The signing ceremony of donation of “Micro-finance Management Information System” software to China Association of Microfinance and Beijing YouChange PuRong Information Advisory Co., Ltd. made by Plan China was held in Beijing on the afternoon of January 21st, 2011. The donation will help improve the management level of China’s Public Service Based micro-finance institution and facilitate the development of China Public Service Based micro-finance.

Targeting on the people living in poor rural areas in Shaanxi, Plan China started the micro-finance pilot programme since 2002, with the total investment adding up to RMB 17 million Yuan. In 2006, together with the county-level Women’s Federations, Plan China registered five women’s development associations in five counties of Shaanxi, with over 30 thousand transactions of micro-finance conducted to the rural females benefiting more than 100 thousand poor people. At the end of 2006, Plan China developed the “Micro-finance Management Information System” software targeted on the society, which made them finally get rid of the manual accounting system. The “Microfinance Management Information System” software has been working well so far.

China Association of Microfinance, founded in 2005, is one of the national micro-finance institutions, most of its 92 official members being NGOs engaging on micro-finance business. Most of the institutions were still managing the micro-finance information and finance manually, which made it hard to guarantee the accurate and timely information. The installment and application of the management software will improve the operation efficiency, managing level and the transparency of finance.

Mark Leighton, the Country Director of Plan China, said, “We’re very happy to transfer the Micro-finance Management Information System” software to China Public Service Based Microfinance, which will facilitate its development and benefit more poor families, especially the poor children.