China to promote collaboration of enterprises with small and medium businesses

China will promote the collaborative integration of its centrally administered State-owned enterprises with small and medium-sized businesses to proactively address critical technical challenges and expedite the country's shift toward high-end industrial chains, said senior government officials on Thursday.

During a meeting held in Beijing on Thursday, officials from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized the need to create a clearly defined, task-oriented and project-driven industrial ecosystem through strategic cooperation between central SOEs and SMEs.

Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the SASAC, said that central SOEs and SMEs should collaborate and integrate in seven key areasincluding supply-demand alignment, collaborative support, innovation cooperation, resource sharing and industrial empowerment to establish a series of demonstration projects.

The government will support these firms in working together to transition towards greater digitalization and green development, said Zhang, adding that the SASAC will provide guidance to businesses to focus on weak links in the industrial chains, promote the implementation of major investment projects, and consolidate their leading positions in advantageous industries.

He further noted that SASAC aims to deepen the empowerment of industries through digital intelligence and nurture more platform-type companies with characteristics of the digital economy and the information age.

Wang Jiangping, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said the government will accelerate the global expansion of Chinese equipment, technology and services while actively integrating into global industrial and supply chains.

China's SOEs saw their revenues amount to 47.72 trillion yuan ($6.56 trillion) in the first seven months of 2023, up 4.3 percent year-on-year, while their profits reached 2.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.9 percent from a year earlier, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.