Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province steps up financial support for local small and micro-sized foreign trade companies. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Small and micro-sized foreign trade companies in Ningbo have been able to apply for unsecured loans from local financial institutions starting from Dec 26, according to local media reports.

Official data shows that Ningbo is home to more than 25,000 foreign trade companies and that 95 percent of them are small and micro-sized businesses with annual exports worth less than $30 million.

In a bid to tackle financing difficulties facing those companies, local authorities, together with local banks and insurance institutions, rolled out loan services tailored just for them.

The applicant must be an enterprise registered in Ningbo and have obtained the foreign trade permit. It should also meet relevant requirements such as having no overdue loans with the financing platforms and its controllers having good credit.

An official at Ningbo municipal bureau of commerce revealed that a credit fund worth three billion yuan ($447.7 million) will be allocated for small and micro-sized foreign trade companies in the city in the following three years.

Ningbo's imports and exports reached 830.72 billion yuan from January to November, a yearly increase of 5.5 percent, according to statistics from local custom authorities.

Imports stood at 289.17 billion yuan while exports were 541.55 billion yuan, accounting for 3.24 percent of the national total over the period.