Economic performance of China's SMEs steadily picks up in 2024

The economic performance of China's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was on a generally steady, sound and upward trajectory in 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Tuesday.

In 2024, the economic performance of SMEs maintained overall stability with steady progress, with the added value of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises above the designated size increasing by 6.9 percent year on year, 2.8 percentage points higher than that of large enterprises, said Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Zhang Yunming at a press conference in Beijing.

Industrial enterprises above designated size are those with annual revenue from principal business reaching or over 20 million yuan.

In terms of fostering innovation-driven enterprises, China has promoted the development of SMEs that apply special, sophisticated technologies to produce unique and novel products, and fostered a total of 14,600 "little giant" enterprises, with the number of national science and technology enterprises exceeding 600,000, Zhang said.

In the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will intensify efforts to promote the high-quality development of SMEs, he added.

"In 2025, [China will] further support over 30 pilot cities and recognize additional 100 distinctive industrial clusters of SMEs. Mechanisms will be rolled out to promote the development of SMEs that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products. [We will] conduct studies on setting up the second phase of national development fund for SMEs, actively foster public service platforms (bases) for SMEs to provide them with more high-quality and efficient services, thereby promoting the development of these SMEs in this regard," he said.

Economic performance of China's SMEs steadily picks up in 2024

The Republic of Korea (ROK) and China should cherish the historical experience of jointly resisting aggression and continue to work together for a prosperous future, said ROK President Lee Jae Myung.

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Lee will pay a state visit to China from Jan 4 to 7. It will be Lee's first visit to China since he took office last year.

In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) in Seoul on Wednesday, Lee said that humanity must learn from the past to prevent the tragedy of war from repeating itself.

"While pursuing their own national interests to the fullest extent, countries must not harm the national interests of others, but should coexist peacefully. The act of invading other countries and massacring their people for one's own benefit must never be repeated. History of humanity often repeats itself, therefore we must learn from the past. In this regard, I believe the historical experience of ROK and China in resisting aggression and fighting together is invaluable. Of course, while historical experience is important, we cannot remain stuck in the past. For a better future for the people of both countries, we need to continuously explore possibilities for working together towards the future," said the president.

ROK president calls for learning lesson from anti-aggression history

ROK president calls for learning lesson from anti-aggression history