A worker checks the operation of the automatic production line of solar selective absorbing coatings at a high-tech enterprise in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. (PHOTO: VCG)

By ZHONG Jianli

China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), will boost financial support for sci-tech innovation and further diversify financing tools for sci-tech enterprises. That's according to Liu Guoqiang, deputy governor of PBOC, at a recent press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

In June, the executive meeting of the State Council reviewed and adopted the Action Plan to Strengthen Support for Financing of Scientific and Technological Enterprises. The meeting stressed that financial institutions should provide diversified financial services for sci-tech enterprises and give priority to supporting those start-ups, while strengthening the building of financial infrastructure and minding financial risks.

Liu shared a set of data during the conference, indicating that the balance of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products was 2.72 trillion RMB, an increase of 459.8 billion RMB over the same period last year, with a growth rate of 20.4 percent.

In the next phase, PBOC will further diversify financial instruments and channel more financial resources to intensity support for sci-tech enterprises.

It will promote various kinds of banks to improve their credit services, including guiding development and policy banks in making more efforts to support national sci-tech strategies, and encouraging commercial banks to further expand loans to sci-tech enterprises.

It will also enhance the direct financing function of capital markets. In the bond market, it will further enrich bond products and expand the scale of bonds issued by sci-tech enterprises. In terms of equity financing, PBOC will standardize the role of government investment funds in supporting the financing of sci-tech enterprises, and expand the entry and exit channels of venture capital and private equity investment.

In addition, it will maximize the risk-sharing role of insurance and financing guarantee institutions, promoting the relevant departments to innovate business models of financing guarantees for sci-tech enterprises.