Narrator: Wu Weiling, Deputy President, People's Bank of China Lishui Branch

When you're running a business away from home, the biggest fear is running out of cash flow.

Tao Xiaojun, a businessman from Lishui, east China's Zhejiang Province, once found himself in such a predicament. In 2024, when he wanted to renovate and expand his supermarket in Ningbo, funding became a major challenge. A 500,000-yuan (around $71,747) loan from his hometown came to his rescue, alleviating his urgent need.

Lishui in Zhejiang is known for being 90 percent mountains, 5 percent water and 5 percent farmland. Because of this rugged terrain, many bold and hardworking people from Lishui ventured out of the mountains to start businesses. Today, Lishui is known as China's cradle of supermarket entrepreneurship, with Lishui natives running over 60,000 supermarkets across the country.

Small and micro firms are the capillaries of the market economy. Yet supermarkets run by Lishui natives across the country are generally facing financing difficulties. With high inventory turnover and rented spaces, they have little to offer as collateral. In addition, high travel costs and information asymmetry in financing make it difficult for banks to approve loans even when they are willing to lend.

We relied on digital empowerment to break this predicament. With data support from the Lishui Data Bureau, we integrate and apply multiple data sources, including government services, merchant operations and bank credit, among others, to build the Lijitong platform, which creates precise profiles of Lishui merchants operating across the country.

It's not just a portal for accessing loan information but a data-driven financial service ecosystem. Under the prerequisite of ensuring data security, the joint contribution and sharing of financial information breaks geographical and time constraints.

With banks gaining clearer insights and greater confidence in lending, and merchants accessing and utilizing loans more efficiently, it truly enabled targeted support for inclusive finance.

As of Jan. 15, 2026, the Lijitong platform had served over 32,900 micro and small business entities from Lishui operating outside the region, with the credit amount extended to merchants reaching 7.95 billion yuan.

It's not just loans, but also free entrepreneurship insurance and interest subsidies, among other policies. With support from their hometown, the people of Lishui feel much more secure doing business far from home.