Nearly 80 per cent of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) applying for interest-free loans to weather the financial strains attributable to the adverse effect of severe acute Respiratory syndrome (SARS) can count on the government's financial assistance, said a loan crediting panel on Saturday.
The panel, set up in May to evaluate management status and loan payment ability of the applicants, said that 411 out of the 540 applications that they reviewed are eligible for the loans.
The Macao Special Administrative Region government has planned to grant a 100m-pataca (US$12m) funding scheme to assist SMEs to overcome the negative effect of SARS on the local economy. An SME can obtain a maximum of 200,000 patacas (US$24,000) from the fund with a repayment period of six years.
