Beijing Rural Commercial Bank promised to increase loans to the
city's small and medium-sized enterprises by at least 30 billion
yuan (US$3.75 billion) within three years.
Under an agreement signed by the bank and the Beijing
Development and Reform Commission, all small and medium-sized
enterprises registered in the Chinese capital can apply online for
financing projects with a loan period of three years, Shanghai
Securities News said in a report on Wednesday.
In order to help these enterprises solve the financing problem,
the People's Bank of China, the central bank, can make some
adjustments to the monetary policy in this regard, said Jin
Weihong, governor of the commercial bank.
The interest rates of loans to small and medium-sized
enterprises can be more flexible, he said.
He promised that the bank would give more support and
preferential loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in
agriculture and high-tech fields.
Statistics showed that the small and medium-sized enterprises of
Beijing accounted for over 95 percent of the city's total
enterprises.
By the end of March this year, the bank's total assets reached
138.6 billion yuan (US$17.33 billion), and the sum of loans
amounted to 56.9 billion yuan (US$7.11 billion), with loans
provided to small and medium-sized enterprises standing at 40
billion yuan (US$5 billion).
(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)