After a month-long economic pause to contain the coronavirus, the primary benefactors of such policies are big businesses – with many SMEs still struggling to return to normal levels. To overcome this discrepancy, Guangdong Province has issued several new initiatives to help stabilise work across the region:
- Enterprises that cannot pay their premiums due to the COVID-19 outbreaks can defer their payments until three months after the end of the epidemic (with no surcharge imposed). A deferred payment includes: employee basic insurance (ie. endowment, basic medical, unemployment, work-related injuries and contributions to the housing provident fund).
- Financial institutions will receive government support to raise the tolerance of non-performing loans for SMEs, whereas medium- and long-term fiduciary loans will be increased for SME manufacturing enterprises.
- More jobs will be created through investments and improvements to the registered capital system for fixed asset investment projects. Capital ratios will also be regulated and determined based on the nature of the investment project.
- Policies for discounting the interest of guaranteed start-up loans will be introduced. Qualifying small- and micro-sized labour intensive and technology-based enterprises will receive guaranteed loans of up to RMB 5 million with discounted interest rates.
To learn more about Guangdong’s employment and enterprise initiatives, click here
