Economy and Business

Financial measures taken for small firms

By Chen Qide (China Daily Shanghai Bureau)
Updated: 2009-12-02 16:09
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Shanghai today opened a small loan bank as part of its financial reforms to serve small private-funded firms which find it difficult to loan money from the capital market.

The bank is a joint venture funded by the Shanghai Dazhong Transportation Company and other investors with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. Dazhong takes up 20 per cent.

"The bank is a financial platform for small and medium-sized firms to solve their funds shortage," said Yang Guoping, president of the Dazhong company.

At the moment, those small firms, mostly privately-funded, feel very difficult to get funds from the local capital market due to the complicated procedures, Yang said.

Local financial insiders said setting up small loan banks is a new financial measure the city has taken to enlarge financial channels for small firms.

The city has set up 35 banks of the kind in suburbs to fund farmers to develop their agricultural production.

Now it turns to urban areas to support small firms in their business by setting up such banks.

The bank regulates that a firm can loan money ranging from 100,000 yuan to 5 million yuan, but the loan term is only one year at most.