BEIJING – China has issued a plan to promote high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the 2026-2030 period, setting targets for business growth, innovation and the development environment.

By 2030, China's SMEs are expected to achieve growth in both quality and scale, with per capita operating revenue of major SMEs posting cumulative growth of around 15 percent over the five-year period, according to the plan, which was jointly issued by 10 government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

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SMEs' innovation capacity will be notably enhanced, with average annual growth in internal research and development expenditure by major industrial SMEs targeted at over 8 percent and the number of "little giant" firms expected to reach 22,000 by 2030, according to the plan.

Little giant firms refer to the novel elites of SMEs that are engaged in manufacturing, specialize in a niche market and boast cutting-edge technologies.

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The plan calls for continued improvements to the SME service system and an increase in the number of cooperation zones for Chinese and foreign SMEs to 50 by 2030.

By then, the development environment for SMEs is expected to improve further, with a sound long-term mechanism for resolving payment arrears owed to SMEs largely in place and access to diversified financing further broadened.