personal statement

I have been working as an economic editor since 1990. I am much interested in economic and development issues and I have systemically studied economics courses such as microeconomics and macroeconomics so as to further my academic and work capability. Moreover, I often take part in the economic activities concerned and solve some practical problem with the theories I have studied.   

There is big unemployment population in China. In addition, every year a lot of agricultural people swarm into the cities. They need financial help in making their life. But in China it is difficult for the poverty people to get loan from the national bank, and the nongovernmental financial market, especially the support of micro-credit from such market, is in great demand. Therefore I officially apply for the fellowship offered by IFP and hope to get an opportunity for learning more about development finance and economics security. I wish I could join some non-profit NGO, or set up an organization to help the poor in much need of the service of micro-credit in the near future.

I experienced a period of painful life because of unemployment and poorness in my earlier time. So I have been caring for how to help those indigent people. In 1999, I got a message that there was a book titled The Poor’ s Banker, whose author is the initiator of micro-credit of Bengal, Muhammad Yunus. I wanted to translate this book into Chinese. But it was difficult to derive profit for publishing this book, and the publishing company hoped I could get some financial support. Fortunately, with the help of the original publishing company (who agreed to reduce the royalty on this book from $1500 to $300), and the support from a magazine house in Beijing, finally, the book was published in Chinese in 2000. From the Poor’s Banker, I learned a lot about micro-credit of Bengal and fond that many methods and experiences told in the book could be applied to China.

Since then, I care for the problem of micro-credit even more and I hope there would be more people to shows their concerns for it. In 2001, I presented a special report about the micro-credit, which covered many aspects of micro-credit issues, including a synthetical analysis of the micro-credit., a introduction to successful experiences, a report of Chinese experience of performing micro-credit, and so on. Our newspaper, West News, is a weekly and its pages was strictly limited. So as it was, it left a half of the front page and another two whole pages for the report. We received a lot of positive feedback. Many credit banks praised that we had given them some helpful advice.

 
 
In recent years, I have taken much of my spare time in investigating the status of micro-credit in Guizhou, and have had a good understanding about it and its existing problems. I think what the most important in the micro-credit is that we cannot do this work only by government, and a market system and nongovernmental fund should be introduced into China. Thus the micro-credit can expect a sustainable development.

The practical experience accumulated in the past years has enriched my theoretical knowledge and increased my research and management ability. And all of this means that there is a good base for me to apply for IFP fellowship..

After finishing the study, I will go back to my homeland and devote myself and what I have learned to those who need help. As mentioned ahead, I plan to join some non-profit NGO, or set up an organization to provide some service of micro-credit to the indigent people. I also want to offer technical train to help the employment.