Plus!, Conquering key core technologies and solving "bottleneck" problems | Enterprise | bottleneck
Specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises are an important force in tackling key core technologies and solving bottleneck problems. They are also the main participants in China's integration into the global industrial and supply chain system.
The 2023 National Conference on the Development of Specialized, Refined, Special, and New Small and Medium sized Enterprises, held this week, has released a positive signal of support for the strengthening of specialized, refined, special, and new policies.
The soul of "specialization, refinement, uniqueness, and novelty" is innovation
Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology of China, introduced at the Development Conference that as of now, the country has cultivated 98000 specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as 12000 "little giant" enterprises.
Taking over 1600 listed specialized and innovative enterprises as samples, one can glimpse their development characteristics. Li Yan, Deputy Director of the Small and Medium sized Enterprise Development Promotion Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that listed specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises are distributed in 30 provincial-level administrative regions across the country. Currently, the top 5 provinces are Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing, and Shanghai, with specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises listed in these five regions accounting for about two-thirds of the country's total; Among them, there are over 200 companies in Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang provinces.
From the perspective of industry classification, these enterprises are mainly concentrated in the fields of new generation information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, biomedicine and other high-end products. Specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises: "Small accessories contain high technology, small-scale support for large supporting facilities, and small industries achieve great success.".
Li Yan believes that specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises have four characteristics: good resilience, high efficiency, great potential, and strong research and development.
Despite the significant impact on the production and operation of small and medium-sized enterprises, specialized and innovative enterprises still maintain a relatively strong growth momentum. The average compound growth rate of the main business revenue of listed specialized, refined, and new enterprises in the past three years is 18.5%, which is 7.7 percentage points higher than other A-share listed companies. The performance of specialized, refined, and innovative "little giant" enterprises is even more impressive, with a main business market growth rate of 24.6% in the past three years, which is 13.8 percentage points higher than other A-share listed companies, demonstrating the strong resilience brought by the development of specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises.
Specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises are representatives of high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises, winning the market through innovation. The average sales net profit margin of specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises listed on the A-share market in 2022 is 8.5%, which is 7.1 percentage points higher than other listed companies on the A-share market. The sales net profit margin of "Little Giant" enterprises reached 12.4%, which is 11 percentage points higher than other listed companies.
The soul of specialization and novelty is innovation. The average R&D investment intensity of listed specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises in 2022 is 8.9%, which is 3.9 percentage points higher than other A-share listed companies, and also higher than the overall R&D investment intensity of specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises.
As of the first half of this year, the average number of invention patents for specialized, refined, and innovative "little giant" enterprises is 36.7. Especially on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, the average R&D patents of "Little Giant" enterprises have reached 58, strongly supporting the development and growth of specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises.
Yang Bo, founder and general manager of Hangzhou Hemai Power Electronics Co., Ltd., a representative of a national level specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprise, introduced that the company is the second largest micro inverter enterprise in the world and the first in China. Its product sales have maintained a growth rate of over 100% since 2016, and sometimes even 200%. "The R&D intensity of the company has exceeded 10% for many years," Yang Bo believes that specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises are based on focusing on their own business.
Neolithic Huitong Technology Co., Ltd. is the first innovative company in the global unmanned delivery track, focusing on unmanned vehicles that are completely unmanned for delivering express delivery, takeout, and fresh food. "At present, our product technology is definitely at the forefront of the global unmanned delivery track," said Yu Enyuan, founder of Neolithic Huitong.
Policies still need to amplify tactics
In recent years, China has focused on cultivating specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises, providing strong support in policy, funding, talent, and incubation platform construction, continuously optimizing the policy environment for the development of specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises, and helping them achieve high-quality development.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance have implemented a policy of reducing financing guarantees and rewards for small and micro enterprises for six consecutive years, actively supporting innovative small and micro enterprises and improving financing accessibility.
Li Dongrong, former Vice President of the People's Bank of China, introduced that according to financial statistics in the first half of 2023, the balance of loans for specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises in China was 2.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 459.8 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, with a growth rate of 20.4%. It has maintained a growth rate of over 20% for 14 consecutive months. The weighted average interest rate on existing loans was 4.09%, a decrease of 39 basis points year-on-year.
In terms of listing financing: As of the first half of this year, specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises have accumulated financing of about 1.8 trillion yuan through IPO, additional issuance, convertible bonds, and rights issues in the A-share market. From different financing methods, IPO is the most important way for specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises to raise 1.1 trillion yuan through IPO in the A-share market, accounting for 63% of the entire financing method.
Various regions in China have also increased their efforts to support the development of specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises. Hangzhou has cultivated a total of 4699 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, 1583 specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, and over 320 specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprises. Hangzhou has successively formulated and introduced policies for industries such as intelligent Internet of Things, integrated circuits, software information services, and biopharmaceuticals, providing comprehensive support for enterprises in terms of technological innovation, financing services, talent, land use, and other factors, and playing a policy combination punch.
