Research on the Models and Pathways of Digital Inclusive Finance Empowering the Development of Enriching Industries in Chongqing’s Districts and Counties

Abstract

As a key component of the “five major articles” of finance, digital inclusive finance serves as a critical instrument for alleviating financing constraints in the mountainous counties of Chongqing and empowering the development of people-enriching industries at the district and county levels. Drawing on data concerning people-enriching industries and digital inclusive finance development across 37 districts and counties in Chongqing, this paper systematically examines the current state of both. It identifies the following problems in the process of digital inclusive finance empowering district- and county-level people-enriching industries: prominent agriculture-related data silos and inter-departmental barriers, the digital capability divide among rural households constraining the downward penetration of financial services, the mismatch between the inherent vulnerability of industries and risk-sharing mechanisms, and challenges confronting the commercial sustainability of digital finance. Four service models are proposed: “embedding in industrial chain platforms,” “credit reconstruction through multi-dimensional data,” “credit enhancement via e-commerce transaction data,” and “digital activation of rural property rights.” Optimization paths are further advanced along four dimensions: data infrastructure development, coordinated industrial organization, improvement of risk-sharing mechanisms, and differentiated regional strategies. The policy implication of this paper is that only by forging a closed-loop ecosystem characterized by the three-chain coupling of “data aggregation—credit transformation—industrial anchoring,” and by achieving the data-driven transformation of risk identification, the scenario-embedded transformation of financial supply, and the dynamic rebalancing of the government–market relationship, can the empowering effect of digital inclusive finance on district- and county-level people-enriching industries be genuinely unleashed.