"The special bank card service enables migrant workers in the current 14 provincial regions to withdraw money at rural co-operatives near home after they deposit it at a bank in the city where they work and is a key way to improve financial service in rural areas," said the central bank's deputy governor Su Ning.

China has more than 120 million rural migrant workers who bring back hundreds of billions of yuan (US$1 equals 7.5114 yuan) to their homes every year.

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

However, an inadequate rural remittance system that fails to provide convenient, safe and rapid money transfer have forced many of them carrying cash on the journey home.

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

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

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2007)