinghai, and I want to go check it out,” the girl said confidently.

"Go ahead, but you have to come back to the office with me at noon!" Fang Qingye agreed.

"Okay, I'll tell Teacher Liu to go back first!" The girl left happily. Fang Qingye shook her head, went upstairs to tidy up a bit more, and then went downstairs to take a car to the city government.

At 8:20, Fang Qingye arrived at the fifth conference room of the municipal government on time. He found that there were already people in the conference room.

They were all top executives from various banks, including leaders of the branches of the five major state-owned banks, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, and Jiangsu Provincial Bank in Jinghai, as well as representatives from Jinghai Rural Commercial Bank, Commercial Bank of China, Huashang Rural Bank, Rongxing Rural Bank, and the Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC), a policy bank!
That's quite a show of force.

Fang Qingye found a seat with the "Jinghai Bank" sign and sat down. Next to her was the head of the Jinghai branch of Huijing Bank, whom Fang Qingye recognized as surnamed Tang.

"President Tang, what brings you to the meeting?" Fang Qingye greeted him.

"Look, even President Wang from the Jinghai branch of Hengfeng Bank has come. How could we not come?" President Tang said with a wry smile.

"Your microcredit loan volume for farmers isn't very large, is it?" Fang Qingye asked again.

"It's not a big deal, just a little bit," President Tang said in a low voice. "I heard that a few days ago, provincial leaders came to Jinghai to investigate the microcredit program for farmers. They found the progress to be slow and were very dissatisfied. They criticized the relevant municipal department heads in public. That's why the municipal leaders couldn't sit still and convened this meeting."

It turned out to be the case.

Normally, a vice mayor in charge of finance would be enough to attend such a meeting, so it's no wonder that the mayor and the executive vice mayor both attended in person this time.

"Hey, Fang Xing, I heard you guys have a pretty big volume of small tasks."

“Yes, 5000 million, what a worry,” Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"President Fang, what are you worried about?" President Tang joked, "Even if all 5000 million becomes bad debt, it won't affect anything, right? Your Jinghai Bank's non-performing loan ratio was only 0.8% last year, the lowest in the city, which is enviable."

"Look at what you're saying, but our family business is weak. Unlike you, who are rich and powerful and don't care about this little bit."

Small-scale agricultural loans are a headache for banks. The national policy is good; to facilitate farmers' access to credit, develop agriculture, and increase income, the government even provides substantial subsidies for a portion of the interest.

Interest subsidies are certainly a good thing for farmers, and they are happy to receive them, with government support. However, banks are not enthusiastic about them.

why?
The input-output ratio is too low, and the risks are uncontrollable.

Farmers have poor risk resistance capabilities and difficulty in obtaining guarantees or collateral. What if you can't repay a loan of tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan on time?
If it's a business, they'll immediately apply to the court to freeze your accounts, and seize your factory and machinery.

But farmers, you can't block up someone's house and take their tractor or oxen, can you?
The government will compensate for part of the interest, but the principal is gone?
Another issue is that while the amount of small loans is small, the procedures are not very simple. Making dozens of small loans is not as good as giving a single loan to a business, as the latter has controllable risk and guaranteed profits.

Banks also have to do the math.

As the two were talking, several city leaders filed in, and the meeting room immediately fell silent.

The meeting was chaired by Executive Vice Mayor Hu Huaiwen. First, the director of the Municipal Financial Office reported on the work of provincial leaders who had come to investigate the work the day before, and pointed out several problems in the city's microcredit work.

Then Mayor Liu, who is in charge of finance, reported on the progress of the rural microcredit business of all banks in the city in the first quarter, and set the completion time for this work in the second quarter and even throughout the year.

Following this were statements from the heads of the three banks.

Jinghai Rural Commercial Bank, Huashang Rural Bank, and Rongxing Rural Bank.
Fang Qingye realized that these were the three banks that were making the slowest progress in this work!

Isn't this a veiled criticism?!

Of course, the speeches from the three bank presidents were very impressive, all expressing their determination to complete the task.

Next, Mayor Zhang will give his final concluding remarks.

He began by giving a long speech about the importance of this work, and then concluded by saying, "Comrades, the city government has now provided the timeline and roadmap. I hope everyone can overcome the difficulties and complete the task!"

Applause erupted in the conference room.

All agenda items of the meeting have been completed, lasting two hours.

The bank managers left the conference room in hushed tones. Fang Qingye heard someone call him: "President Fang, come here for a moment."

Fang Qingye immediately recognized him as Hu Huaiwen, the executive vice mayor.

Hu Huaiwen was originally the secretary of Nanxin County. He was transferred to the city as the vice mayor and was promoted to executive vice mayor at the beginning of the year. He was quite familiar with Fang Qingye.

"Mayor Hu, what are your instructions?" Fang Qingye walked over and asked with a smile.

(End of this chapter)