On June 8, 2011, China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd. (CMBC) and Yunnan provincial commerce department signed the Framework Protocol for Strategic Cooperation to Jointly Construct the Gateway, in support of development of domestic and foreign trade companies. Under the protocol, CMBC trade and financing division and Kunming branch will jointly supply financial support to export-oriented enterprises in Yunnan in the next three years.

Xiong Qinghua, director of Yunnan provincial commerce department, said that small and medium-sized enterprises in the foreign economic and trade sectors will be emerging forces in the province’s opening to the outside world, considering their growth rate and contribution to export in the past decade. About 97 percent of the companies with foreign trade performances in the province are small and medium-sized ones. These companies provide over 60 percent of products, technologies and services for export in the province. However, small and medium-sized companies have financing amount to 10 percent of their total costs. About 70 percent small and medium-sized foreign trade companies cannot find bank loans or are able to afford bank loans. Financing has become a bottleneck in their growth.

To solve the financing problem, the provincial commerce department and CMBC signed up the Framework Protocol for Strategic Cooperation to Jointly Construct the Gateway. Under the protocol, in the next three years, CMBC trade and financing division and Kunming branch will jointly extend financial support to eligible key foreign trade companies, overseas investment companies, overseas contract projects, and home trade logistics key companies or projects in the province.