The proposed investment supporting the rural financial system in a frontier province is strongly aligned with the FIG strategy in China and consistent with the country priorities (which focuses on balanced rural-urban development). China is the largest among the 25 Universal Financial Access (“UFA”) focus countries with a high proportion of unbanked and underserved, particularly in rural areas. In the context of balanced rural-urban development and UFA goals, IFC is focusing on the development of the rural finance sector which is considered one of the most challenging sectors to reform within the Chinese financial industry; it remains underdeveloped with a low level of financial intermediation and insufficient access to affordable finance for the majority of the 600 million population and the MSMEs in rural.