The Information Office of Shanghai Municipality held the fourth press briefing on the series “Creating a First-class Business Environment and Serving to Build a New Development Pattern” on the afternoon of yesterday (May 17).

Wu Jincheng, Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, introduced the city’s efforts to support the high-quality development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and the recently issued “Several Measures for Shanghai to Help Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Stabilize Growth, Adjust Structure, and Strengthen Capabilities.” Rong Zhiqin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Wei Lu, Chief Economist of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Wu Jian, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Tax Service, Lu Jinzhong, Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the Shanghai Headquarters of People’s Bank of China, and Li Rui, Deputy Chief of Minhang District, attended the press briefing and answered questions from reporters.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key entities for promoting development, stabilizing employment, and ensuring people’s livelihood, as well as key links in improving the stability and competitiveness of the industrial chain and supply chain, providing strong support for building a new development pattern. General Secretary Xi Jinping has issued important instructions on many occasions, emphasizing that SMEs can realize remarkable achievements and the country should support the innovation and development of SMEs. The CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Government attach great importance to the development of SMEs, give full play to the role of the city’s joint meeting mechanism to serve enterprises, and support the healthy and high-quality development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises across the city.In order to further help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises improve quality and efficiency, enhance risk resistance capabilities, stimulate innovation vitality and development momentum, lay a solid foundation for stable growth, and promote high-quality economic development, the Office of Shanghai Municipality on Joint Meeting to Serve Enterprises took the lead in formulating the “Several Measures for Shanghai to Help Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Stabilize Growth, Adjust Structure, and Strengthen Capabilities,” which has been officially released with the consent of the municipal government.

1. The basic situation of the development of SMEs in the city

First, SMEs have become an important foundation for stabilizing the basic economic landscape. In terms of stabilizing growth, the industrial output value of SMEs above designated size in the city exceeded 2 trillion yuan in 2022, accounting for 49.4% of the city’s total industrial output value of enterprises above the designated size. In terms of stabilizing foreign trade, the industrial export delivery value was 287.12 billion yuan, accounting for 32.3% of the city’s total. In terms of stabilizing market entities, there were a total of 3.273 million market entities, of which private enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households accounted for 93.4%.

Second, a gradient system has been formed for the cultivation of high-quality SMEs. A total of 10,416 innovative SMEs, 7,572 municipal-level specialized and sophisticated SMEs (accounting for 10% of the country’s total), and 500 national specialized and sophisticated “little giant” enterprises (accounting for 5.6% of the country’s total) have been cultivated. The city has 38 single-industry champion demonstration enterprises/products, ranking first in the country. The city has cultivated 5 national-level characteristic industrial clusters of SMEs in Jinshan, Qingpu, Baoshan, Songjiang, and Lingang, ranking first in the country.

Third, SMEs have become an important force to promote innovation. In 2022, 353 specialized and sophisticated enterprises in the city established national or municipal-level enterprise technology centers, and 574 enterprises carried out pilot projects for municipal-level patent work; 309 enterprises have established academician and expert workstations, accounting for 48.3% of the city’s total number of such stations. There were 79 companies listed on the science and technology innovation board in the city, with a total market value of about 1.5 trillion yuan and proceeds of about 195.6 billion yuan, with the initial public offering value and total market value both ranking first in the country.

2. Advancement of services for SMEs

First, the city has improved the service system for enterprises. The city has established a municipal-level joint meeting system to serve enterprises, which engages 36 city-level committees, offices, and bureaus, and improved the “1+16+X+N” service system for SMEs. The city has formed a taskforce of specialists to serve enterprises. Nearly 6,000 service specialists have visited and contacted more than 178,000 enterprises. The city has held 6,325 policy publicity and implementation activities, held financing activities to serve 4,194 enterprises, and addressed financing needs of 2.22 billion yuan. The city has emphasized efforts to address the needs of enterprises. A total of 1,628 cross-departmental enterprise needs have been handled, and the case completion rate and corporate satisfaction rate have exceeded 90%. The city has created an online platform for enterprise services, and supported enterprises to use the “Shanghai Enterprise Service Cloud” portal as well as the link on the unified government services portal to log onto the platform where enterprises can apply for the qualification of specialized and sophisticated SMEs or apply for municipal-level funding. The city has built a “one-stop window for enterprises” with an aim to provide enterprises with online policy push, search, matching, subscription, application guidance and other services, with a total of 34,000 pieces of policies unveiled to benefit enterprises. The city has built a “professional service resource library” to support nearly 800 leading professional service organizations in 10 categories such as entrepreneurship service and technological innovation to promote their services, and has released a total of 21,000 service products.

