SMEs show strong growth momentum pushed by improved business environment

The development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in China have showed strong resilience and vitality against headwind as local governments pushed to improve their business environment, officials said at a forum of national SME development environment in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

"The number of major SMEs surged 10.5 percent in 2022. The combined operating revenue and profits of these companies during the period rose 5.2 and 1.1 percent, respectively, year-on-year," said Xu Xiaolan, vice-minister of industry and information technology, at the two-day forum.

Meanwhile, the quality of Chinese SMEs continues to improve, she added. By the end of last year, specialized and sophisticated SMEs with novel and unique products accounted for 27 percent of the total of A-share listed companies and more than half of initial public offerings last year.

She pointed out the goal is to cultivate more than 80,000 such SMEs and about 10,000 "little giant" firms by the end of this year.

She said the authorities will increase their efforts to create a favorable environment for the development of SMEs, expedite their IPOs and encourage more social capital to invest in the early stage.

According to a report released by China Centre for Promotion of SME Development at the forum, the national top five cities regarding SMEs' development environment are Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Beijing.

Despite economic challenges at home and abroad, and the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of newly registered SMEs in the 36 surveyed cities by the end of 2021 increased above 12 percent compared with that by the end of 2019, the report shows.

Moreover, the report also indicates that the gap between cities in the nation has been narrowed and the problem of unbalanced development level within the innovation environment has been further alleviated.

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