The Guangdong branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission has issued a series of new guidelines aimed at helping small and micro-sized enterprises in the province through the economic slowdown.

Local lenders have been asked, for instance, to increase and be more flexible in the amounts they lend to single small or micro-enterprises, historically set at a limit of around 5 million yuan ($793,000).

The directive also suggests enterprises that have demonstrated they have been focusing on energy savings or cutting emissions, should be given priority, along with those companies identified as being in strategic economic industries such as high technology.

Elsewhere, the directive encourages better communication between banks and customers, ongoing monitoring of customer performance, and that banks should be working towards long-term, rather than short-term relations with those they lend to.

It also requires banks to set more realistic tolerance levels for the non-performing loans.

New loans to small and micro-enterprises by banks in Guangdong, excluding the city of Shenzhen, stood at 62.325 billion yuan in the first half of this year, accounting for 20 percent of all new loans and increasing by 16.12 percent year-on-year.