Small and mid-sized enterprises (SME) from the mainland and Hong Kong will enjoy financing and other support from China Development Bank (CDB) and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) to help them develop.

A memorandum of understanding on closer cooperation signed in Beijing on Tuesday by the CDB and the TDC said that the two sides will jointly improve the investment and financing environment and develop a dual-exchange platform for SMEs, so as to encourage HK SMEs to develop on the mainland and mainland SMEs to develop in Hong Kong or overseas via Hong Kong.

Chen Yuan, governor of the CDB, said the two sides had agreed on common positions on cooperative models, information exchange mechanisms and other aspects. He said the CDB will fully exploit its business network on the mainland to recommend enterprises and projects to local governments.

He said the CDB will offer key support to HK SMEs which have projects in less developed western China areas, and will work with other financial institutions to provide them with financing services.

Woo Kwong-ching, chairman of the TDC, said he hopes the MOU will reach two major targets: one is to promote more HK SMEs to develop on the mainland, the other is to help mainland SMEs go overseas via the Hong Kong development platform.

He said many mainland enterprises are now qualified to develop on the international market, and can take advantage of Hong Kong's commercial and trade platform to compete on the international market.

The CDB, one of China's policy banks, is undergoing reforms that will allow it to develop commercial business. By the end of 2006, the bank had granted loans totaling 32 billion yuan (about US$4.1 billion) to SMEs. At the end of September, it also boasted the lowest non-performing loan rate -- 0.76 percent -- of any Chinese bank.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)