Pingyao's financial efforts

For Pingyao county, Shanxi province, getting enough financial support for development has long been a problem for local authorities especially in a rapidly changing economy, so, recent years, it has looked for investment in private business, especially micro-to-mid –sized businesses.

So, the county has come up with incentives, a government-bank-enterprise mechanism, guaranteed loans, micro credit, and other measures to increase financial support for county development.

When it faced the economic downturn in 2014, its financial organizations implemented more prudent policies and improved the credit structure, so that its loans went from 2.9 billion yuan ($47 million) in 2009 to 5 billion yuan in 2014, and increase of 72 percent, mainly in agriculture, pillar industries, and new projects.

But, that last year, there was a decline in the number of loans in the county for many reason,, according to the vice-president of the People's Bank of China Pingyao branch, Cheng Weiwu. The downturn led to a drop in the demand for credit, problems with bank guarantees and accountability. At the same time, companies still needed to improve their development methods.

Cheng went on to affirm, "We'll be sure to hold a government-bank-enterprise docking conference regularly and provide 20 million yuan for the re-lending business for micro-to-small enterprises to solve their financial problems. We hope our clients can get better quality services through this process."

The same downturn, combined with structural adjustments, has brought a slowdown in the economy, leading to new problems for local government in how to adjust or perhaps take the lead, to lower the barriers to county development, increase financial support, and greater financial leverage to boost the economy.

Still, the county has high expectations for the economy and will be addressing these issues in a rural work conference.