Exhibitors demonstrate a remote control walking robot at the Robotera AI exhibition booth during the 2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) & High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai, on July 4, 2024. [Photo/VCG]
Small and medium-sized enterprises might seem insignificant individually, but they are a major pillar of China's economy. Together they form a grand force to promote economic growth, drive innovation and stabilize employment.
That is why 17 departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, have jointly issued a notice deploying policy measures to support SMEs.
Cooperation by the departments, which cover economic regulation, policy formulation and financial support, will surely create an efficient and targeted policy system to ensure that SMEs can enjoy the dividends of State policies without hindrance. For example, the further detailed implementation of preferential tax policies will reduce the tax burden on SMEs and the targeted financial subsidies will directly inject funding vitality into SMEs, alleviating the pressure on operating costs. In terms of technological innovation, vigorous efforts will be made to promote in-depth cooperation and docking between universities, research institutions and SMEs, so that cutting-edge technologies can quickly transform into enterprise productivity and help SMEs enhance their core competitiveness.
All this marks a specific action by relevant State departments to implement Xi Jinping thought on the economy. In a symposium between the country's leadership and some representatives of private business owners in Beijing on Monday, the top Chinese leader put forward a series of policy measures directly addressing the concerns of private enterprises and the problems they face.
In China, the private economy not only contributes more than 50 percent of the tax revenue and more than 60 percent of GDP, it also accounts for more than 70 percent of the technological innovation and more than 90 percent of new jobs. More than 90 percent of private enterprises are SMEs. Therefore, whether China's economy can steer well depends, to a large extent, on the private economy. And whether the private economy can steer well depends, to a large extent, on SMEs.
As the country makes continuous efforts to improve the business environment and provide sustained and better policy guarantees for private enterprises, the private sector, especially SMEs, will usher in a broader space for development.
