Mainland internet entrepreneur Jack Ma Yun and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus are teaming up to launch micro-credit financial services in the country, with the goal of serving more than 24,000 poor borrowers in the next five years.
Their proposed Grameen China initiative is to be set up and managed by the non-profit Grameen Trust of Bangladesh, which Yunus runs as executive trustee. Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group, which Ma founded 10 years ago, will provide initial funding through a charitable donation worth US$5 million.
The initial focus of the small loans or micro-credit will be Sichuan province, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in May last year, and Inner Mongolia. Lending is expected to start as soon as all regulatory approval is secured.
Alibaba, the parent company of business-to-business e-commerce provider Alibaba.com and internet retail portal Taobao, planned to enlist more partners to expand the operation of Grameen China to other provinces and help potential loan recipients build their businesses online.
'Micro-credit is the oxygen to make entrepreneurial dreams come alive,' said Ma, Alibaba's chairman and chief executive.
Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist who was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 with the bank he created, said the joint venture aimed 'to spread the Grameen Bank approach' so the poorest people could create small businesses.