Group photo with Andrew Au, FDI executives and beneficiary enterprise representatives
January 8th 2010, Beijing Citi China, in partnership with Fuping Development Institute (“Fuping, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to social innovation, poverty alleviation and sustainable development, today announced the launch of ‘Citi-FDI Green Enterprise Incubatorin Beijing. This important initiative, made possible through a grant of US$100,000 from Citi Foundation, aims to promote sustainable economic and social development by supporting the growth of green micro and small enterprises (“MSEs.
Launched against the backdrop of an increasing emphasis from the Chinese government to adopt a greener and more sustainable model in developing the Chinese economy, the program is designed to boost the development of green MSEs by specifically addressing two critical challenges faced by this emerging sector: lack of human resources with management skills to grow the business, as well as difficulty in securing financial resources from investors and the financial industry.
The Green Enterprise Incubator will be playing two main roles: provide capacity building and technical assistance to micro and small enterprises in the green business sector as well as offer microcredit to high potential green MSEs to help grow their businesses.
Andrew Au, Chief Executive Officer of Citi China said, “We are delighted to partner with Fuping Development Institute in launching this innovative program. This initiative not only combines Citi’s rich experience in financial education and green credit and Fuping’s strong track record in providing microcredit, but also caters to the immediate needs faced by the green MSE sector which are expected to be playing an increasingly critical role in promoting the development of a sustainable economy in China.
Tang Min, Co-director of Fuping Development Institute said, “Microenterprises are known for their large quantity and effectiveness in creating job opportunities, however, they have very limited resources to help them grow and develop. The philosophy of this project is ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.We sincerely hope that under our joint efforts, the program will play its role in promoting a greener and more sustainable development model for the Chinese economy.
2009 was the pilot year of this program, in which substantial progress was achieved. Since this April,the program has conducted nine training sessions for start-up businesses reaching over 270 micro entrepreneurs. These trainings addressed commonly faced challenges such as product distribution,human resources, and legal related issues, while helping these enterprises identify green aspects of their business models. In addition, through the cooperation of leading green enterprises and institutions, the program conducted more focused capacity building activities addressing overall competitiveness issues in the green sector. Lastly, the program has also provided microloans to selected green enterprises to help them grow their business.
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