YANG Tao | Bottlenecks in Private Sector Financing and Policy Solutions

        YANG Tao  Researcher at the Institute of Finance and Banking, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

l  The following views are compiled from YANG Tao’s remarks at the 13th Biweekly Policy Analysis Meeting.

YANG Tao, a researcher at the Institute of Finance and Banking, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed the financing difficulties faced by private enterprises, identifying multiple underlying causes. These include: Subjective preferences of financial institutions leading to differential treatment; Institutional and implicit constraints that impose objective limitations; Industry-specific risk characteristics, which result in financing premiums. Specifically, when there is a structural mismatch between the risk profile of a given industry and the risk pricing mechanisms used by financial institutions, financing costs for private enterprises in certain sectors will remain high—even in the absence of discrimination, whether subjective or objective.

From the perspective of policy evolution, subjective bias has significantly diminished as market mechanisms have improved, and institutional constraints have gradually eased through recent regulatory adjustments. The current major challenge lies in the tension between the cyclical volatility of industries in which private enterprises operate and the increasingly stringent risk control requirements of financial institutions. To resolve these financing difficulties, it is necessary to restructure the policy objectives. Rather than focusing on intermediate targets such as the scale of credit, bond issuance, or the number of innovative financial products, policies should shift toward ultimate goals aligned with supply-side reforms—such as improving total factor productivity, enhancing the stability of industrial chains, and optimizing employment structures. Financial support policies must now transition from quantitative expansion to qualitative efficiency.

The implementation of differentiated support strategies should consider two key dimensions.

Enterprise size: For large private enterprises, it is crucial to guard against debt risks caused by over-financing (as seen in recent cases involving major firms); for small and micro-enterprises, the emphasis should be on improving access to financing.

Industry characteristics: Tailored support plans should be developed for specific sectors, such as technology-based companies and those in catering and service industries, to avoid the homogeneous application of policy tools.

In conclusion, the core of optimizing financial support policies lies in building a precise matching mechanism. This includes aligning financial tools with enterprise needs, unblocking financing channels, and improving risk pricing models to achieve efficient resource allocation. The key is to establish a market-oriented, long-term support mechanism that moves beyond short-term interventions.

（This article is based on YANG Tao’s speech delivered on March 27, 2025. It is intended solely for academic exchange and does not represent the position of the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China.）