Research for the Development of Digital Inclusive Finance in Rural Areas of Sichuan Province

Abstract

In document No .1 of the Central Committee, the application of digital inclusive finance in rural areas has become a bright spot. This paper analyzes the development of digital inclusive finance in some rural areas of Sichuan Province. The study found that, in terms of service breadth, rural areas differ from urban areas regarding the availability of digital payments. However, thanks to the popularity of smartphones and Internet infrastructure, barriers to obtaining digital inclusive financial services are removed in rural areas. In terms of service depth, rural people are constrained by the inherent concept and the limitations of rural financial institutions. They do not have full access to some deep-level digital inclusive financial services, such as digital credit and digital insurance. In terms of service efficiency, digital inclusive finance does reduce the cost of rural people to obtain the above financial services, but the service efficiency between regions is quite different. In theory, this paper provides methodological guidance for analyzing the development of digital inclusive finance in a certain area. The above three indexes can comprehensively reflect the development of digital inclusive finance in a certain area. In practice, this paper provides useful policy suggestions for rural governments to speed up local digital inclusive finance development.