Second, the city has strengthened efforts to secure resources for the development of enterprises. The city has carried out special actions to publicize and implement supporting and relief policies for enterprises, and reduced the burden on various market entities by more than 300 billion yuan. The city has stepped up support in terms of special funds. In 2022, the national special fund for the development of SMEs amounted to about 300 million yuan, which was mainly used to support micro and small-sized enterprises in terms of technological progress, structural adjustment, transformation of development mode, expansion of employment, and improvement of the service environment. The city has strengthened financing services. The scale of policy guarantee funds for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the city has been expanded from 5 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan, and the annual financing guarantee scale has reached 70 billion yuan. The non-performing loan ratio threshold has been revised down to 0.5% for the city’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of credit-related awards and compensation, and the ceiling of the compensation ratio was revised up to 55%. Efforts have been made to promote the establishment of the National SME Development Fund with a total scale of 35.75 billion yuan in Shanghai.

Third, the city has optimized the development environment for SMEs. In 2020, the Shanghai Municipal Regulations on Promoting the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises were amended and implemented to create a sound legal environment for the development of SMEs. The city has formulated the Implementation Rules for Gradient Cultivation and Management of High-quality Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Shanghai to provide full-cycle, all-round and multi-level services for high-quality SMEs. The city has established a fault-tolerant mechanism for first or minor violations of laws and regulations by enterprises. The measures of “exemption from punishment” and “exemption from enforcement” have benefited more than 8,400 market entities, and the amount of exemption from fines exceeded 600 million yuan. The city has stepped up efforts to avoid resolve the problem of arrears of accounts for SMEs, and achieved a 100% resolution rate of undisputed arrears, and a 100% repayment rate of undisputed arrears of less than 500,000 yuan.

3. On the main contents of the Several Measures

The Several Measures are designed to balance the relationship between overall planning and coordination in terms of stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, strengthening capabilities, and fostering development. They focus on six aspects, including innovation and development, transformation and development, integration and development, financial empowerment, relief and support as well as precision services, which are of greatest concern to SMEs. A total of 28 specific measures have been put forward and a series of special actions themed on “benefiting enterprises” will be carried out.

First, the city will continue to support the innovation and development of SMEs. The Several Measures propose to implement the special action of empowering SMEs with scientific and technological achievements. The number of enterprise technology centers at or above the municipal level will exceed 1,000, and the threshold for municipal-level special support for technological transformation will be lowered from 20 million yuan to 10 million yuan, expanding the scope of enterprises that are eligible for benefits in terms of technological transformation. The city will encourage all districts to offer support to enterprises to upgrade from the small size to the designated size as well as advanced manufacturing enterprises with industrial output value exceeding 1 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan, 10 billion yuan respectively for the first time. The city will join hand with various districts to provide a one-time incentive of 5% of R&D investment of the previous year, or up to 500,000 yuan, for high-tech enterprises that have been for the first time recognized as qualified enterprises above designated size and are still in the valid qualification period. The city will promote 30 enterprises to build green factories and 5 enterprises to build zero-carbon factories. The city will implement the “Shanghai Industrial Elite” high-level talent training project, provide supporting services and project funding, and cultivate 200 people every year.

