Guangdong Unveils Policy Measures to Boost Employment

Guangdong has announced a series of measures to create jobs and stabilise employment. These measures include:

• Supporting enterprises in keeping employment stable
  
  Enterprises that are unable to pay premiums on time due to the Covid-19 outbreak can defer payment until three months after the epidemic ends. No surcharge will be imposed on the deferred payment. Deferred payments include employee basic insurance, such as endowment, basic medical (including maternity), unemployment and work-related injury, as well as contributions to the housing provident fund. Support will be given to financial institutions to further increase tolerance of non-performing loans to small and micro enterprises, and increase medium- and long-term loans and fiduciary loans to micro-, small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

• Creating more jobs
  
  Steps will be taken to create jobs by increasing investment and improving the registered capital system for fixed asset investment projects. The capital ratio will be regulated and determined based on the nature of the investment project, and the minimum capital requirement for infrastructure projects will be adjusted appropriately. The practice of raising capital for major projects by issuing equity types of financial instruments, such as perpetual bonds, will be encouraged.

• Further encouraging entrepreneurship to boost employment
  
  Greater efforts will be made to implement the policy of discount interest for guaranteed startup loans. Qualifying small- and micro-sized labour-intensive and technology-based enterprises will be granted guaranteed loans of up to Rmb5 million with discount interest amounting to 50% of the base rate for a maximum period of three years.

Full details can be found in the Several Policy Measures for Further Stabilising and Promoting Employment (Yue Fu No. 12 [2020]) issued by the People’s Government of Guangdong Province on 21 February.

Source: People’s Government of Guangdong Province