China News Service:

Last November, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during a symposium on private enterprises that measures should be taken to address the difficulty in and high cost of financing for private firms. The central bank then put forward an array of policies to resolve the problem. My question is whether the measures have been effective for private businesses, including small and micro businesses, after one year of their implementation? And will further measures be rolled out? Thank you.

Yi Gang:

By applying an array of policies, we have achieved good results in addressing the difficulty and high cost of financing for private firms and small and micro businesses. The policies cover bank loans, bond issuance and equity financing. The People's Bank of China, the financial department, the supervisory department, local governments, and financial institutions have all been involved to do the job in an effort to achieve synergy. At the same time, monetary policy tools including reducing the required reserve ratio, targeted cuts to the required reserve ratio, relending and rediscounting have been employed to stimulate financial institutions to release more loans to private businesses and micro and small businesses. These measures have been proved effective as the loans on private enterprises grew rapidly this year.

Yi Gang:

Supporting the bond issuance of private companies also saw good results. We helped 66 private enterprises issue bonds totaling 48.8 billion yuan, and led by this, private companies have issued bonds totaling hundreds of billions of yuan. Some financial institutions and local governments followed suit and shared risks through the support of financing tools. This not only made bond issuance by private companies possible but lowered the interest rate for issuance. By the end of August this year, the balance of small and micro businesses' financial inclusion loans totaled 11 trillion yuan, up by 23 percent, 8 percentage points higher than the growth rate late last year. Then how many private firms and small and micro businesses have received loans? According to released figures, some 25 million private, small and micro business entities have received loans, which has promoted employment, entrepreneurship and the smooth running of the national economy. We also paid attention to their cost of financing and one year later, it is evident that the comprehensive financing cost has declined markedly. The People's Bank of China and other departments will continue making good use of the array of policies.