According to Zheng Xin, director of Small and Medium Enterprises Department under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), currently small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially small and micro enterprises, are facing five difficulties or problems including difficulty in raising funds and heavy tax burden. However, the keynote under which SMEs continue to develop in a relatively fast and steady pace has remained unchanged.
According to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to August 2011, SMEs of a considerable scale grew 16.7% in number year on year. Zheng pointed out that although the overall domestic and foreign situation has been rather bleak since 2011, based on the findings of a recent survey conducted in 13 provinces, the keynote under which SMEs continue to develop in a steady and relatively fast pace has remained unchanged.
Against the current economic backdrop, SMEs, especially small and micro enterprises, are really facing a lot of difficulties, Zheng said. The survey shows that they are facing difficulties or problems in the following five areas: first, difficulty in raising funds, with small and micro enterprises being the hardest hit; second, heavy enterprise taxes and fees; third, fast pace of rise in cost of raw materials and labour; fourth, low quality and weak innovative capability of SMEs; fifth, insufficient support in public services provided by the government.
Zheng pointed out that although at present some of the problems faced by SMEs (in particular small and micro enterprises) are only emerging, the difficulties faced by SMEs (in particular small and micro enterprises) warrant great attention. Practical and effective measures must be taken to help small and micro enterprises to overcome such difficulties.
According to Zheng, MIIT will, under the unified planning of the State Council, actively cooperate and coordinate with different departments in formulating policy measures in the following areas to guide the development of enterprises: providing guidance to enterprises to transform their development mode, enhancing the innovative capability of enterprises, creating a good development environment, and tapping the international market.
