The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, has pledged to increase financial support for the country’s private enterprises.
The PBOC will strengthen coordination between financial, fiscal and industrial policies, and will guide more financial resources into the private economy, said Pan Gongsheng, the bank’s governor, at a symposium Thursday on enhancing financial support for private enterprises.
The financial sector is obliged to support the development of private enterprises, as the private economy is an important outcome of the development of the socialist market economy, as well as a key force for promoting economic and social development, Pan said.
Pan said the scale of instruments to support private enterprises in debt financing will be expanded, and work will be done to strengthen the financial market’s support for private enterprises.
He called on financial institutions to create a favorable environment for the development of private enterprises, enhance their willingness, capacity and sustainability in terms of taking loans, and provide them with reliable, efficient and convenient financial services.
Pan also pledged to precisely implement differentiated housing credit policies, meet the reasonable financing needs of private real estate enterprises and promote the sound development of the real estate sector.
China’s service trade value grew 8.5 percent year on year in the first six months of this year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Thursday.
Total trade value stood at 3.14 trillion yuan (about 439.19 billion U.S. dollars), according to the data.
Service exports declined 5.9 percent year on year to 1.32 trillion yuan, and service imports were 1.81 trillion yuan, up 22.1 percent from a year ago.
The service trade deficit stood at 489.4 billion yuan in the first half of the year, the data showed.
China’s trade of knowledge-intensive services maintained steady growth in the period, rising 12.3 percent year on year to about 1.36 trillion yuan.
The figure represents 43.5 percent of the total service trade in the first six months, up 1.5 percentage points from a year ago.
During the period, services related to the travel sector registered a notable recovery. Total trade value in the sector surged 65.4 percent from a year earlier to 650.94 billion yuan.
Exports and imports of travel services expanded by 52.4 percent and 66.4 percent year on year, respectively, according to the data.
Shayne Heffernan
