The signing ceremony between Zhongguancun Science Park and Bank of Beijing takes place on Sept 6. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhongguancun Science Park (Z-Park), or China's Silicon Valley, has renewed its partnership with Bank of Beijing, a Sino-foreign joint stock commercial bank, and received a new credit line of 120 billion yuan ($17.5 billion).

On Sept 6, representatives of the two parties inked their strategic cooperation agreement in the headquarters of Bank of Beijing. Over the next three years, the Bank will grant an intentional credit line of $17.5 billion to support the growth of Zhongguancun small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the construction of sub-parks and the expansion of financial services.

According to their agreement, the two parties are expected to team up in many fields including industrial development, financial innovation, infrastructure upgrading and credit financing for SMEs, in order to restore the vitality of emerging industries.

The quick credit financing system for SMEs, in particular, will be a priority among priorities. On the basis of SMEs' traits (such as non-linear development and insufficient collateral), the Zhongguancun administrative committee and Bank of Beijing will explore a comprehensive credit evaluation system where information and risks are shared by both sides.

These moves will enable fintech to play a bigger role in boosting the development of startups, deepening industry-finance integration and building an ideal environment for the city's three science parks -- Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City and Future Science City -- and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area.

"Devoted to helping innovation-oriented enterprises, Bank of Beijing was the first bank to set up branches in Z-Park", said Zhai Lixin, director the of the Zhongguancun administrative committee, "Over the past years, the Bank has provided many tailor-made fintech products for Zhongguancun enterprises."

"Zhongguancun Science Park stands in the front line of China's technology innovation and the financial support from Bank of Beijing is of great significance for our mission." he noted.

Next, Z-Park will double down on supportive policies for loan application and focus more on micro enterprises and promising startups. Bank of Beijing, on the other hand, will design more innovative credit products, like R&D loans and unsecured loans, for loan seekers, without regard to the length of their credit history.

Meanwhile, the administrative committee of Z-Park will release a list of key enterprises, so that commercial banks and financial agencies can make wiser choices of where to put their money.

Bank of Beijing has set up over 600 branches in not only over 10 domestic major cities on the mainland, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Changsha and Nanjing, as well as in Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

As of the end of March, 2018, Bank of Beijing's total assets amounted to 2.39 trillion yuan. Net profit of the first quarter reached 5.81 billion yuan with a cost to income ratio of 22.94 percent and provision coverage ratio of 272.68 percent.

Bank of Beijing [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Bank tops the list of domestic regional banks in terms of corporate value. It holds a brand value of 44.87 billion yuan and ranks the 63rd place in terms of first-tier capital on the latest World Top1000 Banks list, and has placed among the World Top 100 for five years in a row.

On the same day, the Bank's branch in Z-Park signed cooperation deals with many Zhongguancun-headquartered high-tech enterprises, including facial recognition unicorn Megvii Inc, intellectual service robotics creator CANBOT and cloud platform provider OpenStack.

Megvii Inc, CANBOT Technology and OpenStack sign cooperation with Bank of Beijing on Sept 6. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]