The government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) announced Wednesday that the application period for the Special Loan Guarantee Scheme will be extended for another six months until Dec. 31 this year.

The Trade & Industry Department said Hong Kong's economic situation has shown significant improvement and the credit crunch problem has been largely relieved. It should be an opportune time to let the credit market gradually resume its normal operation.

The department will stop receiving new applications from participating lending institutions from Jan. 1, 2011. The existing Small and Medium Enterprises Loan Guarantee Scheme will continue to provide assistance to small and medium enterprises to help them obtain loans from the participating lending institutions.

So far, 46 participating lending institutions have joined the Special Loan Guarantee Scheme, statistics from the department showed. As at April 19, the department had approved 30,668 applications, involving a total loan amount of more than 74 billion HK dollars (9.5 billion U.S. dollars). The scheme has benefited over 17,000 enterprises in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, 95 percent of which are small and medium enterprises. The scheme has helped stabilize about 300,000 jobs, said the department. (One U.S. dollar equal 7.756 HK dollars.)