Source: China Securities News · China Securities Network
"In December, we went out about 20 regiments, and initially obtained more than 18 billion yuan in new orders!" Han Jie, director of the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, showed the latest report card of Zhejiang's "thousands of enterprises to expand the market and grab orders" on January 12.
"Normalize the organization of enterprises to go abroad", "implement the cultivation project of thousands of key foreign trade enterprises", "increase the global layout of overseas warehouses", "actively expand the financing channels of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises"... A few days ago, a number of foreign trade promotion measures appeared in the 2023 government work reports of various places, helping "export", the "carriage" that drives economic growth, to run.
Enterprises going to sea are inseparable from financial escort. Recently, the banking industry has further optimized cross-border financial service solutions, enriched product shelves and service lineages, smoothed financing channels, facilitated settlement services, mitigated cross-border trade risks, and woven financial support into the capital chain, supply chain and industrial chain of foreign trade enterprises.
Take care of the capital chain
Not only Zhejiang. From the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shandong and other places will organize foreign trade enterprises to participate in exhibitions, negotiate and sign orders. Related actions have also come to fruition recently, and are being transformed into a lively scene of overtime and horsepower on the company's production line.
In the production workshop of Jiangsu Rugao Hua Ru Casing Co., Ltd., workers are fully armed and busy sorting out casings. It is the peak season for casing demand, and export demand is also increasing. "Affected by the epidemic, we only had an annual export volume of 70,000 to 80,000 US dollars in the first two years, and this year we can reach more than 1.8 million US dollars, finally surviving the 'cold winter'!" Mr. Zhu, the head of the enterprise, was overflowing with excitement.
The recovery of the economic situation is undoubtedly a great thing for Mr. Zhu, but it also brings some troubles. He said that due to the small number of previous orders, the company's raw material reserves were not sufficient, and the payment collection was not fully in place, and it was urgent to purchase a batch of raw materials with short-term working capital to cope with the increase in orders. After the branch of Jiangsu Rugao Development Zone of the Agricultural Bank of China learned of this situation, the staff immediately came to recommend the "Su Trade Loan" product without collateral and low interest rate, opened a green channel for loan approval at the first time, and provided it with 5 million yuan of credit funds.
"With the support of ABC, we have increased our sales by at least 13%." Mr. Zhu said that the unsecured and pure credit loan of the ABC is really a boon for export small enterprises.
The reporter of China Securities News learned that due to multiple factors, some small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises are facing greater financial pressure. How to protect the capital chain of enterprises through more convenient and accessible credit delivery, and avoid the loss of orders caused by the lack of funds and the obstruction of the start of construction, has become a concern of many banks.
For example, in order to provide foreign trade enterprises with efficient, fast lending and low-cost financing, China CITIC Bank recently launched an innovative product "Foreign Trade Credit Loan", which can be scored according to the business characteristics, financial status, annual import and export volume, industry and other dimensions of the enterprise, and the system automatically approves the credit line according to the scoring results, up to 20 million yuan, to solve the urgent need of enterprise funds.
Extend the service chain
The reporter's investigation found that some policy banks, as well as a number of large state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, urban and rural commercial banks and foreign-funded banks, have recently implemented relevant measures, broadening the service boundary and coverage, and extending the service chain of cross-border finance.
In addition to the endless emergence of exclusive foreign trade loans, many banks have also launched a worry-free "toolkit" to help foreign trade enterprises prepare and return with a full load.
For example, Bank of China recently released a "package" of cross-border financial services to support foreign trade enterprises to grab orders overseas, including providing multi-currency trade financing support equivalent to RMB 100 billion and international settlement support of USD 500 billion for foreign trade enterprises that go overseas to grab orders, providing credit enhancement support, matching support, insurance support, investment negotiation support, etc.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has also recently launched a plan to focus on the framework of "3 basic services + 3 characteristic solutions + N industry solutions", cutting into the needs of enterprises for cross-border business, and refining and forming scenario-based financial solutions, covering transaction banking, investment banking, financial markets, international platforms and other products. According to relevant personnel of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the above plan focuses on the three basic cross-border services of "global exchange", "free exchange" and "lightning financing", which serve payment and settlement, exchange hedging, financing guarantee and other scenarios, basically covering the conventional cross-border business needs of enterprises.
"Unlike the previous foreign trade enterprises, whose financial needs were relatively single and often only focused on foreign exchange collection and settlement, at present, we see that more and more foreign trade enterprises are constantly improving their requirements for financial service cooperation while their products and services go overseas." Yuen Jiaqiang, managing director of the global trade and financing business department of HSBC (China), told reporters that enterprises no longer only need a settlement bank, but seek more efficient, stable financial institutions that can provide overall one-stop services.
Help the industrial chain
"In general, the banking industry's help to stabilize foreign trade is mainly reflected in two aspects of support." Zeng Gang, director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, said that on the one hand, it is support for the trading enterprises themselves, and on the other hand, it involves support for the industrial chain.
"Support for trading enterprises themselves, including helping foreign trade enterprises better complete cross-border payment settlement, and providing the financing needed by enterprises in a timely manner." In addition, some foreign trade enterprises, especially small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, lack foreign exchange risk management capabilities, and banks can provide risk hedging tools while popularizing foreign exchange risk and other knowledge for enterprises through consulting and other means to help them improve their corresponding response capabilities. Zeng Gang told reporters.
Zeng Gang said that the support for the industrial chain is to take the industrial chain as the overall object, around the import and export of foreign trade enterprises, upstream and downstream industrial chains, provide appropriate and sufficient financial support, provide settlement, financing, risk management and other services, help the industrial chain run more smoothly, smoother and more efficient, and improve the competitiveness of mainland enterprises in foreign trade exports. "Banks can strengthen the overall research of foreign trade-related industrial chains, and then build corresponding service models and platforms around the industrial chain." For banks, it is no longer a requirement for individual product capabilities, but a requirement for system service capabilities, and in this process, financial technology will play an important role. Zeng Gang said.
In terms of "on-chain" finance, the industry has made certain attempts. Yuan Jiaqiang introduced, "The smart supply chain financing system established by our bank in recent years has provided complete financing supporting services for foreign trade enterprises. "This system can not only create a more competitive and resilient supply chain for core enterprises, but also flexibly and accurately support small and medium-sized enterprises and contribute to financial inclusion."
In addition, grasping the new format of foreign trade and capturing the new momentum of foreign trade development is also the direction of accelerated exploration in the industry. "Industrial and trade transformation and upgrading is an inevitable trend, mainland export commodities are developing in the direction of higher added value and industrial chain upgrading, and product competitiveness is gradually increasing, especially in new energy, new consumption, electric vehicles and other industries." Yuan Jiaqiang said that the bank is also helping foreign trade enterprises explore new overseas markets through emerging business models such as cross-border e-commerce.