Following the introduction of the State Council’s “Nine Measures” for small and micro enterprises and the China Banking Regulatory Commission’s (CBRC) supplemental notice on financial support to small and micro enterprises, new financial policies aimed at supporting the development of these enterprises have been rolled out one after another across the country. Provinces with a high concentration of small enterprises, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong, Anhui, Shaanxi and Shanxi, have been issuing their own sets of opinions on providing local financial support to small and micro enterprises.
Since 2011, CBRC has issued notices on financial support given by banks to small and micro enterprises on two occasions. “As seen from the opinions issued by various provinces on granting financial support to the development of small and micro enterprises, their content basically echoes the State Council’s “Nine Measures” and CBRC’s notices. Several regions stress again that efforts will be made to further implement four independent financial services for small and micro enterprises, i.e. independent small and micro enterprise credit plan, independent human and financial resources allocation, independent client recognition and credit assessment, and independent accounting system. Under the new regulatory requirements, some regions have also added two independent services, i.e. independent verification management and independent provision verification and cancellation,” said Zhang Chenghui, deputy director of the Financial Research Institute, Development Research Center of the State Council.
Earlier, Shang Fulin, the new chairman of CBRC, expressed that efforts will continue to be made to raise the proportion of direct financing and increase the flexibility of the financial system, and that action will be taken to further sustain the financial services offered by commercial banks to small and micro enterprises and lower the financing cost of small and micro enterprises through policy guidance.
Reportedly, the Opinions on the Policy on Improving the Business Environment of Small and Medium Enterprises
issued by the Jiangsu provincial government cover 18 policies on finance, fiscal and services aspects in support of the development of small and micro enterprises. Where financing channels for small and micro enterprises are concerned, it is emphasised that action will be taken to gradually expand the scale of issue of collective bills, collective bonds, short-term financing bonds by these enterprises; while guarantee companies will be encouraged to participate in the issuance. Steps will be taken to prompt small and micro enterprises to expedite the turnover of commercial paper held by them so that some of the credit can be spared for use in discounting commercial paper and factoring account receivables. Through government guidance and social participation, a bills circulation institution will be set up to promote the more rapid turnover of commercial paper held by enterprises.
Where direct financing is concerned, issuing regional SME collective bills is also seen by the market as a feasible new way of easing financing for small enterprises. It is understood that the three cities of Foshan (Guangdong), Weifang (Shandong) and Changzhou (Jiangsu) will issue regional SME collective bills to the tune of Rmb1.389 billion, involving 25 small and micro enterprises. On 4 November, Foshan and Weifang took the lead in issuing collective bills successfully, with 11 medium, small and micro enterprises raising funds totalling Rmb539 million by using this model.
In Quanzhou (Fujian), one of the regions where private enterprises are most active, the local economic and trade committee is coordinating with relevant departments in selecting 300 more SMEs this year which are entitled to special financial support. Meanwhile, the local government is also taking steps to suspend or reduce by half certain enterprise fee items.
