|
BEIJING - China's northern city of Qingdao has rolled out a series of tax breaks and subsidies to help its exporters better survive the global economic slowdown.
The port city increased tax rebates for its 10,000-plus exporters by 5.7 billion yuan ($832.3 million) to 18 billion yuan this year, state radio reported, citing a recent local government statement.
The government would also subsidize exporters' interest payments on loans, share 30-50 percent of their expenses on overseas exhibitions and promotional activities, as well as 20 percent of their export insurance fees.
The new incentives follow a July announcement by Beijing to raise tax rebates to 13 percent from 11 percent for exporters of textiles and garments that have been hard hit by slowing global demand and rising costs.
"Exporters, especially those small ones, now face a lot of difficulties," the radio cited Sun Hengqin, head of Qingdao's commerce bureau, as saying. Sun added that almost one-tenth of the exporters in the city did little business this year.
A report on the bureau's website (www.boftec.gov.cn) posted on Sept 22 said the U.S. financial crisis had started to affect the Chinese city's export growth.
Its export growth to the United States slowed to 8.9 percent in the first seven months, down 7.1 percentage points from a year earlier, while risks were rising that U.S. buyers might postpone payments or even refuse to pay, it said.
| 
