China aims for one million innovative SMEs by 2025
- Claire Lee
China has set a target to build one million innovative SMEs by 2025, based on a government guideline outlining the development of SMEs over its 14th Five-Year Plan period, which covers 2021 to 2025.
It also aims to incubate 100,000 SMEs that showcase specialisation, refinement, uniqueness and innovation, according to a release by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 19 other ministries and government departments, reports Xinhua news.
The country also has its sights on cultivating 10,000 “little giant” firms, referring to smaller businesses still in their early stage of development that focus on high-end technologies.
It expects the country’s number of patent applications to rise by 10% annually, and for research and development expenditure of small industrial firms above a certain size to maintain an annual growth of above 10% by 2025.
READ: China’s urban areas saw 12.07 million jobs created
The government will also focus on alleviating the challenges faced by SMEs with regard to financing, support new business models, raping up connectivity between larger firms and SMEs in terms of innovation, and coordinate research and production work.
