By Yuan Shenggao | China Daily |
Living up to its theme of "Innovation Drives Development, Cooperation Empowers the Future", the Second Small and Medium Enterprises International Cooperation Summit Forum convened on June 26-30 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and included a parallel forum and six subforums.
Organizers said the event pooled quality resources from China and abroad to analyze policies, facilitate financial cooperation and unveil achievements aimed at boosting international exchanges among small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting their involvement in global industrial chains, value chains and supply chains.
Zou Ciyong, Managing Director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, said the summit provided participants with an opportunity to explore the development of SMEs, and emphasized that UN members need to formulate policies to deal with the three major trends of digital transformation, green development and movement of global economic centers.
The international community also needs to strengthen regional and global cooperation to help SMEs build a better, greener and more sustainable future, Zou added.
At the SME Investment and Financing International Forum held on June 28, officials, scholars, and representatives from financial institutions shared their insights into how to utilize capital markets to promote high-quality development of SMEs.
In his opening remarks, Wang Hailin, an official from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said SMEs play a vital role in creating employment, stimulating economic growth, fostering technological innovation and advancing social development.
"Promoting development of SMEs has become a common consensus of the international community," Wang said, adding the ministry will apply greater focus on specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce new and unique products while providing financial support and making efforts to build an efficient service system.
Lei Xiaoyun, Director General of the Intellectual Property Utilization Promotion Department at the China National Intellectual Property Administration, discussed her experience in expanding IP-based financial services for SMEs. She said the administration has established a close partnership with some State-owned banks and helped them launch IP-based financial products.
"In addition, we have improved the registration and information inquiry services for IP pledging and built a national IP rights pledging information platform," Lei added. Last year, China's IP pledge financing reached 486.88 billion yuan ($67.48 billion), up 57.1 percent year-on-year.
The China-Europe SME Sustainable Development Forum held on June 28 brought together many foreign guests, including Luc Truyens, Belgium's Consul General in Guangzhou, who said the Western European nation is committed to creating a favorable environment for SMEs, especially in the post-pandemic era.
Truyens said his country has initiated several measures aimed at accelerating SMEs' digital transformation to encourage expansion to overseas markets, and stressed that the forum provided an excellent opportunity for SMEs from Belgium and China to enhance cooperation.
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology figures show that by the end of 2022, China had 52 million SMEs — an increase of 51 percent compared to 2018 — and that they accounted for more than half of China's foreign trade growth over that period.
Meanwhile, China had fostered nearly 9,000 "little giant" companies, the novel elites of SMEs which specialize in niche sectors, make up a high market share and have a strong innovation capacity and core technologies.
The Second SME International Cooperation Summit takes place from June 26 to 30 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
