Beijing Rural Commercial Bank promised to increase loans to the city's small and medium-sized enterprises by at least 30 billion yuan (US$3.75 billion) within three years.

Under an agreement signed by the bank and the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, all small and medium-sized enterprises registered in the Chinese capital can apply online for financing projects with a loan period of three years, Shanghai Securities News said in a report on Wednesday.

In order to help these enterprises solve the financing problem, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, can make some adjustments to the monetary policy in this regard, said Jin Weihong, governor of the commercial bank.

The interest rates of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises can be more flexible, he said.

He promised that the bank would give more support and preferential loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in agriculture and high-tech fields.

Statistics showed that the small and medium-sized enterprises of Beijing accounted for over 95 percent of the city's total enterprises.

By the end of March this year, the bank's total assets reached 138.6 billion yuan (US$17.33 billion), and the sum of loans amounted to 56.9 billion yuan (US$7.11 billion), with loans provided to small and medium-sized enterprises standing at 40 billion yuan (US$5 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)