Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) serve as the "capillaries" of the national economy and a vital vehicle for new-quality productive forces. On September 3rd, ten government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan for Promoting SME Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), charting a roadmap for SME quality upgrades over the next five years.
The Plan sets clear targets for 2030: R&D investment by industrial SMEs above designated size will grow at an average annual rate exceeding 8%, specialized and innovative "Little Giant" enterprises will reach 22,000, and national-level specialized industrial clusters will expand to 600. At the same time, a direct financing system covering the full lifecycle of enterprises is being accelerated—from listing incubation pools to the bond market's "Science and Technology Board," and from the second phase of the National SME Development Fund to dedicated boards on regional equity markets. The policy logic has shifted from "emergency rescue and relief" to "systematic cultivation and strengthening," aiming not only for SMEs to "survive" but also to "become stronger" in their niche tracks, truly serving as a solid foundation for stabilizing employment, driving innovation, and improving people's livelihoods.
So, how can Henan's SMEs forge themselves into "sharp front-line troops" of hard technology during the 15th Five-Year Plan period?
Improving Full-Chain Mechanisms to Continuously Expand Specialized and Innovative Enterprises
The 15th Five-Year Plan period marks a critical window for specialized and innovative SMEs to transition from quantitative accumulation to qualitative leap forward. The Plan states that by 2030, the innovation capacity of SMEs will be significantly enhanced, with R&D expenditure within industrial SMEs above designated size growing at an average annual rate of over 8%, and "Little Giant" enterprises reaching 22,000. To date, Henan Province has cultivated a total of 518 national-level "Little Giant" enterprises and 5,501 provincial-level specialized and innovative enterprises.
Based on the 15th Five-Year Plan for SME development, how can Henan cultivate more specialized and innovative enterprises? In this regard, Zhang Zhancang, a researcher at the Henan Provincial Party Committee Advisory Group and former president of the Henan Academy of Social Sciences, proposed improving a tiered and classified gradient cultivation system, perfecting the full-chain mechanism for discovering, supporting, and strengthening high-quality enterprises, and continuously expanding the ranks of specialized, innovative, and "Little Giant" enterprises. He also emphasized guiding enterprises to increase R&D investment and hone their core competitiveness in niche fields. "Cultivation efforts should not simply pursue quantitative targets; greater attention should be paid to actual innovation effectiveness and operational quality, promoting more enterprises to delve deeply into niche tracks, strive to become key supporting forces in the industrial chain, and polish the 'specialized and innovative' golden brand of SMEs," Zhang Zhancang said.
It is understood that in order to cultivate specialized and innovative enterprises, Henan Province issued the "Henan Province Measures for Supporting the Cultivation of Specialized and Innovative Enterprises" in April 2024, which stipulates that people's governments at or above the county level should establish and improve SME relief assistance mechanisms, implement city-specific and enterprise-specific policies, lower enterprise operating costs through targeted relief measures, solve difficulties in survival and development, improve business conditions, and support sustained economic development. Concurrently, governments at or above the county level and their relevant departments should foster an entrepreneurial and innovative atmosphere, formulate supportive measures in industry, land, talent, fiscal, and financial areas, and guide enterprises or mass entrepreneurship and innovation entities to focus on niche markets, enhance innovation capabilities, and master core technologies.
The Plan also mentions that by 2030, the number of national-level SME specialized industrial clusters will reach 600. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, Henan has taken the cultivation of specialized industries as a crucial lever for enhancing county economies, setting benchmarks, nurturing clusters, and promoting development. As of the end of 2025, Henan Province has cumulatively cultivated 15 national-level and 66 provincial-level SME specialized industrial clusters, covering all 17 provincial cities and the Jiyuan Demonstration Zone. A host of distinctive industrial clusters with strong employment-driving capacity have emerged, including Gongyi aluminum processing, Sui County shoemaking, Pingyu outdoor leisure, Luyi beauty and cosmetics, Lankao brand home furnishings, Tongxu hot and sour noodles, Wenxian leisure food, Zhecheng superhard materials, Huaibin textile and apparel, and Changyuan hoisting equipment.
Accelerating Digital and Intelligent Development to Drive Enterprise Transformation and Upgrading
The Plan proposes deepening digital transformation by systematically cultivating a batch of professional tool products, solutions, and service providers targeting typical application scenarios for SMEs. However, in reality, specialized and innovative SMEs span a wide range of industries, vary significantly in scale, and have uneven digital foundations. Is there a standard for "typical application scenarios," and how can these scenarios be ensured to have replicability and promotional value?
In response, Zhu Keli, founding dean of the Guoyan New Economy Research Institute and chief expert on the intelligent economy, believes that selecting typical digital-intelligent application scenarios hinges on three core criteria. First is industry representativeness—prioritize niche tracks with high concentrations of specialized and innovative enterprises, while covering manufacturing and supporting services, and encompassing enterprises of different sizes. Second is value effectiveness—scenarios must genuinely solve production pain points, with quantifiable results in cost reduction, quality improvement, efficiency enhancement, and risk control, rejecting superficial showcase projects. Third is cost adaptability—solutions should not be overly heavy and should fit the budget capacity of SMEs, avoiding grand, all-encompassing customized development.
