Supportive environment helps SMEs grow strong

Beijing has supported the development of small and mediumsized enterprises, as part of efforts to improve its business environment during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), according to the Beijing Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

The city amended its rules around helping the development of SMEs to better enforce related national policies and laws. The amendments cover several aspects, such as developing a policy system featuring fairness, inclusiveness and support, enhancing data sharing and utilization and strengthening support for SMEs.

Cui Xulong, deputy director of the bureau, said: “Implementation of the rules was an important measure to improve the business environment and promote healthy development of local SMEs.”

Beijing set up an online system to serve SMEs during the 13th Five-Year Plan. It comprises 331 companies, which have provided more than 7,000 kinds of services. Annually, they serve SMEs more than 1 million times.

The city plans to develop a better service system where its related agencies can cooperate across districts to integrate policies and share resources during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), Cui said.

It will first establish an overall policy mechanism targeting SMEs. Related policies will be collected and arranged to form policy lists and databases. A policy frame system will be built for the timely amendment of policies.

Based on technologies including big data and artificial intelligence, the system will match companies and policies and inform them. It will also form a policy evaluation and adjustment mechanism based on companies’ big data and feedback.

The system will integrate governmental and nongovernmental services and formulate a unified mechanism for the quality evaluation of service providers and a tracking assessment of services.

An SME database will be established and a comprehensive system involving data related to governmental affairs, finance and companies’ credit will be set up. A monitoring and early warning mechanism will be set up for key fields such as business operation, investment and financing, intellectual property rights and employment.

The city plans to integrate diverse corporate service platforms and establish a new one that has six functions. These will be policy, public and professional services, request handling, operational monitoring and analysis and assessment.

Beijing has helped SMEs to get financing over the past five years. The loan balance of the city’s micro, small and medium-sized companies was 2.48 trillion yuan ($379.7 billion) by the end of October.

The city said it will keep strengthening support and guidance from its funds and further develop finance platforms targeting SMEs during the 14th FiveYear Plan.

It also increased scientific and technological support for SMEs by promoting companies’ innovation input and improving the intellectual property environment. It offered 4,817 small and micro scientific and technological companies 316 million yuan to support their research and development in 2020.

The city will continue to enhance support by promoting SMEs’ innovative capacity and better protecting innovation, officials said.