POSITION PAPER OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

COMMITTEE: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

“The essence of financial inclusion is to comprehensively enhance the ability of small and
weak businesses and individuals to survive, develop and even foster innovation…We are
teaching a man to fish, rather than giving him a fish,” - Bei Duoguang, President of the
Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion at Renmin University of China

Imagine how hard life will be if we don’t have access to financial services, for
example the non-existence of bank account. Even so, millions of refugees around the world
do not have to imagine because it is factual for them. According to the latest data of UNHCR.
there are 80 million people forcibly displaced people worldwide, 26.3 million of which are
refugees (UNHCR, 2020) and there’s a high chance that most of them haven’t had a taste of
financial services yet. As a consequence, they struggle in destitute living situation and
susceptible to exploitation recognizing that financial inclusion is a prerequisite for achieving
long-term protection, sustainable solutions, and continuous prosperity for refugees (Pistelli,
2018).
Scrupulously, financial inclusion plays a role in refugees self-dependent and
resilience by providing them a safe place to save and receive money, affordable ways to make
payments, and acquire loans to run a business. However, to reach the grand dream of
financial inclusion won’t be easy remembering that there’re still many challenges shrouding
that dream, namely: legal recognition, discrimination, inequality, lack of information, and
Covid-19 pandemic.
The codification of rights to financial inclusion for refugees is preserved in the 1951
UN Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, particularly under
Chapter III-IV that stipulates refugee’s employment and welfare respectively. This
convention further stipulates the basic human rights of the refugees including access to
healthcare, work, and education along with the provision of legal documentation (UNHCR,
1967). In accordance to that, in 1982, China was one of the first Asian (UNHCR, 2014) and
communist countries (Sztucki, 1999) to accede to the Refugee 1951 Convention and 1967
Protocol. Prior to that event, in 1979, China has also tangibly manifested its care towards
refugees by giving local settlement to more than 200.000 refugees from Vietnam (Song,
2018).
As the 2nd largest economy in the world and a member of the Executive Committee
(ExCom) of the UNHCR, China has given assistance to the countries burdened with refugee
issues. For instance, in 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel requested China to aid in
resolving the refugee crisis in Europe (Delfs, 2015). Also recently, in January 2021, UNHCR
and China signed two South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund project agreements to
provide tents, core relief materials and school bags to refugees in Afghanistan (UNHCR,
2021).
China has attained outstanding success in financial inclusion over the last 15 years
with 1 billion active users of Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) (Duogoang, 2018).  Since the
early 2000s, Chinese policymakers have prioritized expanding the availability of basic
financial products through improvements in credit and payments infrastructure along with
creating new types of financial service providers (World Bank, 2018). Having noted China’s
past actions and policies, here we propose our solutions in dealing with universal financial
inclusion (UFI) to the refugees worldwide:
1. SILK ROAD (Strengthening Legal Frameworks & Reformation of Administration)
framework, aims to provide legal and valid documentation with ease, but stay adhering to
international standard with 3 systematic approaches:
a. Research and Analysis of Social and Financial Environment: Gathering information,
using existing data, and conducting data analysis to accurately find the refugee and
financial service needs.
b. Development of Frameworks: Introducing iris/fingerprint-enabled biometric
registration as a quick, safe, and efficient way to identify refugees, keeping the needs of
refugees, national standard (a Ministry of Interior Card), and international standards
(Financial Action Task Force standards) in mind, before granting them access to
financial services.
c. Monitoring and Evaluation (Monev): Monitoring and evaluating the implementation
with risk-management strategy. The results will be reported to the country’s financial
regulators every week to ensure sustainable protection for refugees and financial
service.
2. DORA (Development of Resilience and Allegiance), whose sole purpose is to develop
refugees self-reliance so they would be independent and can contribute to the national
economy. This is done by allowing the refugees who pass the identification process to access
the digital financial services such as bank accounts, SIM card, and mobile wallet services.
3. BOOKWORM (Build Strong and Long-Lasting Working Manners)
To further boost refugees resilience and sustainable solutions, a training of basic working
skills and financial literacy should be held by involving multisectoral collaborations such as
NGOs, private sectors, and UN agencies (e.g.ILO & World Bank), through step-by-step
interventions.
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