About 91 per cent of China’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had resumed operation as of Monday after disruptions caused by Covid-19. Huang Libin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said some 93 per cent of SMEs in the manufacturing and construction sectors had resumed work, while around 87 per cent of SMEs in the hotel and catering sectors restarted business.
China has rolled out a series of targeted measures to support SMEs, which were among the hardest hit by the epidemic. Policies such as cuts in banks’ reserve requirement ratios as well as special relending and rediscount programmes have offered low-cost loans of 2.85 trillion yuan (around US$400 billion) to firms, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as individual businesses, noted Miao Wei, head of the MIIT. The country will continue to implement policy incentives and step up financial support for SMEs, while helping them to develop expertise in specific fields, Miao said.
