Govt mulls long-term boost for SMEs

Thorough investigation

Since the end of May, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the NDRC, the MOF, the PBC and the China Banking Regulatory Commission have all made field investigations in eastern, central and western regions on the difficulties faced by small and micro-sized enterprises.

The MIIT report says that according to its investigation, the financial problems faced by small and micro-sized enterprises include a low proportion of direct financing, insufficient cash flow and high borrowing costs. Moreover, small and micro-sized enterprises are struggling amid an appreciating yuan, rising labor costs and price hikes for resources and energy, not to mention various kinds of taxes and fees.

According to a survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) among 39,000 industrial enterprises with annual sales volume below 20 million yuan ($3.26 million), only 21.1 percent of small and micro-sized industrial enterprises maintained "good" or "very good" operations in the first quarter, which was 1.7 percentage points lower than the figure at the end of last year. Particularly, among the micro-sized enterprises, only 18.3 percent had "good" or "very good" operations. Manufacturing and export-oriented enterprises in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces and Chongqing Municipality saw their orders reduce by 20-30 percent.

The NBS investigation report says on addressing the difficulties, 57.14 percent of small and micro-sized enterprises think the government should help them obtain more credit, reduce logistics fees, cut or exempt taxes, help them improve management, adopt policies to attract professionals, and promote consumption.

During a fact-finding mission in South China at the beginning of July, Premier Li Keqiang held an informal discussion with local small business owners in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on July 8, saying that the government will unleash several favorable policies to support small and micro-sized enterprises.