Economy
22:03, 30-Jan-2019
China urges arrears clearance for SMEs and private companies
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China will step up efforts to help clear arrears to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ahead of the Chinese New Year, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.
Since last November, the State Council has required relative government departments and large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to pay off the overdue debt to SMEs and private companies.
So far, a total of 160 billion yuan (about 23.8 billion U.S. dollars) has been paid, which has been used preferentially to settle the wages owed to migrant workers and projects related to people's livelihood, according to the meeting.
Premier Li also urges the establishment of a long-term mechanism to prevent defaults that will result in overdue debt to private enterprises and worsen their liquidity situations.
This is the latest move by China to further strengthen support to the private sector and SMEs and help ease financial woes.