Interest-free Loans to Save hundreds of SMEs in Macao

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, July 13, 2003

Interest-free Loans to Save hundreds of SMEs in Macao

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Nearly 80 percent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) applying for interest-free loans to weather the financial strains attributable to the adverse effect of (SARS) can count on the government's financial assistance, said a loan crediting panel Saturday.

The panel set up in May to evaluate management status and loan payment ability of the applicants said that 411 out of the 540 applications that they reviewed are eligible for the loans.

The Macao Special Administrative Region government has planned to grant a 100 million-pataca (12 million US dollars) funding scheme to assist SMEs to overcome the negative effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on the local economy. An SME canget a maximum of 200,000 patacas (24,000 dollars) of loan with a repayment period of six years from the fund.

The funding support was part of a package of SME assistance measures the government has launched to save thousands of firms from shutting up business. The combined financial support would add up to nearly 300 million patacas (36 million dollars), in forms of credit guarantees and tax reduction or exemption.

SMEs, which accounted for more than 90 percent of Macao's 17,000 registered businesses, have witnessed a strong growth momentumafter Macao's return to the motherland in 1999. And last year alone saw the establishment of 1,187 companies.

The government expected the market mood to fully recover in October, when the tourism-related industries will hopefully get out of the SARS shadow.

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