China to enhance assistance to people in need, small firms

China will enhance support to those living in poverty, living on minimum subsistence allowances or unemployed, and ramp up financial services for micro and small firms, according to a statement released after a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday.

Facing unprecedented challenges in economic development, the meeting noted that more targeted measures must be taken to guarantee people’s basic livelihoods.

The meeting noted that poor laborers should get priority to be hired in construction of major national projects, aid should be arranged for people in temporary trouble caused by the pandemic, and the coverage of unemployment insurance should be further expanded.

It was also decided at the meeting to release more credit resources and improve the ability to serve small and micro businesses.

The Cabinet decided to lower the bad loan provision requirement for medium and small banks by 20 percentage points temporarily. The move is meant to free up capital for banks to lend to struggling smaller and medium enterprises amid the unprecedented economic challenges, it said.

Moreover, three months of rent will be exempted in the first half of the year for small and micro-enterprises and individual business in the service industry that lease state-owned houses.

China’s economy is expected to recover in the second quarter after shrinking in the first quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said on Tuesday. China’s GDP contracted 6.8 percent year on year in the first quarter.