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A view of the PBC building in Beijing on August 22, 2022. Photo: VCG

China's central bank said on Friday that it has selected nearly 7,000 tech companies that will be eligible for the country's newly established tech relending program, as the country steps up efforts to boost scientific and technological (sci-tech) innovation amid rising global competition and foreign crackdown.

As part of China's intensifying push for sci-tech self-reliance, the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and other government departments set up a tech relending program in April, which would offer qualified tech firms a total of 500 billion yuan ($70 billion) in loans for sci-tech innovation.

Recently, the PBC and MOST selected the first batch of nearly 7,000 qualified companies based on an innovation point system, and have recommended them to 21 national banks, the PBC said in a statement on Friday.

"The banks responded quickly and acted quickly. The first sci-tech innovation loan has been issued recently, and other loans will be issued gradually," the statement said, adding that the PBC and MOST are already organizing evaluations of more than 320,000 technology companies for the second batch, which would be sent to the banks for the relending program.

In the statement, the PBC pledged to strengthen coordination with other departments, improve communication between the government, banks and companies, ensure banks will effectively and fully use the relending program, and guide more financial resources to sci-tech innovation.

The tech relending program is aimed at offering loans to small and medium-sized technology companies with an interest rate of 1.75 percent. According to the PBC's statement on Friday, 100 billion of the total will be designated to offer first-time loans for tech start-ups and small and medium-sized tech firms that are in the growth stage. The move aims to encourage financial institutions to increase investment in small tech firms in their early stages.

As global competition in the sci-tech field continues to intensify and the US and some of its Western allies seek to crack down on China's tech sector, China has been continuously ramping up efforts to bolster its sci-tech innovation capabilities.

In the latest signal of further intensified efforts in sci-tech innovation, the fifth meeting of the central commission for deepening overall reform of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee on Tuesday stressed the need to foster a globally competitive open environment for scientific and technological innovation.

The meeting stressed the importance of expanding global scientific and technological exchanges to forge a cooperative, win-win partnership, as well as building an internationalized scientific research environment that attracts, retains and gives full play to talent. It also called for improving sci-tech security mechanisms and mechanisms guarding against risks, according to Xinhua.

Experts said that as technological innovation plays an increasingly important role in national economic competitiveness, and as China faces intensifying foreign tech crackdowns, it is imperative to bolster the domestic innovation capability by building a better and more open environment for global sci-tech exchanges and innovation.

Global Times