Zhejiang has a large number of small and micro enterprises, which reflects the vitality of Zhejiang's economy. In the process of development, they are facing various problems in financing. In February 2019, Zhejiang initiated the "Unblocked Financing Project" to solve the financing problems for small and micro enterprises in Zhejiang and provide them with better financial services.

Over the past year since the Project was implemented, more and more small and micro enterprises in Zhejiang have succeeded in securing financing in more convenient ways. By the end of 2019, 4.37 million small and micro enterprises have obtained loans, an increase of 930,000 enterprises and RMB 468.2 billion in loans. Zhejiang’s loan balance ranked first across the country.

Through the "account book" and financing stories of many small and micro enterprises in the province, we can see that the "Unblocked Financing Project" has brought financial benefits to small and micro enterprises in Zhejiang province and met their desire for smoother financing.

Assistance by the digital platform: It is not difficult to apply for the loan and renew the loan

Li Hui, a villager in Duihekou Village, Wukang Street, Deqing, opened a hostel. Because it requires a large sum of investment, he applied for the loan for one to two years in a bank and succeeded. And the loan has changed from mortgage loan to credit loan. He felt that it was much easier to apply for loans from the bank than before.

The reason why owners of small and micro businesses like Li Hui find it easier to apply for the loan is that our province has accelerated the construction of the comprehensive financial service platform after the implementation of the "Unblocked Financing Project".

The reporter happened to meet Zhang Yan, president of Deqing Sub-branch of Postal Savings Bank, and cadres of the Finance Office of Deqing. "During the ‘One Hundred Banks Helping Ten Thousand Enterprises’ activity, many enterprises gave their request for financing and we offered them help. This hostel is run by a native who returned home to start a business and its business operation went quite smoothly.” Zhang Yan is very familiar with the situation here. "Since last year, we have known more about his business through the provincial integrated financial service platform, and we have enhanced the financial support for him."

"The provincial integrated financial service platform has amassed a large amount of data. Through the Big Data Bureau, we have established contact with more than 50 provincial departments in charge of market supervision, legal affairs, taxation, and environmental protection to establish a specialized data quality evaluation and control system, which has solved the problem of bank-enterprise information asymmetry and improved the efficiency of supply and demand matching." Relevant officials of Zhejiang Bank and the Insurance Supervision Bureau said that the platform had launched the function of "Zhelizhangshangdai” in the app of "Zheliban". Now, 140 banks and financial institutions are providing 591 credit products, and a total of 7,591 bank outlets are providing docking services through the platform.

In the past, enterprises chose banks; now, enterprises chose financial products in banks. Corporate financing is like shopping in supermarkets. This platform has provided more choices for small and micro enterprises.

It is easier for small and micro enterprises to apply for loans for the first time, and it is not difficult to renew the loans. In February, Nanxun Agricultural Commercial Bank issued a "Renewal Loan" revolving loan without principal repayment to Huzhou Tianbao Garment Co., Ltd. to meet its needs of production resumption after the epidemic. Relevant officials of Zhejiang Bank and Insurance Supervision Bureau said that at present the balance of non-repayable loans for small and micro enterprises in Zhejiang (excluding Ningbo) had exceeded RMB 200 billion. This year, banks will be urged to establish a "positive list + negative list" system to actively select high-quality small and micro enterprises so that more small and micro enterprises can enjoy non-repayable loans.

While policy services are improved, financing costs have decreased

Data show that the interest rate of loans for inclusive small and micro enterprises in our province at the end of 2019 is 0.49 percentage point lower than that in 2018.

Reporters found that the financing cost of small and micro enterprises had decreased in the past year.

A few days ago, after Zhejiang Zhongyijian Medical Management Co., Ltd. learned that the upstream enterprises had resumed production, Lin Zhong, the owner of the company, decided to purchase medical equipment. He then applied for the "Maoxiang Loan" from Taizhou Bank through online channels. On the same day, he secured a loan of RMB 500,000 and enjoyed preferential interest rates. He then made the payments for goods in time. On February 6, witnessed by the local regulatory authorities, Taizhou Bank and Zhejiang Sub-branch of Export-Import Bank of China signed a sub-loan cooperation agreement for small and micro enterprises to fight against the epidemic and introduced a special fund of RMB 1 billion and launched a special loan product called "Maoxiang Loan" mainly for small and micro enterprises.

