The 2005 China Small and Medium Enterprises Fair (CSMEF) and Sino-French SME Fair, held in September, co-ncluded with business deals worth 42.6 billion RMB. Sino-French contracts and agreements valued at 8.3 million RMB were clinched during this four-day business event for the nation's SMEs.

Premier Wen Jiabao sent a con-gratulatory message to participants saying that he hopes the fair will become a platform for SMEs at home and abroad seeking cross-regional cooperation. Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan sent a congratulatory letter wishing the fair continued success.

THE STAGE IS SET FOR SMES

More than 3,500 domestic SMEs, 160 French SMEs and delegations from 70 countries and regions attended the fair seeking business opportunities. Retail giants, including Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Metro, Jusco and Watson's, also sent purchasing representatives to the fair.

¡°The CSMEF is organized in order to meet the urgent demand of the present development of domestic SMEs¡±, said Lin Ying, secretary of the organizing committee of the fair.

During the event, more than 22,000 contracts and agreements were signed, worth 42.6 billion RMB, an increase of 8,400 contracts and 10.6 billion RMB from the first session held in October, 2004 (P16, GDICC Update, No.2). The Sino-French SMEs Fair yielded contracts and agreements valuing at 8.3 million RMB while over 100 SMEs from both countries held discussion on more than 300 projects.

The CSMEF also held forums an-swering frequent questions by SMEs such as financing, legal support, investing abroad and Sino-French SME cooperation. The speeches by business heavyweights and seminars advised participating SMEs how to enter the global market, how to build up their cooperate image and how to enhance their capacity for systems, technical and management innovations. On the fund-raising forum, government officials, financial facility representatives and SME representatives compared notes on venture capital, credit guarantees and fund-raising issues.

GZ TO BE CSMEF'S PERMANENT HOME

Official statistics indicate that the number of SMEs registered in China ex-ceeded 3.6 million by the end of 2004, accounting for 99.6 percent of all enterprises in the country. SMEs contributed to 59 percent of the nation's GDP, 68 percent of the nation's exports and 48 percent of its tax revenue in 2004. The state has worked out a series of preferential policies for SMEs, in-cluding the SME Promotion Law, the Opinions on Promoting Development of the Non-Publicly Owned Economy, Re-gulations on the Management of Credit Guarantee for SMEs and Regulations on the Management of National SME Development Fund.

CSMEF is another effective way to aid the SMEs besides the state's policies. In April, the central government of China chose Guangzhou to be the permanent home of CSMEF. China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance are both involved in the fair this year, making the event Guangzhou's second permanent ministry-level fair, after the Chinese Exports Commodities Fair.

Next year, the name of the Fair will be changed to China (Guangzhou) International Small and Medium Enter-prises Fair, implicating the fair's com-mitment to offer domestic SMEs an eff-ective platform for connecting with the international market.

China plans to work with a different country in each CSMEF session to en-hance communication and cooperation between Chinese SMEs and their foreign counterparts. Italy will sponsor next year's CSMEF.

SMES IN GUANGDONG

Guangdong's SME development has enjoyed top position in the nation in terms of both quantity and quality and indices of the province's SMEs in terms of enterprises number, added value, capital, profit and employment exceed other regions in China.

Private enterprises make up a large share of the province's SMEs. Private industrial enterprises in the province realized an industrial output of 74.39 billion RMB (9.17 billion USD) in the first half of this year, up 26.4 percent over last year, according to official statistics. 

Editor: Yan