About 60 percent of the national industrial output value and 40 percent of the national revenue came from the SMEs, statistics show.

In recent years, Chinese SMEs have made great progress in technological innovation and financing, and have been provided with an increasingly sound development environment, officials from the China's State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) said.

At present, China has set up some 40 technological innovation service centers, 500 productivity promotion centers, 30 university scientific and technological parks and 20 business foundation parks for returned students, which have jointly offered strong support for SMEs' technological innovation.

In terms of financing, more than 100 Chinese cities have established credit guarantee institutions, which are expected to help guarantee some US$4.8 billion of bank loans for the SMEs.

The Chinese government has also promulgated a series of laws and regulations to protect and promote the development of SMEs.

For instance, the Law on SME Promotion has been listed in the legislation plan of the National People's Congress (NPC), with its draft bill expected to be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee by December this year.

The cooperation between China and other APEC members on developing SMEs has turned out to be very active and effective, said Zhang Zhigang, vice minister of the SETC.

The Chinese government has made great efforts to enhance the cooperation with APEC members and help the domestic SMEs to exploit more international markets, he added, citing the fact that the SETC has established cooperative ties with the departments in charge of SME affairs in Japan, Canada and other countries.

Zhang said the eighth APEC SME Ministerial Meeting scheduled for August 29 and 30 will bring more opportunities for the Chinese SMEs.

(Xinhua News Agency 07/30/2001)