Ningbo ramps up financial support for enterprises

Nearly 100 billion yuan ($15.38 billion) worth of loans will be offered to small and micro enterprises and individual businesses in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province this year, local authorities announced recently.

The 100 billion yuan will include 70 billion yuan worth of inclusive loans for small and micro businesses, 10 billion in credit loans for small and micro businesses, and 15 billion yuan of operating loans for individual businesses.

In addition, the city will further expand the application of the "loan code", which allows small businesses to apply for loans using their mobile phones.

To date, 55 banks in Ningbo have completed the distribution of the "loan code" in their branches, and 28,000 small and micro enterprises and individual businesses have obtained loans worth 50.3 billion yuan by scanning the code.

As of May, Ningbo was home to over 1.24 million market entities, of which 474,500 are small and micro enterprises and 727,400 are individual businesses, with the two combined accounting for 96.26 percent of the total, official statistics show.