Furthermore, he suggested that three aspects need to be addressed to ensure scenarios are replicable and scalable. First, adhere to the principle of "small entry points, large-scale promotion," prioritizing the creation of modular and lightweight toolkits, breaking down benchmark projects into standardized components to reduce secondary implementation costs. Second, leverage the driving role of industrial chain leaders, relying on industrial clusters to export scenarios proven by leading enterprises to upstream and downstream specialized and innovative enterprises, forming a cluster-based promotion model. Third, strengthen service supply by relying on SME public service platforms to provide full-process services covering diagnosis, selection, and implementation, transforming successful cases into operational guidelines to avoid repeated trial-and-error by enterprises, enabling ordinary enterprises to learn and afford them.
Liu Xiaoping, deputy director of the Institute of Digital Economy and Industrial Economics at the Henan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, similarly believes that the core of application scenarios lies in "demonstration" and "leading." Liu Xiaoping stated that application scenarios should first meet "high-frequency rigid needs," meaning they should directly target common operational pain points of SMEs, such as quality improvement, cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, green development, and safety. Second, scenarios should have "visible value," prioritizing those with significant marginal impact on profit, quality, and production capacity, entering through scenarios with relatively controllable investment, fast results, and quick value validation, generating quantifiable and considerable economic benefits.
As for replicability and promotion, Liu Xiaoping suggested that the key is to achieve "lightweight, modular, and staged" implementation, following the iterative logic of "first usable, then good, then excellent," adhering to the principles of value first, pain points priority, and step-by-step implementation, with low cost, short cycle, easy maintenance, and high adaptability as core characteristics, focusing on high-frequency rigid business scenarios to achieve precise and efficient digital upgrading.
Unblocking Diversified Financing Channels to Address SMEs' Urgent Needs
Addressing the financing pain points of SMEs, the Plan introduces a comprehensive "combination punch" in the direct financing sector, coordinating efforts across multiple financing channels to build a full-lifecycle financing system covering SMEs from seed stage to maturity stage. The Plan clarifies efforts to strengthen the listing incubation of SMEs, establish a listing incubation pool for high-quality SMEs, and promote normalized equity financing connections. It also calls for deepening the construction of the "Specialized and Innovative" board on regional equity trading markets, high-quality development of the "Science and Technology Board" in the bond market to support bond financing for eligible SMEs, and vigorous development of venture capital through the establishment of the second phase of the National SME Development Fund, driving social capital to invest early, invest small, invest long-term, and invest in hard technology.
Song Xiangqing, vice president of the China Business Economics Society, noted that compared to indirect financing such as bank credit, direct financing better matches the characteristics of technology-based enterprises. Indirect financing like bank credit places heavy emphasis on collateral, short-term cash flow, and rigid principal and interest repayment requirements, which structurally mismatches the asset-light, high-investment, long-cycle nature of hard technology companies. In contrast, equity-based direct financing shares risks and rewards, providing long-term patient capital for technological breakthroughs. At the same time, direct financing can simultaneously import industrial resources, compelling enterprises to standardize governance and financial systems, laying a solid foundation for connecting with the multi-level capital market.
Currently, there are still bottlenecks in the normalized equity financing connections through the listing incubation pool. With many enterprises in the pool and uneven development stages, some lack sufficient operational governance and financial standardization, raising due diligence costs for investment institutions. Additionally, early-stage hard technology enterprises often have weak profitability, which does not align with the short-term profit-seeking demands of social capital, resulting in inefficient industry-finance connections. In response, Song Xiangqing suggested implementing tiered dynamic management for enterprises in the pool, conducting pre-emptive normative counseling in cooperation with exchanges and securities firms, leveraging the "Specialized and Innovative" board for early-stage incubation, and using the second phase of the National SME Development Fund to attract long-term capital, achieving precise matching between capital and enterprise growth stages.
Regarding the construction of the "Science and Technology Board" in the bond market, Song Xiangqing proposed abandoning traditional risk control models and reconstructing a credit evaluation system adapted to asset-light technology enterprises, incorporating core scientific and technological indicators such as R&D investment, patent reserves, position in the industrial chain, and technology iteration capabilities into the assessment dimensions. While appropriately relaxing issuance access, a risk-sharing mechanism should be improved to expand bond financing coverage for technology enterprises while guarding against risk.
In Song Xiangqing's view, the logic of this SME financing policy has shifted from focusing on emergency relief to systematically cultivating growth. "In the past, relief models focused more on relieving short-term cash flow pressure and solving the practical problem of survival, whereas the direct financing support system in the 15th Five-Year Plan targets the growth needs of enterprises throughout their entire lifecycle." "Through coordinated efforts in listing incubation, equity, bonds, and venture capital funds, improving the supply of the multi-level capital market, guiding various types of patient capital to invest early, invest small, and invest in hard technology, we can push high-quality SMEs from survival breakthrough to becoming stronger and better, better leveraging the strategic value of SMEs in technological innovation and industrial chain security," Song Xiangqing stated.