To support more small and medium-sized enterprises to develop towards specialization, refinement, uniqueness, and innovation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has launched the "Three Empowerments" campaign this year, empowering, empowering, and valuing small and medium-sized enterprises, including specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative enterprises. Taking empowering the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises as an example, in 2022, 16 national level public service demonstration platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises were established, and the total amount of preferential treatment received by enterprises exceeded 280 million yuan.
Local governments also formulate strategic plans and supporting implementation plans tailored to local conditions for digital transformation. Guangdong adheres to the principle of "leading the manufacturing industry" and issues a series of policies on "digital transformation of the manufacturing industry". It requires that 20 industrial clusters be focused on the innovative application of industrial Internet. Foshan has introduced 25 measures to guide small and medium-sized enterprises in industrial clusters to develop together, and established a 30 billion yuan manufacturing transformation and development fund.
Establishing a mechanism for connecting specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises with "chain owners" can help improve the resilience and security level of the industrial chain. At this conference, representatives of four "chain owners" enterprises, namely Aviation Industry Group, China Electronics Hikvision, Xinhua San, and Wolong Electric, signed strategic cooperation agreements with representatives of 16 specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises.
Small and medium-sized enterprises need not only financial and technological support, but also policy support in the process of moving towards specialization, refinement, uniqueness, and innovation. Feng Xu, Deputy Director of the China Center for the Promotion of Small and Medium sized Enterprise Development, stated that there is still a "last mile" issue in the implementation of policy documents, which is the problem of policy implementation.
Liu Shijin, former deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the current issue is how to build a high standard market economy, achieve high-quality and sustainable development of industries, including specialized, refined, special, and new enterprises, and the economy and society. There are still many unknown and uncertain factors to be faced.
Jin Zhuanglong stated that he is working hard to formulate and introduce several measures to promote the accelerated development of specialized, refined, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, and to introduce more policies that warm up and benefit enterprises. Guide innovative elements such as capital and talent to gather in specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises, support enterprises in accelerating digital transformation, and play a greater role in strengthening and supplementing the manufacturing industry.
Cracking the difficulty of specialized, refined, and innovative financing
It is unavoidable that the problem of difficult and expensive financing for specialized and innovative enterprises has not been fundamentally solved.
Wang Zhiheng, the President of Everbright Bank, said that the main reason for such a situation is that the characteristics of specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises themselves have posed a significant challenge to the traditional business model of commercial banks.
"This is mainly reflected in the characteristics of specialization, refinement, novelty, and 'four highs and one lightness': high technology, high growth, high risk, high return, and light assets. Due to high technology, it has strong professionalism, a wide range of professional knowledge, new technology, and fast iteration, which puts higher requirements on the traditional industry research and credit approval of commercial banks. Commercial banks have long been predicting future development based on historical operations, and this credit evaluation model and logic face severe challenges." Wang Zhiheng said.
In addition, due to light assets, it cannot meet the requirements of commercial banks for traditional mortgage guarantee methods, which requires commercial banks to explore new risk mitigation mechanisms.
Faced with the above challenges, Li Dongrong stated that financial institutions should be encouraged to continuously innovate their financial products and service models in promoting credit investment, product innovation, and reducing financing costs. Based on the specific situation of the enterprise's business scale, capital demand, interbank credit situation, as well as the characteristics of the upstream and downstream industry chain and the stage of its lifecycle, customized financing products and services should be provided to build a comprehensive, all-round, and differentiated financial service product system.
China will also continue to provide multi-level capital market direct financing functions. Wang Jianping, Director of the Second Department of Market Supervision of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, stated that he will continue to support eligible specialized, refined, and innovative enterprises to list on the New Third Board's basic and innovative levels, as well as on the Beijing Stock Exchange; Deepen the pilot innovation of regional equity markets and actively promote the construction of "specialized, refined, special, and new" specialized boards; Continue to coordinate relevant parties to introduce policy measures in areas such as equity incentive tax filing, government enterprise data sharing, equity registration docking, and comprehensive application of policy measures, actively supporting the high-quality development of regional equity markets.
In terms of equity investment, the current coverage rate of equity investment in specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises is about 15%, and the coverage rate of equity investment in "Little Giant" is about 39%. There is still a significant room for improvement in investment penetration rate. Wang Jianping stated that he will further streamline all aspects of the private equity fund industry, including fundraising, investment management, and retirement. Collaborate with relevant departments to introduce specific policy measures to support the development of venture capital funds, and guide private equity funds to increase their efforts in early investment, small investment, specialized and innovative investment.
At the conference, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Finance, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission jointly launched the "One Chain, One Policy, One Batch" financing promotion action for small and medium-sized enterprises. Under this action, various departments will strengthen policy coordination and business linkage, and provide high-quality and efficient services to small and medium-sized enterprises in the service chain.