The Economic Daily:

Mr. Miao has mentioned the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. As the major authority responsible for them, what measures will the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology adopt to promote their development? Thank you.

Miao Wei:

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have given higher priority to promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and have issued a series of supportive policies. Actually, SMEs and private enterprises are highly correlated, as 99% of the former, according to the nature of capital, should be classified as the latter, and 99% of the latter are operating in the form of the former. Remarkable outcomes have been achieved in different regions and departments by fully implementing the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, promoting reform and innovation, and enhancing support. For example, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed last year the newly revised Law on Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council have issued a guidance to promote the healthy development of SMEs. In addition, the government has carried out reforms to delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services so as to facilitate the development of SMEs. The support in financial and tax fields has also become more concrete. At the same time, we have greatly promoted mass entrepreneurship and innovation across the country. In the first half of this year, an average of 19,400 new businesses were registered every day, and most of them were SMEs.

As the major administration department responsible for promoting the development of SMEs under the State Council, we have resolutely implemented the spirit of the important speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the symposium on private enterprises held on Nov. 1 last year. We have focused on addressing the difficulties and dilemmas faced in the development of SMEs, and promoted the implementation of various policies in four aspects.

First, we will take actions to clear the default on private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We are going to complete the task that more than half of the defaults on private enterprises and SMEs will be paid off by the end of this year.

Second, we will push forward to ease financing difficulties and reduce financing costs for small and micro businesses. We will strengthen cooperation with financial institutions, promote the innovation of financial products and services, increase the sum of loans to small and micro enterprises, and carry out special actions to strengthen receivables financing for small and micro enterprises.

Third, we will enhance the competitiveness of SMEs. We will carry out an action plan to promote the interconnected development of large, medium-sized and small enterprises, and make efforts to strategically boost protection for SMEs' intellectual property as well as promote greater informationization, so as to enhance SMEs'levels of specialized development.

Fourth, we will improve the services efficiency for SMEs. We will improve the national internet platform for publishing policies and information concerning SMEs, so that more SMEs can be informed on supportive policies from the central government and local governments at all levels in a timely way. At the same time, we will make full use of such online platforms as the SMEs public service platform network and the national SMEs public service demonstration platform, to provide service support for medium and small-sized business startups and their innovation.