The Chinese government has made greater efforts to promote the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering training and credit guarantees over the past year.

According to a seminar held by the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) and the Economic and Financial Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) here Monday, China has improved the policy environment for SMEs since the SME promotion law was promulgated one year ago.

An SDRC official said the commission will continue to help improve relevant laws and regulations and improve services for the SMEs.

The central government allocated special funds for the development of SMEs this year. The government offered management training for more than 20,000 SME owners, set up a credit rating system for over 4,000 SMEs in five major cities and helped nearly 10,000 SMEs in six major cities to start business.

So far this year, the credit guarantee system for SMEs has kept improving. By June 30, China had established nearly 1,000 credit guarantee organizations for SMEs. As a result, the SMEs receiving credit guarantees increased employment by 580,000 and sales revenue by more than 110 billion yuan (over US$13 billion).

The SDRC has been working in cooperation with commercial banks to provide loans for SMEs in some cities.

The vast majority of the SMEs in China are privately owned. SDRC statistics show that by the end of 2002, China had a total of2.43 million private firms and 23.77 million owner operated businesses, offering 81.5 million or about one third of the total jobs in urban areas. In 2001, non-government sectors made up one third of China's gross domestic product (GDP) and 45 percent of the total capital investment.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2003)