On March 18, the "Zhongguancun anti-epidemic loan" with a scale of 20 billion yuan ($2.84 billion) was jointly launched by the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, the Beijing branches of assorted banks such as the China Development Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Beijing and Beijing Zhongguancun Bank, as well as Zhongguancun Sci-tech Guaranty Company.
In the following two weeks, 271 loans with a total amount of 5.12 billion yuan were issued. The average loan interest rate is 3.55%, and the average loan amount is about 18 million yuan.
The "Zhongguancun anti-epidemic loan" is a credit product for Zhongguancun technology enterprises, especially small and medium-sized ones. It has advantages such as large quota, a variety of types, low interest rates (as low as 2.05%) and short approval time (as short as one day). Up to now, the Zhongguancun branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Beijing Tongzhou Branch of the China Construction Bank, the Bank of Beijing, Beijing Zhongguancun Bank, and the Beijing Branch of the Agricultural Bank have issued loans to many Zhongguancun enterprises which participate in epidemic prevention and control and have a large development potential, including MyGenostics, Coyote Bioscience, JSD Circuit and SinoVision.
The launch of the loan has greatly helped the resumption of production of Zhongguancun enterprises.
"With the loan, we solved difficulties in capital turnover, expanded production capacity and successfully developed a medical shelter and a vehicle-mounted CT solution that will be applied in epidemic control. The loan, with a particularly low interest rate and short approval time, greatly benefited enterprises like us," said Yang Xiaopei, CFO of SinoVision.
Coyote Bioscience agrees, noting that compared with the previous credit products, the "anti-epidemic loan" has a low interest rate and there is no charge other than interest. Besides, the enterprises themselves can decide how to use the loan.
In the next step, the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee will continue to publicize the "anti-epidemic loan", formulate a list of key enterprises, collect feedback on the product, and issue further policies on scientific and technological credit, helping Zhongguancun enterprises to cope with the challenges brought about by the epidemic.