A Correlational Research Between The Level Of Rural Informatization And The Development Of Inclusive Finance In Hubei Province

Inclusive finance intends to provide appropriate and effective financial services to small and micro enterprises,farmers,urban low-income groups and other vulnerable groups so as to fill the “financial gaps” neglected by traditional financial services.The introduction of various policies and measures has made considerable progress in the developing of inclusive financial.However,the government's strong support can not completely solve the financial problems of remote and economically backward counties such as the underdevelopment of social credit system;the lack of sound information sharing mechanism;the low financial transaction frequency;the weak willingness of financial institutions to invest in financial products and services;the inadequate capability of financial innovation and so on.The theory of information economics puts forward that the information technology plays an important role in economic growth and financial development,and its convenience,low cost,safety can improve the efficiency of financial development and the degree of inclusion to a certain extent.The process of informatization improves the production efficiency based on knowledge and information through the application of new information technology.Therefore,enhancing the level of informatization can effectively improve the financial service environment and promote the development of financial activities in county areas.From the perspective of industrial development,six dimensions were used to form the informatization development level evaluation system which are information resource level;information infrastructure;information technology application;the development of information industry;informatization talents and external informatization environment.After an overall consideration of factors like infrastructure,information resource,human resource,technological application and so on,this paper established the inclusive financial measurement framework through three dimensions,including: the availability of financial services,the usage of financial services and the financial quality of products and services.Using the county data in Hubei Province from 2006 to 2014,this paper calculated the informatization development index and inclusive financial index which were reflected directly in the figures and tables,analyzed the level of informatization development and inclusive financial development according to the geographical division,and established a panel data model to explore the relationship between the above two variable.Conclusion shows that: the overall development situation of the county informatization level in Hubei Province from 2006 to 2014 is relatively good.And in terms of geographical distribution,informatization development level is relatively high in the middle and eastern counties of Hubei Province,whereas relatively low in the western counties;besides,inclusive financial level in the midland of Jianghan Plain is relatively high,whereas the development in the minority areas and the border edges is poor.In terms of the model estimation results,the development of county informatization can further improve the degree of inclusive finance in Hubei Province under the cooperative conditions of agriculture,government,finance,education and financial institutions,etc.Therefore,in order to promote the development of county inclusive finance,this paper proposed some policy suggestions: apply the various information technologies like mobile banking,intelligent payment,electronic finance and others;encourage the “Internet banking” model to solve the financing problem;strengthen the communication infrastructure;increase the agricultural “Internet plus” permeability and promote the business development of E-commerce Finance.