Capital support for innovation in further focus

Adhering to an innovation-driven approach and accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new growth drivers was identified as one of the key economic tasks for 2026 during the recently convened Central Economic Work Conference.

The conference has emphasized the importance of innovating science and technology-oriented financial services.

It is expected that in the next stage, policies on financial support for technological innovation will place greater thrust on breakthroughs in financial products and service models to address financing bottlenecks faced by technology firms, said Yin Zhentao, deputy director of the National Academy of Economic Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Yin added that banks may shift their support focus from traditional infrastructure to technology-oriented infrastructure, such as laboratories and innovation platforms.

China's large State-owned commercial banks are studying and deploying measures to implement the guiding principles of the conference, giving priority to financial support for technological innovation.

China Construction Bank said it will fully implement the innovation-driven development strategy by pooling group-wide resources and leveraging synergies between commercial and investment banking, in order to provide targeted and efficient support for the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation.

Bank of Communications said it will seize opportunities arising from the expansion of international science and technology innovation centers, innovate and optimize financial service models, and step up support for the development of new quality productive forces and the building of a modern industrial system in line with local conditions.

To effectively address financing difficulties faced by technology-based enterprises, the branch of the People's Bank of China in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in collaboration with the regional department of science and technology, has launched a special initiative to encourage local financial institutions to translate corporate innovation scores into credit access, collateral options, interest rate discounts, and more flexible loan tenors.

As of the end of November, 12 financial institutions in the region had launched loan products based on the corporate innovation scoring mechanism, with outstanding loans totaling 2.46 billion yuan ($348 million) and covering 447 technology enterprises.

These products feature tailored credit limits, preferential interest rates and simplified procedures, significantly improving financing accessibility for asset-light, high-growth firms.

In response to the national strategy on science and technology finance, Industrial Bank's Dalian branch recently extended a 90 million yuan project loan to a smart manufacturing equipment company in Dalian, Liaoning province. The funds will be used to acquire core production facilities and internationally advanced large-scale forging equipment, significantly enhancing the company's R&D capabilities and market competitiveness in the high-end manufacturing sector.

Although the company, which specializes in aerospace forgings, possesses core technological strengths, it has faced development bottlenecks. These include production capacity lagging behind rapid growth of orders, existing equipment being unable to meet market demand, and the high cost of imported high-end forging equipment, which exceeds the firm's own funding capacity.

To address these challenges, Industrial Bank's Dalian branch tailored an integrated financing solution for the company, aiming to deeply integrate technology finance with green finance. While supporting the company in expanding its production capacity, the solution focuses on technological innovation, breakthroughs in "choke-point" technologies, and green, low-carbon manufacturing.

Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, said that banks need to use tools such as intellectual property-backed pledge loans, project financing and equity-debt linked products to cover the financing needs of technology companies from the startup stage through maturity, and to address the challenge of insufficient collateral faced by asset-light enterprises.

"In the future, technology financial services need to evolve from financing toward a 'financing plus advisory' model, providing full lifecycle services for market participants," Lou said.

He added that this should include deeper integration of artificial intelligence and finance, the use of big data to assess corporate creditworthiness and growth prospects, closer coordination among government agencies, venture capital firms and insurance institutions to build a financial service ecosystem, and the use of policy tools such as the re-lending facility for technological innovation to lower corporate financing costs.