The move adopted by Huzhou's Anji county to cover loan interest rates for local enterprises has greatly boosted local market vitality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, the local government unveiled a guideline regarding the management of the special fund to bolster the high-quality development of the manufacturing sector.

The document stipulated that the fund will be provided to enterprises in the form of subsidies instead of rewards.

According to Zhao Weiqin, an official at the Anji Finance Bureau, Anji has allocated a fund worth 100 million yuan ($15.38 million), which can cover the interest rates of about 2 billion yuan in loans for local enterprises.

To date, 50 companies have applied for loans worth a total of 1.37 billion yuan, and 419 million yuan has been distributed to them.

A company can apply for a maximum of 50 million yuan in unsecured loans for business expansion and technical upgrading, said Xu Ning, deputy head of the Chengxi branch of the Anji Rural Commercial Bank.

Shen Hailong, president of Anji Hailong Furniture Co Ltd, said that the policy will help them retain sufficient cash flow, which can be used to design, develop and promote new products.

According to Liu Gang, head of production at Withme Food Technology (Anji) Co Ltd, the company just spent over 10 million yuan to bring in automated equipment from Germany, and the loan interest subsidies offered by the government relieved their financial pressure a lot.