The special loan guarantee scheme has achieved great success with more than 21,000 applications approved involving more than $50 billion in loans in its 10 months of operation.

This was the message from Under Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Gregory So today, briefing participants in the 16th Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Small & Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting in Singapore on the measures Hong Kong adopted to help SMEs weather the global financial crisis.

He said to restore confidence and normal operations in the credit market, Hong Kong implemented measures such as injecting liquidity into the interbank market to guarantee all deposits and establishing a contingent bank capital facility to make available extra capital to locally incorporated licensed banks.

One of the most important measures was the introduction of the loan scheme which provides a total guarantee amount of $100 billion to ease the immediate liquidity problem Hong Kong enterprises face.

Under the Helping SMEs Access Global Markets & Overcome Trade Barriers theme, ministers and senior officials from 20 APEC member economies discussed policies and initiatives to enhance SMEs' competitiveness and facilitate their recovery after the global economic crisis.

Ministers have reaffirmed their commitment to help SMEs position for growth, develop market research and market access capabilities, support the implementation of the APEC SME Working Group strategic plan, as well as collaborate with organisations to enhance SMEs' competitiveness and facilitate their recovery.