The Lin-gang Special Area – located in East China's Shanghai city – is said to be working hard to control the spread of the novel coronavirus and to ease the financial pressures brought about by the epidemic on its resident companies.

Shanghai Lin-gang Special Area Financing Guarantee Co Ltd, the only governmental financing guarantee company in the area, has since March 31 opened fast-track lanes for online loan applications for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The online application channel is understood to have helped a lot for the companies, especially  integrated circuits businesses based in Lin-gang.

"The online loan application to guarantee the business has helped us a lot at this stage," said the head of an IC company in Lin-gang.

"Less than one hour after filling out the application, a member of staff contacted me and helped us get in touch with the Bank of Shanghai to resolve our situation. In the end, we completed the loan application without a mortgage," he added.

So far, the finance guarantee company has collected capital demands totaling 29.3 million yuan ($4.6 million) from 16 enterprises and has helped them liaise with financial institutions to deal with their problems.