In recent years, Anhui’s regional innovation capacity has remained among the nation’s leading ranks. The cohort of technology-based enterprises has grown vigorously, creating a vivid landscape of “large enterprises standing tall and numerous small enterprises spreading everywhere.” By 2024, the province had 23,000 high-tech enterprises and 35,000 technology-oriented SMEs, making a prominent contribution to the cultivation of new quality productive forces.

Technological innovation requires the concrete support of finance. Faced with practical challenges, Anhui is actively exploring collaborative approaches to break the impasse and advance coordinated development.

Full-chain alignment: breaking development bottlenecks

Technological innovation has never been a simple linear process. From basic research to technology transfer and commercialization, each stage has distinct funding needs and risk profiles. The one-size-fits-all approach of traditional lending—both in approval logic and product design—clearly fails to meet the differentiated demands of each innovation stage, and “breaks” in the supply–demand chain for capital are increasingly apparent.

How to break the bottleneck? Building a financial product and service system that fits the entire innovation chain may be the key.

“We have been deeply cultivating science-and-technology finance, shifting our service focus from ‘looking at assets’ to ‘looking at technology,’ and upgrading service models from ‘single loans’ to ‘ecosystem empowerment,’” said Chen Zi, vice president of the Anhui Branch of Bank of China. In response to the challenges of technology-based enterprises at different stages, the bank has developed specialized products such as the “Sci‑Tech Loan”, providing a continuous stream of financial support throughout the enterprise lifecycle and helping to create a high-level circulation among technology, industry, and finance.

The targeted infusion of financial “water” is being converted into tangible results. As of the end of August this year, the province’s outstanding technology loans totaled ¥1.65 trillion, ranking seventh nationwide.

A relevant official from the Provincial Financial Office stated that support will be provided for the construction of three major sci‑tech hubs and high-level technology incubators, innovative financing models for major scientific infrastructure will be introduced, and assistance will be given to enable high-level scientific teams to start businesses and innovate in Anhui—thereby ensuring essential elements for high‑quality technological innovation.

Full-cycle accompaniment: escorting enterprise growth

Technology-based enterprises follow a stepwise growth trajectory from seedling to growth to maturity. How to precisely match the enterprises’ growth rhythm and provide financial services that cover the entire process has become another important issue in the development of Anhui’s tech finance.

In response, Xing Tai Holdings, leveraging an integrated financial business layout that includes Xin’an Bank and Xing Tai‑affiliated financing guarantees, leasing, commercial factoring, private equity funds, and microloans, has built a deep-accompaniment system for technological innovation “from the laboratory to the industrial chain.”

“R&D, transformation, mass production—at every critical node in the growth of tech enterprises, Xing Tai Holdings embeds itself deeply, using ‘precise matchmaking’ to resolve firms’ financing difficulties and development concerns, comprehensively meeting the differentiated financing needs of startups and key innovation entities within industrial chains,” said a senior executive of Xing Tai Holdings.

The Provincial Financial Office official noted that Anhui is building a more systematic, full‑cycle financial support system. The province is accelerating the creation of a “forest of funds,” using policy guidance to encourage capital to invest earlier, in smaller projects, and in hard technologies; continuously expanding the scale of technology loans with an emphasis on increasing medium‑ and long‑term credit supply to match the long‑term development needs of innovation firms; and deeply implementing the “Welcoming Pine” action plan to improve the enterprise listing cultivation system, promoting more high‑quality tech enterprises to list domestically and overseas and achieve leapfrog development through capital markets.

Joint efforts: building a healthy ecosystem together

The tech‑finance ecosystem is a systemic project that requires coordinated efforts from multiple stakeholders; it cannot be completed by a single department or institution alone.

The Provincial Financial Office official believes that building a healthy ecosystem relies on synchronized resonance among finance, fiscal authorities, and enterprises. Only by forming a coordinated mechanism of “policy guidance, market operation, multi‑party participation, and shared risk” can the tech‑finance ecosystem flourish.

With policy “coordinated efforts,” deep “bank‑enterprise ties,” and mechanisms that “innovate beyond boundaries,” Anhui is using the powerful synergy of diverse parties to break the dilemma of tech‑finance working in isolation and to build a flourishing ecosystem.

Source: anhuinews.com