(Hong Kong, Shanghai, 24 May 2021) Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter “Ping An” or the “Group”, HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) announced a new poverty alleviation program for Cambodia at the International Forum on Poverty Governance and Development Towards Modernization in Nujiang, Yunnan on 18 May.

For its Mother's Needlework public welfare program, Ping An will look for women in Cambodia with specific handicraft skills for technical training and handicrafts production to promote local women's employment and the economic and social development of their communities.

In August 2020, Ping An and Economic Daily Press Group launched the Mother’s Needlework women handicraft entrepreneurship project in China in the Yi-populated areas of Liangshan, Sichuan Province. The project recycled old clothes by embellishing them with Yi ethnic clothing patterns, a valuable part of China's intangible cultural heritage, and invited the local Yi women to make and sell exquisite handicrafts. While protecting the cultural heritage of ethnic minorities, the program also promoted flexible employment of ethnic minority women.

Ping An Puhui, a subsidiary of Ping An, donated 60 sets of sewing machines, cloth cutters, clothes irons and other equipment for the project. More than 80 women participated, and their per capita income increased from RMB3,200 per year to more than RMB10,000 per year.

Richard Sheng, Secretary of the Board of Directors and Brand Director of Ping An, shared at the forum how Ping An leveraged its resources and strengths in finance and healthtech to facilitate China's poverty alleviation. He said, “Our original aspiration remains unchanged even after a century. Ping An will focus on consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and facilitating rural revitalization, while using its strength in finance, technology and the healthcare ecosystem to actively promote poverty alleviation efforts under the Belt and Road Initiative, and contribute to China’s strength to build a community of shared future for mankind.”

The forum was organized by the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, the People’s Government of Yunnan Province, the China Public Relations Association and Renmin University of China. About 150 Chinese and foreign diplomats, officials, and scholars from 18 countries and four international organizations, including the United Nations, attended the forum. They discussed the lessons from China's poverty alleviation efforts, and how they might be applied to promote global poverty alleviation, sustainable development and modernization.

Handicrafts in Cambodia have a long history, but much of the traditional culture has almost vanished. Ping An hopes its Mother’s Needlework program will create women’s jobs in Cambodia, alleviate poverty and achieve socio-economic development in local regions. Ping An is committed to supporting improved standards of living and reducing development gaps, while facilitating China and Cambodia’s development of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Economic Development Belt.

For more information on Mother's Needlework public welfare program, please watch the video here.

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