China has established basically the main structure of scientific and technological finance to promote forming a diversified financial system, said the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, in Beijing on Thursday.
PBOC Deputy Governor Zhu Hexin, also head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), expounded on a recent document on accelerating the establishment of a sci-tech finance system and providing high-level support for self-reliance and strength in science and technology, at a press conference.
Zhu said the document comes up with more specific measures to deepen institutional innovation, highlighting enhanced issuance of sci-tech loans and relevant service capacity.
"The loan scale will be enhanced. The People's Bank of China has raised the re-lending scale for scientific and technological innovation and transformation from 500 billion yuan (around 69.40 billion U.S. dollars) to 800 billion yuan. Meanwhile, it has lowered the re-lending rate from 1.75 percent to 1.5 percent. The adjustments aim to guide financial institutions to provide greater and more precise loan support for enterprises to conduct research, development, innovation, and equipment renewal," he said.
To put the measures into practice, Zhu said the PBOC would help banks improve their capacity for sci-tech credit services, expand the coverage of their services, and enable more small and medium-sized sci-tech enterprises to obtain high-quality credit services.
The central bank will promote coordination among various financial and equity investment institutions such as banks, insurance companies and securities firms, to form a differentiated and specialized development pattern, Zhe said.
He said the bank would encourage development-oriented and policy-oriented financial institutions to provide financing support for major national science and technology tasks, emphasizing the need to improve financial services in areas with a high concentration of sci-tech elements.
"It can be said that the 'four beams and eight pillars' of scientific and technological finance have been established to promote the formation of a diversified financial system. As of the end of March this year, the loan balance of small and medium-sized sci-tech enterprises has exceeded 3.3 trillion yuan, up 24 percent year on year. The growth rate has exceeded 20 percent for three consecutive years. The loan balance of enterprises that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products across the country has exceeded 6.3 trillion yuan, up 15.1 percent year on year," said Zhu.
China basically establishes main structure of sci-tech finance: PBOC deputy governor
China basically establishes main structure of sci-tech finance: PBOC deputy governor
