GUANGZHOU: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong Province have been contributing tremendously to the economic and social development of this economic powerhouse on the mainland, a recent report on the province's growing industrial SMEs indicates.

Released during the 4th China International SMEs Fair and China-Japan SMEs Fair, which concluded on Tuesday, the report was sponsored by the provincial SMEs bureau, Nanfang Daily, the provincial statistics bureau and the provincial SMEs research and consultation center.

The report said about 45.34 percent of the SMEs sampled realized sales revenues from 10 million yuan to 50 million yuan in 2006; 18.19 percent, from 50 million yuan to 100 million yuan; 13 percent, from 100 million yuan to 200 million yuan; 7.65 percent, from 200 million yuan to 500 million yuan; 2.55 percent, from 500 million yuan to 1 billion yuan; and 1.25 percent, over 1 billion yuan.

The province had 37,180 sizeable manufacturing SMEs by the end of 2006, accounting for a lion's share of over 99 percent of the province's manufacturing enterprises, while their total assets reached 2.37 trillion yuan, making up over 70 percent of the total in the province's manufacturing sector, the report said.

Of the 4,707 growing industrial firms, 77.52 percent are located in the Pearl River Delta region, 11.79 percent in the east, 7.88 percent in the west and 2.81 percent in the north.

Foshan boasts most of the province's top 500 SMEs, which is followed by other Pearl River Delta cities of Guangzhou, Jiangmen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Huizhou.

The report said that 49.9 percent of the SMEs in the province have benefited from the State's preferential policies and those related to tax incentives, fund-raising and land lease enjoy greater popularity than others among the SMEs.

He Zuoxian, a director of the provincial SMEs bureau, said the report would help the authorities as well as the society to have a better understanding of SMEs' development in the province including their advantages and disadvantages and will help the authorities adopt pertinent policies.

He also said the government could learn that SMEs in Guangdong still needed financing channels and credit warranty mechanism and were very weak in self-development.

(HK Edition 09/22/2007 page6)