Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday outlined a series of proposals for
local governments to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Touring SMEs in the southern province of Guangdong, Wen said SMEs would play
a crucial role in promoting economic growth, increasing fiscal revenue,
providing jobs and maintaining social stability.
Wen visited SMEs in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan cities, where he demanded
local governments to readjust and improve policies to support the healthy and
rapid growth of SMEs.
Measures should include easier access to credit extensions as well as
preferential tax policies, and more loans to ensure SMEs grow faster in the
fourth quarter.
Financing priority should be given to SMEs that met industrial and
environmental protection standards and had technologies and markets, and should
encourage firms to transform and restructure.
Wen said SMEs in Shenzhen performed better than those in other parts of the
delta because they upgraded and innovated.
On Friday afternoon, while inspecting export-oriented, labor-intensive SMEs
in Dongguan, he said the key to survival and growth was to develop new products,
increase product ranges, improve quality and diversify markets.