Anchor:
A senior Chinese central bank official says financial conditions have in recent months improved for China's small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs. Yi Gang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, says the government will further increase SME access to loans and formulate more preferential policies in times of need. CRI's Zheng Chenguang takes a look.

Reporter:
In a bid to ease financial difficulties for SMEs, China's central bank recently announced it would no longer cap the number of loans commercial banks can make.

Yi Gang says the new policy benefited several SMEs with a record increase in the total loans issued.

"From January to October, China's financial institutions issued loans worth 3.7 trillion yuan, or about 540 billion US dollars. This is the highest in history. Of course, such an increase means many SMEs have received support in loans."

Besides making credit loans more accessible to SMEs, the central banks are also exploring ways to finance the enterprises.

In China's eastern province of Zhejiang, local financial institutions have carried out pilot projects to securitize SMEs' credit capital by issuing securities worth 700 million Yuan. This new approach has widened SMEs channels to garner finance and lower credit risks for financial institutions.

The central bank is also pushing for robust development of the commercial paper market.
Yi Gang says the move has positive results.

"If you have a close look at China's recent monetary figures, you will find that in the increase of loans recently, commercial paper is developing really fast."

Central bank statistics show that commercial paper increased by 60.8 billion yuan in October, the largest rise ever.

Many of China's SMEs' are in the export sector, plagued by a shrinking demand due to the global financial crisis. Official statistics show that SMEs in China generate almost 60 percent of the GDP, 50 percent of tax revenues and 75 percent of new jobs every year.

Zheng Chenguang, CRI news.