Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

Dynamic SMEs are an important guarantee of the resilience of China's economy. What are your plans and specific measures to promote SMEs to develop in the direction of using special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products? Thank you.

Jin Zhuanglong:

Thank you for your question and your interest in the development of SMEs. General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the development of SMEs, stating that "SMEs are important to each household and have been a vital force to advance innovation, facilitate employment and improve people's livelihood." He highlighted that "China's SMEs are smart, full of vitality and good at braving challenges and striving for greatness." The general secretary called for nurturing more specialized and sophisticated SMEs that could produce novel and unique products. By the end of June, we had cultivated over 140,000 such SMEs, including 12,000 "little giant" enterprises. We are committed to consolidating and developing the public sector while encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector, focusing on four key aspects: service, management, development, and support. Specifically, we will continue to emphasize both service and management, as well as development and support. We need to enhance the reputation of "innovative enterprises that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products" to support the high-quality development of SMEs. Here, I would like to highlight four measures:

The first measure is to increase support for nurturing innovative SMEs that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products. We have issued several measures to support the high-quality development of these SMEs. In collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, we support the "little giant" enterprises to create new momentum, tackle new technologies, develop new products, and strengthen their supporting capabilities within the industrial chain. This is because many of these SMEs are involved in the supply chains of large enterprises, which are typically the anchor companies and leading enterprises, these SMEs can play a crucial supportive role in these chains. We have also collaborated with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and other departments to implement joint innovation actions between large, medium, and small enterprises. Many centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are anchor companies, and we encourage SMEs to participate in these joint innovation actions. Additionally, we have empowered the National SME Development Fund to attract social capital for early, small-scale investments in innovative SMEs that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products.

The second measure is to accelerate the digital transformation of SMEs. We have been thoroughly implementing the special campaign for the digital empowerment of SMEs and have launched city pilots for their digital transformation. By 2027, we aim to achieve full digital transformation coverage for "little giant" enterprises and accelerate the digital transformation of innovative SMEs that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products. We will expedite the provision of digital services, support large enterprises in sharing their resources and capabilities with SMEs, and vigorously develop digital products and solutions that are small, fast, lightweight, and precise. These efforts will help reduce transformation costs and enable more SMEs to undertake, successfully navigate, and excel in digital transformation.

Third, we have focused on cultivating characteristic industrial clusters for SMEs. China has developed 200 national SME characteristic industrial clusters and plans to approve and confirm approximately 100 more this year. Meanwhile, we have encouraged various regions to focus on developing industry-oriented county economies based on their characteristic and competitive industries and to establish provincial-level clusters according to local conditions.

Fourth, we have strived to build an efficient and high-quality SME service system. We are committed to providing quality government services to SMEs and creating a sound development environment for enterprises. We have improved the public service systems, leveraged the role of market-oriented service agencies, and coordinated various factors, including rolling out policies to benefit businesses, improving environment to unleash business dynamism, providing quality services to support businesses, building the strength of businesses through innovation, and relying on talent to support enterprise development. We have accelerated the construction of a nationwide service network for SMEs, facilitating connectivity at national, provincial, municipal, and county levels. We've integrated various service resources, including government and market-based services. This aims to provide SMEs a "one-stop" service, helping them lower costs, improve quality, and increase efficiency in tangible ways. Thank you.