BEIJING, July 14 -- Efforts should be made to let more migrant workers become bank card users, says a signed article in People's Daily. An excerpt follows:

    A special bank card service for migrant workers was launched last year in Guizhou Province by the People's Bank of China (PBOC). It enables migrant labourers to deposit money in accounts in the cities where they work and withdraw money from the branches of rural credit co-operatives near their homes.

    The pilot service has already made some achievements. A total transaction volume of 24.5 million yuan (US$3.06 million) has been remitted through these accounts. This service will be extended to 12 provinces, autonomous regions and cities that are major exporters of migrant labour. This is good news for migrant workers, as they can avoid the risks of carrying cash with them when returning home. And it is a practical measure by the PBOC that greatly assists the effort to build a new countryside.

    Trans-regional exports of labour have increased massively in recent years. There are now more than 100 million migrant workers in the country, taking hundreds of billions of yuan back to their homes every year. But the rural remittance system remains incomplete, and it usually takes a long time to remit money. Migrant workers have no convenient, safe or efficient way to transfer money. Every year's end, many migrant workers have to carry large amounts of cash home with them, bringing huge security problems.

    The bank card service in China has developed greatly in recent years. By the end of last year, a total of 175 institutions had issued 960 million cards. At the same time, the quality of the service has improved.

    But the development of this service remains imbalanced. While bank cards are popular in cities, they are rarely used in rural and underdeveloped areas. The migrant workers' bank card service is therefore an important innovation. More importantly, it improves financial services in rural areas.

    Migrant workers' money is hard-earned. The migrant workers' bank card service will help protect their rights and interests and ensure they can safely send money back to their hometowns. Related organizations should improve their risk-control capacity. In addition, migrant workers should be made aware of how to use these cards.

(Source: China Daily)