The city of Harbin – located in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province – recently issued an implementation plan to further support small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual business entities.
 
This initiative was understood to have been taken in order to stabilize their production and operations, in response to the lingering impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
 
Chen Fanghui, deputy director of the Harbin finance service bureau, explained the policies at a news conference held on March 16, saying that they were mainly aimed at three areas.
 
First, Harbin will provide financial support for stabilizing businesses and jobs. Through the implementation of a risk-sharing mechanism for government-bank guarantee institutions, banks are being encouraged to issue loans to qualified small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual business entities.
 
This policy reportedly targets small, medium and micro-sized enterprises – including individual business entities – that have encountered difficulties in five industries. These are the wholesale and retail, as well as the accommodation and catering, cultural tourism, transportation and logistics sectors and manufacturing – which have been greatly affected by the epidemic.
 
The second policy is to provide loan discounts to eligible enterprises. These include small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual business entities engaged in the wholesale and retail sector – and in accommodation and catering, education, tourism, culture, sports and entertainment – as well as in transportation.
 
Finally, the third policy is to ensure that finance guarantee companies being funded by the municipal finance department will reduce or exempt their guarantee fee for eligible enterprises.
 
Small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual business entities engaged in the wholesale and retail sector – as well as in accommodation and catering, culture, sports and entertainment, transportation and manufacturing – are qualified for the preferential policies.
 
Applications for help won't need to entail on-site visits to service centers and they will all be handled online.
 
What's more, the loans can be issued as soon as the application day and other related business can be handled within 7-14 days.