Policy Address

(B) Foster Economic Diversification

Support Small and Medium Enterprises

134. To address the challenges commonly encountered by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during economic restructuring, the Government will introduce the following support measures:

  1. re-launching the principal moratorium – Borrowing enterprises under the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme (including the existing loans already granted under the 80%, 90% and special 100% guarantee products as well as new loans under the 80% and 90% guarantee products) will be allowed to apply for principal moratorium for up to 12 months. The maximum loan guarantee periods of the 80% and 90% guarantee products will be extended to ten years and eight years respectively, while the partial principal repayment options will be offered to new loans under the two guarantee products. The HKMA is also actively considering to provide flexibility in banks' capital requirement to facilitate their lending to SMEs;

  2. injecting $1 billion into the BUD Fund – Support will be provided for SMEs to upgrade their business operations and develop new markets through the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales (the BUD Fund), including expanding the geographical coverage of E-commerce Easy to the 10 ASEAN countries, and providing targeted funding support for enterprises to implement green transformation projects;

  3. supporting digital transformation of SMEs and capitalising on e-commerce opportunities – The scope of Cyberport's Digital Transformation Support Pilot Programme will be expanded to cover the retail and food and beverage sectors, as well as industries such as tourism and personal services, subsidising SMEs for digital transformation on a one-to-one matching basis. The Hong Kong Shopping Festival is to be relaunched in the next two years to help SMEs tap into the Mainland e-commerce sales market, and will be held in the ASEAN market in due course;