Since a contract was signed last year, the financing costs of small and micro enterprises have been reduced through the sub-loans from policy banks. In August last year, Zhejiang Branch of the State Development Bank, Zhejiang Branch of the Export-Import Bank of China and Zhejiang Branch of the Agricultural Development Bank of China signed sub-loan cooperation agreements with 12 small and medium-sized corporate banks in Taizhou with a credit amount of RMB 33.05 billion.

It is understood that up to now, three policy banks have established policy sub-loan cooperation agreements with 16 banking institutions in Taizhou, bringing in RMB 300 billion of low-cost funds for Taizhou for the next three years. In 2019, the accumulated amount of policy sub-loans reached RMB 22.6 billion, benefiting more than 30,000 small and micro enterprises and new types of agricultural operators.

In addition, the small and micro enterprises in Zhejiang, where Ant Financial Services Group is located, have benefited a lot from their favored geographical location. "In 2019, while Ant Financial Services Group continued to increase its coverage of small and micro customers in Zhejiang, the comprehensive loan interest rate it provides has dropped 0.8 percentage point year on year, providing universal benefits," said Jing Xiandong, chairman of Ant Financial Services Group.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial institutions in our province have actively cut interest rates or even exempted some small and micro enterprises in our province from interest rates, which has reduced their financing costs.

Zhejiang proposes to realize the goal that the growth rate of loans for inclusive small and micro enterprises will not be lower than the average growth rate of all kinds of loans in 2020, and that the comprehensive financing cost will decrease by another 0.5 percentage point.

Innovative mortgaged goods help technological enterprises get loans

Data show that the scale of financing obtained by scientific and technological enterprises is relatively large. According to the data from Zhejiang Bank and Insurance Supervision Bureau, by the end of 2019, the banking industry in the whole province (excluding Ningbo) has provided loans of RMB 652.463 billion for a total of 36,600 small and micro technological enterprises with the loan balance reaching RMB 568.676 billion.

Light-asset technological enterprises often find it hard to obtain loans due to the lack of collateral. Not long ago, Fu Yan, general manager of Hangzhou Kaihong Fluid Technology Co., Ltd., encountered this problem. Fortunately, she soon got an RMB 1 million credit loan from Yuhang Agricultural and Commercial Bank, which solved her urgent problem.

Although she has received a loan of RMB 1 million, Fu Yan still had concerns. "Light asset technological enterprises like ours often lack collateral for loans. Can we pledge loans through our patents?"

Intellectual property pledge financing is not something new, but banks have their own concerns in the actual operation. Fang Xuyin is a customer manager of Yuhang Agricultural and Commercial Bank, and Hangzhou Kaihong Fluid Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the enterprises he is responsible for. Fang believed that it was hard to evaluate the value of intellectual property rights and he hoped that breakthroughs would be made in this respect because it would be beneficial to both banks and enterprises.

According to the latest news, in February, the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau and Zhejiang Bank and Insurance Supervision Bureau jointly issued "Notice on Clarifying the Policy of Promoting Pledge Financing through Intellectual Property during the Anti-epidemic Period" to promote pledge financing through intellectual property. In the first two months, the amount of pledge financing through intellectual property in the whole province increased by 129% compared with the same period last year. We firmly believe that it will be easier and easier for technological enterprises to get loans.

Most small and micro enterprises lack collateral when they are trying to get loans. Apart from technology-based small and micro enterprises, many other kinds of small and micro enterprises have encountered the same problem. Our province has taken measures to solve the problem including expanding the coverage of pledge loans through intellectual property and accounts receivable and speeding up the construction of a policy financing guarantee system. Next, the province will increase the proportion of credit loans moderately to relieve the burden of the lack of collateral on small and micro enterprises.