New loans are being made available to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which have been suffering from a drought of working capital caused by the State banking system's cut in lending this year. Both the central government and the banking regulatory bodies are planning new action now that many SMEs, especially privately-owned enterprises (POEs), are reporting worsening financial difficulties due to a lack of working capital.
According to local press reports, Liu Mingkang, head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), made an inspection tour at the end of July of Zhejiang Province, where the mainland has its largest cluster of SMEs and POEs. The purpose of the trip, according a CBRC news release, was to study how a customized credit programme can be put into practice as a substitute for the previous across-the-board credit cuts.
