The $3.5 billion loan scheme will help small and medium-sized companies to weather the atypical pneumonia storm
Businesses hit hard by the Sars outbreak will receive help through cheap bank loans to pay staff wages under a $3.5 billion scheme announced yesterday.
The aim is to discourage employers from laying off staff and to help them ride out the outbreak.
Loans extended by banks to four sectors - travel agents, restaurant and catering, retail, and cinema and karaoke operators - will be fully guaranteed by the government and will allow companies to pay staff wages for three months from May 2 to July 31.
The money will be paid by banks directly to employees, to ensure the loans are used for the right purpose. Bankers expect the first loans, granted at prime rate minus 3 per cent - making them some of the cheapest credit facilities currently extended by retail banks, to be granted quickly.
'I think it's possible to grant loans within a week,' said Allen Yuen, who runs Citibank's small and medium-sized lending business in Hong Kong.
