SCIO briefing on development of industry and information technology in the first quarter of 2025

Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

The changing external environment has created significant challenges for SMEs. How did SMEs in China perform in the first quarter of this year? What are the main initiatives the MIIT has undertaken to support SMEs? What measures will be taken next to better assist enterprise development? Thank you.

Xie Shaofeng:

Thank you for your questions. I will answer them. First, thank you for your interest in our work supporting SMEs. In the first quarter, SMEs maintained a generally stable economic performance with steady progress. The value added of industrial SMEs above designated size grew 8.2% year on year, with companies showing increased production enthusiasm and steady growth in operating profits. This demonstrates the resilience and vitality of SMEs, providing strong support for the industrial economy's stable start to the year. In implementing the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on SME development, we have focused on addressing the pain points and challenges facing SMEs through an approach we call "two optimizations and two promotions." These efforts strongly supported high-quality SME development.

"Two optimizations" refers to optimizing the business environment and optimizing services to support enterprises. In terms of the business environment, we addressed the issue of overdue payments to SMEs by promoting revisions to the Regulations on Ensuring Payment to Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The revisions further clarify payment deadlines and strengthen penalties for violations. We have established a unified complaint platform for overdue SME payments and strengthened supervisory mechanisms, including written inquiries, official interviews and oversight notifications to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of SMEs. In terms of enterprise support services, we collaborated with 16 departments to launch the "Together for the Benefit of Enterprises" SME service initiative, introducing 73 specific support measures. We continued to enhance China's "one network" services for SMEs, including the newly launched "Model Search" section, to strengthen personalized and targeted services. To date, the service network has served 1.02 million enterprises and provided more than 54,000 free self-assessment services covering specialized and sophisticated enterprise classification, scale, type and other categories. We worked with 14 departments to issue the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises to Enhance Compliance Awareness and Strengthen Compliance Management, enhancing SMEs' risk prevention and control capabilities. We have encouraged all regions to strengthen systematic support services for overseas expansion based on local conditions, helping SMEs explore international markets and access information channels.

Regarding the "Two Promotions," the first refers to the promotion of the development of enterprises that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products. This involves organizing specific profiling and comprehensive evaluation of more than 100,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products to help them secure financing and increase their credit. At the same time, a quantitative evaluation has been conducted on the cultivation of SMEs that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products in 31 provinces, guiding local governments to enhance gradient cultivation and services. The second refers to the promotion of the development of industrial clusters. A total of 300 national-level characteristic industrial clusters of SMEs have been cultivated and recognized, and more than 1,100 provincial-level clusters have been cultivated nationwide. Last year, the 300 national-level clusters created an output value of 8.7 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 13% over the past three years, playing an important role in cultivating high-quality SMEs, driving county-level economic development, and accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system.

Next, we will work unswervingly both to consolidate and develop the public sector, and to encourage, support and guide development of the non-public sector. We will insist on giving equal emphasis to service and management, development and assistance, and continuously improve the legal policy system, public service system and gradient cultivation system of high-quality enterprises. We will carry out the campaign to consolidate foundations and enhance the quality of enterprises that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products, and strengthen services in areas such as digital transformation, talent introduction and cultivation, and investment and financing, to strongly support the high-quality development of SMEs. Thank you.