Harbin, the capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, has been identified as a role model city for its use of the National Development and Reform Commission’s credit index, according to a report evaluating China's business environment.

The commission’s report notes that Harbin’s practice of helping enterprises to get credit will be promoted across the country.

As the initiator of the index, Harbin’s financial service bureau has been cooperating with various organizations to help reduce operational costs and optimize the economic environment through expanding credit for private businesses and micro- and small-sized enterprises, speeding up financial innovation and improving the service system and investment environment. In particular, the bureau is helping them access funding at lower costs.

The city also launched a campaign to support first-time loans for private and micro- and small-sized businesses, promote the resumption of work and production and help stabilize the operations and positions in micro-enterprises and small companies.

Statistics show that as of June 19, a total of 5,265 loans worth 78.63 billion yuan ($11.72 billion) had been allocated to support the enterprises. Loans that facilitated work and production resumption accounted for 68 percent of Heilongjiang province’s total, while loans helping to stabilize enterprises’ operations and employment levels accounted for 49.1 percent.

Thanks to monetary policy tools such as refinancing and rediscount, the city completed refinancing cases worth more than 5.13 billion yuan, including 4,686 cases worth 548 million yuan to support 3,855 agricultural companies and 3,852 cases worth 4.59 billion yuan to help 2,976 firms resume work and production.

A group of bank and financial institutions, such as China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Merchants Bank, also launched online loan products to address different demands.

Internet-based supply chain financing products have also been issued to support enterprises. For example, agriculture-involved financial institutions have been mobilized to support spring plowing.

Cutting-edge technologies like the internet, big data and cloud computing have been fully utilized to improve loan issuance efficiency, helping shorten the issuance period to two days.

Efforts have been made to innovate the mortgage and pledge credit registration systems and promote real estate mortgages' online registration. 

Last year, a 24-hour self-service platform was put into use. A network of such platforms will be launched in 81 bank branches of China Construction Bank to further improve registration efficiency.

At present, 138,000 cases have been handled through such online platforms.

Meanwhile, Harbin also uses its leverage of financial funds to mobilize financial capital and social funds to support small- and medium-sized enterprises’ survival, stability and employment expansion.

Access to credit is among the 12 indicators that the World Bank uses to evaluate the business environment. The indicator mainly focuses on protecting both the debtor and creditor under the legal framework of an economy. 

Specifically speaking, it indicates the loan convenience provided by guarantee and bankruptcy laws and the coverage and openness of credit service providers, as well as enterprises’ accessibility to credit.