China’s central bank, regulators hold symposium on support for private companies

CHINA’S central bank and financial regulators held a symposium with private enterprises and financial institutions, vowing to increase lending to private enterprises and expand their fundraising channels, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Sunday (Mar 2).

The meeting was held on Friday to study Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at a symposium last month attended by some of the country’s biggest private business leaders, the statement said.

Executives from five Chinese private firms, clothing company Eve Group, carmaker Geely Holdings Group, AI firm SenseTime, courier company YTO Express and Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group attended Friday’s symposium, the PBOC said in a statement.

The PBOC will adopt an “appropriately loose” monetary policy to maintain ample liquidity and will guide financial institutions to increase loan issuance to private firms and small- and micro-enterprises, according to the statement.

China will guide financial institutions to treat all types of enterprises equally and make great efforts to solve the problems of financing difficulties and high financing costs for private enterprises, it said.

Financial institutions Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China, CITIC Securities and National Financing Guarantee Fund attended the meeting, according to the statement.

China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange said at the meeting it will promote more high-quality private firms to list on Shanghai’s technology board, the official China Securities Journal reported on Sunday.

State lender ICBC also said it will provide no less than 6 trillion yuan (S$1.1 trillion) of investment and financing to private enterprises over the coming three years, the China Securities Journal report said.

The rare symposium held by Xi last month underscores the importance of private-sector innovation for China to gain ground in technology amid rising geopolitical tensions between China and the US, analysts said. REUTERS

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