About 454 private companies in Hebei specialize in offering relatively small loans to promote small businesses – and have thus led to the creation of five million jobs in the province.

These micro-financing companies, with registered funds of 26.5 billion yuan - double that of the 11 city commercial banks in Hebei - have loaned a total of 120 billion yuan over the past five years, according to the Financial Affairs Office of Hebei, a specialized agency that regulates financing companies.

More than 150,000 small enterprises and rural farmers have received financial support, creating about five million jobs at the grassroots level.

The Financial Affairs Office said that the authorities established four key rules for the companies that receive the loans: They are not allowed to absorb the savings of residents, raise funds illegally, recover loans using violent means or to lend money at excessive interest rates.

The strict supervision paid off, and no illegal cases occurred in the private financing sector in the province over the past five years. In addition, the non-performing loan ratio among these private sector companies did not exceed 0.1 percent, lower than commercial banks.

At the start of the year, the government planned to set up 100 companies - whose loans go to poverty-stricken areas - in the next three years, in order to encourage the healthy development of micro-financing companies and the local economy. Three such companies have already been set up, and another 18 have been approved.