Ping An Presents Poverty Alleviation Model at Davos Forum on Sustainable Development

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Jan. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) presented its smart poverty alleviation model and its environmental, social and governance (ESG) management system at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos.

The theme of this year's Davos Forum is "Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World", with poverty alleviation as one of the key topics. In implementing its poverty alleviation strategy, Ping An has developed various poverty alleviation models for specific industries, such as the Ping An "Poverty Alleviation Insurance Scheme" and the "Hydropower Support Scheme".

The Ping An "Poverty Alleviation Insurance Scheme" is the first financial poverty alleviation model that leverages insurance innovation to drive industrial development in impoverished areas and accurately connects impoverished households. By implementing the "credit guarantee insurance + interest subsidy" model, risk can be shared with the government and banks, thus lowering the financing threshold for the development of local specific industries and encouraging poor households to increase production and income. To date, this model has already supported 70 projects in 13 provinces, providing poverty alleviation funds of RMB490 million in total, which has increased the annual per capita income of 46,000 low-income people by more than RMB2,000.

China has more than 700 impoverished counties with hydropower resources, but the development of hydropower is restricted due to various reasons such as lack of scale, difficulties in financing, insufficient development capacity and high policy hurdles. By collaborating with multiple hydropower companies under the dual model of "poverty alleviation loan + poverty alleviation corporate bond", Ping An has built an integrated hydropower poverty alleviation ecosystem that incorporates "infrastructure, energy supply, empowerment and cultivation", thus turning dormant hydropower resources in rural areas into an advantage for regional development. To date, the "Hydropower Support Scheme" has distributed poverty alleviation funds of RMB3.98 billion and assisted enterprises in hiring more than 2,000 temporary employees, which has benefited 100,000 low-income households.