Social Finance Starts New Era of China's Social Impact Investment

The Grand Opening of the Fourth China Charity Fair and China Education Philanthropy Fair 2015

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Shenzhen Innovation Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center

Sep 23, 2015, 03:35 ET

SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Social impact investment, which has been adopted by western countries, begins to spread in China. On September 18th, 2015, the Fourth China Charity Fair ("CCF") and the China Education Philanthropy Fair 2015 ("CEPF 2015") were held in Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, drawing the public's close attention to social finance -- especially social finance products on education. It has become an essential goal to find the value of social finance and bring more people to share in the common values of this field.

"Social Finance" becomes a Hot Topic

As the only national and international annual charity and philanthropy fair in China, CCF is co-organized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China, the State-owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission of the State Council, the All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce, the People's Government of Guangdong Province, the People's Government of Shenzhen Municipality, and the China Charity Alliance. CPF sets up a special education philanthropy exhibition zone this year, guided by the National Center for School Curriculum and Textbook Development of the Ministry of Education and the Qianhai & Shekou Area of Shenzhen, a pilot free trade zone in Guangdong, and jointly organized by the Shenzhen Innovation Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center (CSRDC) and the China Education Innovation Institute of Beijing Normal University. The CEPF 2015 and the "PPP Social Finance: New Drive to Promote China's Education Equity and Innovation" summit forum have become the core events of this year's CCF.

Participants of the core events include representatives from the government, as well as the education, charity, business and financial sectors. Among them were Huang Guoqiang, Secretary of the People's Government of Shenzhen Municipality; Zhang Xiaoli, Vice Chairman of Shenzhen CPPCC; Liu Yuexia, Deputy Director of the National Center for School Curriculum and Textbook Development of the Ministry of Education; Zhang Bigong, Director of Shenzhen Star Social Work College; Fang Tao, Secretary of Shenzhen Charity Federation; Liang Yudong, President of the Shenzhen Innovation Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center (CSRDC) and Ye Wenzi, Director of Educational Science Research Institute of Shenzhen.

During the "PPP Social Finance: New Drive to Promote China's Education Equity and Innovation" summit forum, attendees discussed how to establish cross-border cooperation in the new era of "PPP Social Finance [Public-Private-Partnership Mode]" to promote China's education equity and innovation, realize enterprises social impact value, and promote social progress and sustainable development. PPP mode "Social Finance" becomes a hot topic in CCF this year.

Qianhai Shenzhen will Establish China's First PPP Public Capital -- the Charitable Funds Center ("CFC")

How can China do a better job in social finance while drawing lessons from foreign countries? In the 4^th CCF and the CEPF 2015, China's first products of education charitable trust funds are launched.

According to Liang Yudong, Director of CSRDC, the Qianhai & Shekou Area of Shenzhen is expected to establish China's first CFC that will focus on social impact investment funds and social finance products. It will launch a series of charitable trust funds, covering various areas including education, community, pension, etc. The total sum of the funds is predicted to exceed 50 billion RMB in five years. With Qianhai's advantages in economic policies, the CFC will launch the first group of national education PPP social charitable funds. Some of the first funds include the Chinese Initiative Teacher Leaders ("CITL") Charitable Fund and the China Maker Education Charitable Fund. Starting from specific charitable trust and education PPP charitable funds, the CFC plans to establish a group of social finance products on education worth over 10 billion RMB. The plan pushes forward the upgrading of Shenzhen and national social innovation and social governance mode, promotes China's social impact investment and education innovation, and advances the modernization and integration of China's education industry.

The CITL Charitable Fund Promotes National Education Development

The CITL Charitable Fund is founded by the National Center for School Curriculum and Textbook Development of the Ministry of Education and the CSRDC. Education departments from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen will be the first participants. It integrates diverse quality resources from government departments, educational circles, foundations and well-known enterprises to establish national charitable trust fund on specific area.

The CITL Charitable Fund, registered in Qianhai, Shenzhen, takes full advantage of Qianha's special economic policies. It is operated with three different modes: the leveraged charitable mode for supporting education, the fund mode for integrating quality public charitable funds, and the PPP mode for encouraging governmental capital to invest in education. Together, these models ensure the effective support needed to implement the CITL.

The Fund, adopting the government mode of charitable trust fund will establish multiple headquarters in Shenzhen (base of Southern China), Shanghai(base of Eastern China), and Beijing (base of Northern China). They will take charge of education innovation on specific area of all cities and provinces, and act as the education platform for new teachers' training.

"China Maker Education PPP Charitable Fund" Improves China's Creativity.

National Center for School Curriculum and Textbook Development of Ministry of Education, CSRDC, Educational Science Research Institute of Shenzhen, Shenzhen Charity Federation, China Resources SZITIC Trust Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Ping An Bank, and Ivy Elite Education Association [IEEA], are all leading 'The China Maker Education PPP Charitable Fund'. The fund aims to guide outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs and social charitable funds to promote the development of China's Maker education and STEM curriculums. Also, the fund encourages entrepreneurs, charitable funds and other resources to jointly improve the quality of national creativity. The ultimate goal is that education innovation in Maker education and STEM curriculum can be boosted, more youth will be inspired to learn Maker education, and education reform will be widespread.

The International Contest of Chinese Social Finance Products on Education

With the guidance of China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Center of Ministry of Education, and support from Qianhai Shenzhen[FTA] Administration, the Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education, CSRDC, and Shenzhen Charity Federation jointly launched " The International Contest of Chinese Social Finance Products on Education ".

The organizers will invite graduates and finance professors from business colleges, finance schools of 100 well-known universities in China and America. Together with Chinese famous financial, investment, and internet financial enterprises, this group of education and business leaders will carry out the "Midas Touch: The 1st International Contest of Chinese Social Finance Products on Education". The contest aims to boost the upgrading and innovation in China social finance innovation, especially focusing on the dramatically shifting the China educational field (K-12 education, vocational education, higher education, community education and online education), cutting-edge education technology enterprises, and organizations of online education and O2O education. The contest will also explore how to promote education innovation and social progress with creativity of social finance products in government and social capital cooperative mechanisms.

Promoting China Social Impact Investment via Social Finance

As one of the key driving forces for China's social impact investment and social finance, CSRDC used Muhammad Yunus's microfinance bank model and American community bank service models to work with Construction Bank of China (Shenzhen) to launch the "Rong Yitong" program in 2013. The program tackled the institutional problem of capital support in China social organization construction and development, filling an important gap in social finance.

Currently, CSRDC cooperates with related organizations in the Ministry of Education, Qianhai Shenzhen[FTA], enterprises, and other financial sectors to establish a series of charitable trust funds in fields of social development will play an increasingly significant role in the social financial field.

According to Liang Yudong, the growth of social finance will bring far-reaching influences to the future of China's finance capital field. With the development of China's enterprise social impact investment, social finance will become a new and innovative mode in the financial industry, integrating investment with society and environment, enabling worldwide sustainable development.

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