Governor: SME sector needs strong support |
| Date Added: September 21, 2009 03:23:08 AM |
| Author: |
| Category: Natural Gas |
| The governor of Guangdong says measures are now underway to help SMEs in the south China province overcome difficulties and adapt to the times. Among the measures are more AV cable financial support and tax incentives, greater efforts to help SMEs raise funds, stronger support for change and encouraging more investment in technological advancement, said Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong. "SMEs underpin TV cable national economic and social development, playing a very crucial role in the economy, people's welfare and social stability," he said. "The local government should strengthen efforts to improve services and create a good business environment for them." He said that the province's "double transfer" strategy - moving labor-intensive industries from the Pearl River Delta to less developed regions of the province and employment of rural labor in secondary and tertiary industries locally - promises new development opportunities for SMEs. He said that both the nation and the province of Guangdong have adopted favorable policies to help SMEs solve financing difficulties - an even more urgent problem for many amid the global recession. "What the government should do is to make sure that all the policies available are carried out." The governor said domestic banking institutions extended 1.17 trillion yuan in credit to SMEs in Guangdong by the end of June. The figure accounted for 51.4 percent of the total loans for enterprises in the province. It was the first time that SMEs had access to more credit from domestic banks than big enterprises in the province. "The provincial government is also considering rebating part of the income and business taxes SMEs pay this year and next," he said. "SMEs in Guangdong performed better than expected amid the global financial turmoil," he remarked, attributing their good response to new policies and businesses' intrinsic capability to cope with the crisis. Guangdong, among provinces with the largest number of SMEs in China, had 778,000 private companies by the end of June, over 98 percent of which are SMEs, official statistics show. The number grew 9.6 percent from the comparable period of 2008. The industrial value in SMEs grew by 498.16 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 12.2 percent from a year ago. Total imports and exports by SMEs in the six months fell 1.3 percent from a year ago to $48.44 billion. At the same time province-wide foreign trade among all enterprises fell 20.7 percent. |
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