Second, the city will support the digital transformation of SMEs. The city will issue “AI computing power coupons”, focusing on supporting enterprises that rent the city’s intelligent computing power for core algorithm innovation and model research and development, with a maximum support of 20% of the total contract value. The city will issue “smart evaluation coupons” with municipal-level funding of 50 million yuan, while encouraging all districts to issue similar policy support, in a bid to aid enterprises to purchase assessment and evaluation services for smart manufacturing maturity and capability. This year, the city plans to promote 3,000 industrial enterprises above the designated size to complete smart manufacturing maturity and capability assessment. The city will implement the work empowerment initiative for SMEs, and build a team of digital service specialists and consortiums. In 2023, no less than 300 small and medium-sized data-driven enterprises will be cultivated, no less than 30 branded data products will be formed, and no less than 20 professional service providers in subdivided fields will be cultivated. The city will encourage 250,000 SMEs to use online platform and cloud and support SMEs to use small-size, efficient, flexible, and precision digital solutions and products such as online conference software and industrial software.

Third, the city will create an ecosystem of integrated development of large, medium and small-sized enterprises. The city will focus on “large enterprises, large markets, and large industries” to carry out the integration of large, medium and small-sized enterprises, and build a development ecosystem where large, medium and small-sized enterprises are interdependent and mutually promoted. The city will focus on the implementation of the “joint action” for the integration and innovation of large, medium and small-sized enterprises, and hold over 100 matchmaking activities that involve 10,000 enterprises for the purpose of the integration and innovation of large, medium and small-sized enterprises. The city will implement the policy of favoring SMEs during government procurement, and the favorable policy where the reserved share for SMEs in government procurement projects is set to be revised up to over 40% in a phased manner will continue until the end of 2023. The city will support enterprises to participate in the bidding and application for various major application scenarios across the city. The city will build a gradient cultivation system for characteristic industrial clusters of SMEs. In 2023, about 10 municipal-level characteristic industrial clusters of SMEs will be cultivated, and about 5 national-level characteristic industrial clusters will be built.

Fourth, the city will strengthen financial empowerment services for SMEs. The Several Measures integrate various financial assistance policies for enterprises and leverage the policy mix to propose the promotion of the “smooth financing project” and the “seamless refinancing project.” By the end of 2023, the balance of inclusive loans will reach 1.1 trillion yuan, and the cumulative amount of seamless refinancing will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan, thus saving more than 10 billion yuan in costs for enterprises. The city will implement the national financing guarantee, reward and compensation policy, and maintain the average guarantee fee rate of below 1% (inclusive). The city will carry out the financing promotion action that offers tailored policy and support for a single sector in a bid to promote industrial chain financing. The city will support SMEs to undergo restructuring, go public or leverage equity financing.

Fifth, the city will step up efforts to provide relief and support for SMEs. The city will support enterprises to stabilize and expand jobs, and implement the policy of gradually reducing social security premium rates such as those on unemployment and work-related injuries. The city will carry out the “Spring Rain” special action and ensure the implementation of implement tax and fee policies. The city will carry out the special relief action of helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and play the role of service specialists for SMEs, who are responsible for visiting the enterprise to facilitate the delivery of the policies.

Sixth, the city will provide more targeted services for SMEs. The city will improve the online enterprise service system, launch the SME service empowerment action and the SME Service Month, and further bolster the capabilities of service platforms such as the Enterprise Service Cloud. The city will support the quality standard and brand building of SMEs, and support them to win IP protection for their new technologies and new products in an efficient way. The city will strengthen policy integration and innovation, improve cross-departmental synergies, and establish working mechanisms for quarterly departmental consultations, research and supervision, and environmental assessment, with an aim to lead nationwide in terms of the development environment for SMEs. The city will carry out a series of SME empowerment actions, focusing on 24 special projects such as the special action to prevent and resolve SMEs’ account arrears, the quality improvement public welfare training project for SMEs, and the tax publicity month. Relevant departments will issue special action plans to speed up policy publicity and implementation and ensure that these policies will benefit market players quickly and directly.Looking forward, in accordance with the strategic deployment of the central authorities, the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, and the Shanghai Municipality, the city will deepen the implementation of the Several Measures and create a “service package” for key enterprises, covering inclusive policies, new policies and personalized policies. Door-to-door services will be provided to coordinate solutions for specific issues. The city will carry out policy interpretations in a timely manner to help SMEs make full, efficient and flexible use of the policies to support high-quality development of enterprises.