Pioneering the "One-Person Company" | Supporting the Construction of Qingdao Northern OPC Demonstration City Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank Launches Its First Startup Guarantee Loan

Jingji News reporter Guo Jianhang, Qingdao report

“I learned about a loan policy targeting OPC companies through briefings organized by Qingdao’s Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. I tried applying, and I didn’t expect it to be so convenient. After I submitted my materials and the loan application in Qingdao’s HRSS bureau system, I didn’t need to go offline to the bank counter to complete any手续, and I got a loan of 190,000 yuan from Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank.” Sun Yupeng, an entrepreneur in the field of embodied intelligent robot application in Qingdao, told a reporter from China Business News.

Fresh financial capital is flowing to those smallest economic units centered on “people,” through a “government–bank–enterprise” matching platform led by the HRSS departments.

During the “15th Five-Year Plan and the 15th Five-Year Plan+” period, the Qingdao municipal government focused on building a highland for AI innovation and entrepreneurship, and moved forward with the construction of a Northern OPC pilot demonstration city. On March 24, Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank’s first OPC entrepreneurship guarantee loan was put into effect, marking a key step forward for Qingdao’s Nanshan District in enabling finance for OPC entrepreneurship.

“The 190,000-yuan loan” behind the story

Against the backdrop of Qingdao fully building the Northern OPC pilot demonstration city and seizing strategic opportunities from the “Artificial Intelligence+” action plan, Qingdao’s Nanshan District, together with multiple parties including Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank and Qingdao Weicai Entrepreneurship Guidance Service Center, set up an efficient “government–bank–enterprise” matching platform, and actively reached out to and followed up with OPC entrepreneurs to provide services.

In the afternoon of March 24, 2026, the launching ceremony for the city’s first OPC entrepreneurship guarantee loan was held at the Qingdao Entrepreneurship Empowerment Center. Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank’s Nanjing Road sub-branch and OPC entrepreneur Sun Yupeng formally signed the loan agreement. The loan amount was 190,000 yuan. This seemingly modest loan has quickly drawn attention from the regional financial market, because of the “embodied intelligent robot applications” track it supports, as well as the “one-person company” new entrepreneurial model it serves.

The reporter learned that Sun Yupeng entered the “embodied intelligent robot applications” track in 2023. At present, the project’s users are mainly enterprises, such as AI systems with physical embodiments customized for training and education companies, and for traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical companies. Sun Yupeng said: “Behind our intelligent robot application system for traditional Chinese medicine enterprises are tens of thousands of traditional Chinese medicine books and materials. After we conduct large-scale training and ‘feeding,’ the robots acquire the corresponding capabilities. Although using low-code AI tools can lower entrepreneurship costs, developing the system still requires a certain amount of funding.”

When asked, “What is the biggest difficulty for OPC companies to obtain bank loans?” Sun Yupeng said: “At present, the policy briefing efforts are strong. But between learning about the policy and personally going to apply for a loan, OPC entrepreneurs tend to preset ‘difficulties.’ Unlike traditional enterprises, OPC entrepreneurs don’t have collateral, so they worry they won’t be able to obtain bank loans. In fact, banks are now using measures such as credit data to manage risk and release loans. Getting a loan for an OPC company is not as difficult as people imagine.”

Getting loans for OPC companies relies on government coordination and policy support.

According to Qingdao’s entrepreneurship guarantee loan policy, individual entrepreneurs can apply for up to 300,000 yuan, and guarantee and counter-guarantee measures are provided by institutions such as Qingdao Weicai Entrepreneurship Guidance Service Center, greatly reducing banks’ exposure to credit risk. Under this mechanism, banks are no longer simply the ones bearing risk; instead, they become the “output endpoint” for policy implementation. Through the “government–bank–guarantee” risk-sharing mechanism, loan approval shifts from “looking backward (collateral)” to “looking forward (technology potential and policy support).”

On March 24, 2026, Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank’s Nanjing Road sub-branch signed the loan agreement with Sun Yupeng. At the same time, Qingdao Weicai Entrepreneurship Guidance Service Center also signed a entrusted guarantee agreement with the borrower. The signing of this set of agreements shows that Nanshan District has taken a substantive step forward in enabling finance for OPC entrepreneurship.

Building a financial system adapted to new business models

Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank extends its reach to the OPC group behind the scenes. This is not only the bank’s micro-level practice of inclusive finance and technology finance among the “five major articles,” but also reflects Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank’s proactive fulfillment of social responsibility as a local corporate bank.

As a new type of market entity emerging in the digital economy era, OPCs (one-person companies) show financial needs that are fundamentally different from those of traditional enterprises, especially in areas such as human–machine collaboration, dependence on computing power, and asset-light operations. Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank’s Nanshan sub-branch has keenly captured signals about industry development and policy trends, and closely connected with competent authorities at both the municipal and district levels—such as the HRSS and the industry and information technology departments—to win favor from the government with product方案 that are highly compatible.

The reporter learned that during Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank’s “Double Thousand Project” (Note: “Thousand Villages and Ten Thousand Households” and “Thousand Buildings and Ten Thousand Enterprises”), the bank’s branches fully connected with OPC industrial parks and entrepreneurial carriers at all levels, and precisely identified target customer groups through standardized, ongoing visit-and-service efforts. For the actual funding needs of relevant enterprises in areas such as computing power investment, equipment upgrades, and daily operating turnover, the bank selected financial products such as entrepreneurship guarantee loans that fit the situation, set up professional service teams, and provided personalized, one-stop financial solutions for OPC market entities at different stages of development—effectively addressing the core pain points of OPC entrepreneurs: “financing is difficult, financing is slow, and financing is expensive.”

A person in charge at Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank said that, taking this event as an opportunity, the bank will continue to deepen the development concept of “integrating industry and entrepreneurship,” further strengthen multi-party collaboration with government departments, industrial parks, and entrepreneurial entities, and continue to consolidate the good situation of “all parties as one family.” At the same time, it will keep optimizing financial service measures, adhering to both scenario marketing and batch marketing, continuously increasing financial support for the OPC industry, and helping improve the regional ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship.

From a broader perspective, Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank will continue to deepen cooperation with government entities, and conduct in-depth docking around key areas such as the OPC industry, cross-border e-commerce, and foreign trade shipping. It will fully serve key entrepreneurship and innovation carriers such as OPC industrial parks and Hai Chuang Hui, continuously optimize financial products, simplify approval procedures, and strengthen on-site services, to provide one-stop, personalized, full-cycle financial support for park enterprises and entrepreneurial entities.

(Editor: Yang Jingxin; Reviewer: He Shasha; Proofreader: Yan Jingning)

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