——Interview with Professor Dong Yanling of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National Academy of Administration).
■China Economic Times reporter Zhou Zixun
A few days ago, the State Administration of Financial Regulation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Notice on Deepening Manufacturing Financial Services to Help Promote New Industrialization" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), clarifying the key tasks of financial support for the manufacturing industry in the next step, and promoting more credit resources to support the development of the manufacturing industry.
Manufacturing is an important support for the national economy. In the first quarter of 2024, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size on the mainland increased by 6.1% year-on-year, contributing 37.3% to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, driving GDP growth by nearly 2 percentage points. Correspondingly, at the end of March, the medium and long-term loans of the manufacturing industry increased by 26.5%, of which the medium and long-term loans of the high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 27.3%, which were 12.2 percentage points and 13 percentage points higher than the growth rate of the medium and long-term loans of all industries, respectively, and the medium and long-term loans of the manufacturing industry continued to maintain a high level of growth.
Dong Yanling, a professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration), pointed out in an interview with a reporter from the China Economic Times that manufacturing loans have the characteristics of large demand and long loan cycles.
01
A strong manufacturing industry is inseparable from a strong financial supporting service
China Economic Times: Why does the country propose to increase financial support for the manufacturing industry?
Dong Yanling: Manufacturing is the foundation of the country, the instrument of rejuvenation, the foundation of a strong country, and the most important component of the real economy, the added value of the mainland's manufacturing industry accounts for 26.18% of GDP.
Finance is the blood of the real economy, and it is the duty of finance to serve the real economy. A strong manufacturing industry is inseparable from a strong financial supporting service. Increasing financial support for the manufacturing industry reflects the Party Central Committee's consistent deep understanding and accurate grasp of economic development. In the context of the increasingly complex international political and economic situation, it is a strategic choice for the mainland to achieve high-quality economic development by continuing to focus on enhancing the real economy and enhancing the capacity of material output, comprehensively adopting various measures, including finance, focusing on supporting the safety and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, increasing financial support for basic parts and basic materials, etc., accelerating the improvement of the level and scale of the manufacturing industry, and enhancing the independent and controllable ability of the manufacturing industry. Increasing financial support for the manufacturing industry is also an inevitable requirement for the construction of a financial power.
In a sense, the "Notice" releases a policy signal to increase financial support for the manufacturing industry and further improve the accuracy and effectiveness of financial services for the manufacturing industry, which is conducive to guiding financial institutions to serve the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry as the theme, and use more credit resources to promote the development of the manufacturing industry, especially the advanced manufacturing industry.
02
Focus on improving the quality and efficiency of financial services in the manufacturing industry
China Economic Times: The "Notice" proposes to optimize financial supply and improve the quality and efficiency of financial services in the manufacturing industry. How should this expression be understood, and what are the difficulties in improving the quality and efficiency of financial services in the manufacturing industry?
Dong Yanling: In recent years, although the growth rate of manufacturing credit has been relatively fast, the quality and efficiency of manufacturing financial services need to be improved.
The "Notice" identified four key tasks to support the safety and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, support the innovation and development of industrial science and technology, support the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure and support the intelligent and green development of industry.
"Basic components, basic materials, basic software and industrial software" are weak areas for the security and stability of the mainland's industrial and supply chains in the context of the international countercurrent of "decoupling and chain breaking". These weak areas are technically difficult, have high input costs, long effective cycles, and wide coverage, and require joint investment from large and medium-sized enterprises, governments, and scientific research institutes, as well as key financial support. This is one of the starting points of the "Notice" to "optimize financial supply, improve the service system, and strengthen risk prevention and control".
The "Circular" has three main contents for optimizing financial supply. The first is to optimize the credit structure and increase the allocation of medium and long-term loans and credit loans. The second is to enrich the product supply, provide support according to the life cycle of the enterprise, and optimize the quota, term, interest rate and collateral and other factors. The third is to strengthen service docking and enhance financial support for small, medium and micro enterprises and private manufacturing. The above three contents all reflect the central government's precise research and judgment and targeted support for weak areas.
From the perspective of difficulties and blockages, the first is the imbalance of resource investment in the financial service manufacturing industry. Large-scale manufacturing enterprises with long operating hours, large business scale and high industry status occupy too many financial resources, and even use finance for arbitrage, while most of the small, medium and micro enterprises in science and technology innovation in the start-up, growth and R&D stages have the problems of "difficult financing" and "expensive financing". Second, the products and capabilities of banks to serve the manufacturing industry are still relatively limited, there are insufficient experts to understand the industry and demand, and the innovation for the needs of manufacturing enterprises is not enough. Third, the overall risk of the manufacturing industry is high, and it has always been the "hardest hit area" of non-performing loans, and the mismatch between risk and return affects the enthusiasm of financial institutions and the sense of gain of enterprises.
03
Take multiple measures to promote more financial resources to support the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry
China Economic Times: What do you think should be the key points that should be grasped to promote more financial resources to support the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry?
Dong Yanling: Combined with the strategic goals of the CPC Central Committee and the difficulties and blockages it faces, it is recommended to promote it from the following six key matters.
The first is to focus on the key task of promoting new industrialization, and guide financial institutions to focus on supporting key industrial chains (including short and long chains), chain main leading enterprises, specialized and new "little giant" enterprises, industry public service platform capacity building, and industrial funds.
The second is to promote financial institutions to further improve the internal support of the manufacturing industry of various systems and mechanisms. Optimize the manufacturing industry from the dimensions of organizational structure, business processes, financial products, performance appraisal, talent team, loan pricing, and non-performing liability exemption.
The third is to increase the government's early risk investment and financial risk compensation for manufacturing enterprises. In the early stage of extremely risky and very low returns, the government should set up a fund and guide more social funds to enter early.
Fourth, strengthen the financial risk compensation mechanism of the manufacturing industry. At the government level, it is necessary to increase the interest discount, risk compensation, and policy-based credit guarantee for manufacturing loans, and at the regulatory level, it is necessary to explore the differentiated assessment of manufacturing financial profits and risk tolerance, so as to fundamentally stimulate the endogenous power of commercial banks to serve the manufacturing industry.
Fifth, promote the open sharing of government and financial data. Commercial banks are allowed to develop enterprise risk assessment systems, and use the "usable and invisible" hidden calculation and analysis methods to analyze and output government affairs data and financial data, improve the value of data resources, solve the problem of information asymmetry, and enhance banks' market expansion capabilities and risk control capabilities.
Sixth, promote the marketization of the prices of technological factors. Improve the intellectual property evaluation and trading mechanism, and further enhance the professional ability of commercial banks to serve the manufacturing industry through the market-oriented price of scientific and technological achievements to fairly reflect the technical content.
Image source of this article: photo.com
Chief Producer丨Wang Hui and Che Haigang
Producer丨Li Piguang, Wang Yu, Liu Weimin
Editor-in-Chief丨Mao Jinghui Editor丨Zou Duo