The People's Bank of China has provided special bankcard service tailored to meet the needs of migrant workers in 14 provincial areas. The service has also recently been launched in central Anhui Province, according to the central bank.

"The special bank card service enables migrant workers in the current 14 provincial regions to withdraw money at rural co-operatives near their hometowns after they have deposited money in a bank in the city where they work. This is a key improvement in financial services for rural areas," said Su Ning, the central bank's deputy governor.

China has more than 120 million rural migrant workers who bring back hundreds of billions of yuan to their hometowns every year.

"In Anhui Province last year, 10.4 million migrant workers brought back home a total income of nearly 120 billion yuan (US$15.98 billion)," said Huang Haisong, Anhui's vice governor.

However, an inadequate rural remittance system that fails to provide convenient, safe and rapid money transfer has forced many of them to carry cash on their journeys home.

The pilot service was initiated in Guizhou in December 2005. By the end of August 2007, card transactions for migrant workers in the 14 provincial areas chalked up over 1.02 billion yuan, a monthly rise of 24.7 percent.

The central bank has asked all the Chinese banks that issue the cards to reduce their service charge from one percent to 0.8 percent for cash withdrawals by migrant workers from February 1, 2007. The ceiling charge for each transaction has been lowered from 50 yuan to 20 yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2007)