Walking through the morning market, even before the dawn light appears, you see the busy figures of the vendors. Stalls stand side by side, and the vendors are busy setting up their stalls, displaying their goods, and waiting for customers to arrive.
Many of them are self-employed; a cart, a square table, and a tarpaulin may be all they need to support their families. Watching their busy figures and the beads of sweat on their brows despite the cold wind, it's hard not to wonder how to help these tiny economic units weather the storm and uphold the hopes of their entire families.
For these self-employed individuals and even many micro and small enterprises, finance may have once been out of reach. The various requirements of loan approval, essential for banks to ensure compliant operations, have also excluded some self-employed individuals.
These small business owners may only have temporary needs for tools or raw materials. These unexpected expenses are not huge amounts, but they can be a problem for many business owners. On the one hand, their businesses have small capital and low profits, and they lack the ability and awareness to keep sufficient working capital. On the other hand, such capital needs often come suddenly and urgently. Without this money, they may miss out on business for a while, while with it, they may be able to open up a new world.
These micro and small business owners are troubled not only by an uncertain future, but also by the certainty of the present. The financial sector should play a supporting role, which is also the original intention of my country's development of inclusive finance.
Truly effective financial support is never something lofty and unapproachable; it's about being there when you can see it. Like at the Caowa market fair, financial institutions saw the desire and capability of willow-woven products to expand nationwide, the desire of a steaming mutton soup shop to satisfy more travelers from afar, and the inconvenience of Ms. Zhang struggling with change. For them, finance is a path to a larger market, a tool to expand production capacity, and a wallet full of cash in various denominations.
Financial support for individual businesses and micro-enterprises often lies not in the sheer size of the loan, but in the precision of timing and the thoughtfulness of the approach. A small loan requiring no complicated collateral can enable a family workshop to upgrade its equipment and increase its production capacity several times over; a promptly handed-over wallet of spare change can prevent a stall owner from being overwhelmed and allow them to calmly handle the bustling crowds; a few down-to-earth anti-fraud reminders, spread in casual conversation, can help those around them protect their hard-earned savings. Here, we see finance stripped of its dazzling aura, becoming concrete and warm, sincere and considerate. Amidst the lively haggling and the warm, fragrant atmosphere of winter, it quietly integrates into the everyday life of the city.
How can financial services revitalize a market? By aligning financial trends with the everyday life of the market, changes occur silently yet profoundly. These changes might manifest as longer queues at stalls, a wider variety of goods, and more hearty smiles on the vendors' faces. The vitality of a market is built from these seemingly small changes. When these individual micro-business owners thrive, they create more jobs, provide livelihoods for more families, and make the local atmosphere increasingly vibrant.
In this two-way journey between finance and business operators, what has changed is not only the operational difficulties of individual business owners, but also the definition of finance. Finance is no longer out of reach. On the contrary, it has become a trustworthy and reliable partner for these small business owners, and a key force in keeping the capillaries of the economy open and the social body vibrant.
The direction that inclusive financial services should take is for finance to return to its original purpose of serving the real economy and nourishing people's livelihoods, and to take on the responsibility of listening to the needs of ordinary people and responding to their small demands.
