Source: Economic Daily
According to data released by the China Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, the development index of China's small and medium-sized enterprises in the first quarter was 89.3, higher than the level of the same period in 2022. In the month of March, the SME Development Index was 89.3, up 0.2 points from the previous month.
"Since the beginning of this year, with the continuous release of macro policy effects, the mainland economy has continued to pick up and improve, the internal vitality has gradually increased, and the development quality of small and medium-sized enterprises has continued to improve. Zhu Yu, full-time vice president of the China Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, analyzed.
Increased willingness to invest
With the support of a series of policies to stabilize growth and benefit people's livelihood, the confidence of small and medium-sized enterprises in development has been further restored. For example, Jiangsu issued the "Several Measures to Promote the Development and Growth of the Private Economy" to ensure that the fiscal policy is precise and effective, the credit support is more "thirst-quenching", the monetary policy is flexible and moderate, and the employment priority policy is improved, so as to escort the smooth operation of small and medium-sized enterprises;
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the 2024 "Benefiting Enterprises Together" micro, small and medium-sized enterprises service action in March, focusing on three aspects: dredging policy implementation, resolving business pain points and difficulties, and improving the quality and efficiency of development.
"In the first quarter, the macroeconomic sentiment index, which reflects business confidence, was 98.9, up 0.2 points from the previous quarter. Zhu Yu believes that the continuous recovery of domestic demand and the steady rise in production and supply have led to an increase in the operating rate. In addition, through the new mechanism of public-private partnership, we will continue to promote projects to private capital and mobilize the enthusiasm of private investment. In the first quarter, the investment index stopped falling and rebounded, up 0.2 points from the previous quarter.
Sun Wenkai, vice president of the National Institute of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Chinese University and researcher of the National Academy of Development and Strategy, said that the State Council recently issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in", which will guide enterprises to increase investment through financial subsidies, tax incentives, financial support, etc., and enterprises in strategic emerging industries, renewable resource processing and utilization and other industries will receive policy support to update equipment at a lower cost.
"At a time when China's economy is still recovering, service consumption, infrastructure investment and manufacturing investment are all important drivers of economic recovery, and aggregate demand can be expanded through equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in. Zhu Yu said.
Improvement of the business environment
The growing confidence of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) stems from the continuous improvement of the business environment. This year, focusing on the actual needs of enterprises, various localities have successively introduced a number of practical, pragmatic and effective policy measures. Anhui launched the "Several Measures to Optimize the Business Environment of the Manufacturing Industry in 2024", Shaanxi issued the "Action Plan for Deepening the Business Environment Breakthrough Year in 2024", and Shanghai issued the "Several Policies and Measures to Reduce the Burden of Enterprises and Support the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Shanghai".
"All localities adhere to the problem-oriented and demand-oriented, effectively transform functions, improve efficiency, and accelerate the reform of key areas and key links, which provides strong support for promoting the overall recovery of small and medium-sized enterprises. Sun Wenkai said.
Market order is the core element of the business environment, and the issue of enterprise-related fees is related to the core interests of enterprises. "We have carried out in-depth fee governance, rectified behaviors that disrupt market order in accordance with the law, and effectively safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and consumers. Research and draft rules for the handling of fees related to violations of laws and regulations involving enterprises, dynamically adjust the guidance catalogue for administrative law enforcement matters for market regulation, and research and formulate systems and norms for the management of major administrative punishment cases. Ren Duanping, director of the registration bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said.
Many enterprises have reported that there are still problems such as the lack of uniformity in law enforcement information disclosure standards and the lack of standardization of law enforcement, and some departments have appeared in the process of law enforcement and selective law enforcement.
"It is necessary to standardize the administrative supervision behavior of enterprises, formulate administrative supervision standards and procedures, and ensure that regulatory behavior is standardized in accordance with the law. Further strengthen the coordination and cooperation between departments, simplify the work process, develop and promote online declaration, online approval, and electronic licenses, so that more information can be used and the masses can run less errands. Zhu Yu suggested.
According to Sun Wenkai's observation, although the negative list is relatively clear, there are many hidden barriers, which makes it difficult for private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises to enter, and the access policies for some new product fields are not clear. Private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises still do not have complete fair competition and unequal opportunities when it comes to accessing government projects. This requires further clarification of the negative list system and the implementation of a fair competition review system.
"In the next step, we will continue to rectify improper market competition and market intervention, and accelerate the introduction of fair competition review regulations. Ren Duanping introduced that the State Administration for Market Regulation will carry out in-depth special rectification of market segmentation and local protection issues, improve punishment and restraint methods, and promote special actions for anti-monopoly law enforcement in the field of people's livelihood.
Credit Information Sharing
In the first quarter, the capital index was 101.0, up 0.3 points from the previous quarter, and it was still above the critical value of 100. Among them, the financing index was 91.1, up 0.5 points from the previous month, and the liquidity index was 85.6, up 0.4 points from the previous month.
"Of the eight industries we surveyed, five saw increases in both the Funding Index and the Liquidity Index. The state will continue to implement inclusive small and micro loan support tools, expand the credit line of inclusive small and micro single households, and promote more financial resources to flow to small and micro enterprises. Zhu Yu said.
It should also be noted that the aggregation and sharing of credit information is still insufficient, and the existing shared information is not enough to support financial institutions to make accurate credit evaluations of business entities. In some places, multiple financing and credit service platforms have been established, resulting in duplicate information aggregation, multiple docking of banking institutions, and multiple registrations of business entities, which has increased the burden on financial institutions and business entities and reduced the quality and efficiency of financial services.
To this end, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the People's Bank of China and other departments, issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of a Coordinated Financing Credit Service Platform to Improve the Financing Convenience Level of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" to promote the provision of high-quality financial services for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
"The 'Implementation Plan' strengthens the 'general hub' function of the national credit information sharing platform for credit information aggregation and sharing, and makes the national integrated financing credit service platform network the 'sole exit' for the centralized provision of Public Credit Information services to financial institutions. In principle, only one provincial-level platform is to be retained within one province, and no more than one platform is to be established at the municipal or county levels, and all local platforms are to be included in the national integrated platform network, to implement list-based management, reducing duplicate construction and idle waste of resources. Li Chunlin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that it is necessary to continue to expand the scope of credit information collection and sharing, and include 37 items of credit information in 17 categories, such as information on key personnel of enterprises, various qualification information, and import and export information.
Credit information sharing can effectively solve the problem of information asymmetry between banks and enterprises. "We will keep abreast of the credit information required to grasp the credit business processes of financial institutions, promote the platform to strengthen the collection and sharing of various information, further improve the quality of data, and better promote financial institutions to serve small and micro enterprises. Feng Yan, head of the Inclusive Finance Department of the State Financial Supervision and Administration of the People's Republic of China, said.
Feng Yan introduced that the State Administration of Financial Supervision will encourage banks to actively connect with financing credit service platforms at all levels, inquire about corporate credit information and credit reports, and effectively apply them in credit processes such as customer screening, pre-loan investigation, loan approval, and post-loan management. Banks are encouraged to organically combine the accumulated internal financial data with external credit information, actively use big data, artificial intelligence and other technical means to fully tap the value of data elements, accurately "profile" enterprises, optimize credit assessment models, improve the level of risk management, develop online loan products, improve the service efficiency of small and micro enterprises, actively innovate credit loan products, and increase the allocation of credit loans in small and micro enterprise loans. (Economic Daily reporter Li Pengda)