Notice from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Measures to Help Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Resume Production and Operations and Overcome Difficulties in Response to the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Telegram [ 2020 ] 14 Number

To the departments in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, cities under separate planning, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

To thoroughly implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on resolutely winning the battle against the epidemic and the relevant decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on simultaneously ensuring effective epidemic prevention and control while coordinating efforts to uphold the “Six Stabilities,” and to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bolster their confidence, strengthen their measures, resume production and operations in an orderly manner, and overcome current difficulties, we hereby issue the following notice:

I. Fully ensure the orderly resumption of production and work for enterprises.

1. Strengthen categorized guidance. The competent authorities for small and medium-sized enterprises at all levels shall, in accordance with the overall requirements for epidemic prevention and control locally and based on actual conditions, adopt targeted measures tailored to different situations. While making every effort to help key enterprises—those essential for epidemic prevention and control, those critical to the operation of public utilities, and those vital to people’s daily lives—resume production and operations as soon as possible, they should also actively and steadily promote other productive enterprises to complete preparations for resuming production and operations, and facilitate their orderly resumption once epidemic prevention and control standards are met.

2. Promote the implementation of measures for resuming work and production. Provide guidance to enterprises in developing plans for resuming work and production and emergency response plans, ensuring that they fulfill their primary responsibilities for epidemic prevention and control and implement all relevant measures—namely, having sound prevention and control mechanisms in place, conducting thorough quarantine and inspection procedures, securing adequate facilities and supplies, enforcing rigorous internal management, and carrying out effective publicity and education—to guarantee a stable and orderly resumption of production and daily life.

3. Strengthen the guarantee of key factors for resuming work and production. In coordination with relevant departments, assist enterprises in addressing challenges such as facilitating employees’ return to work, ensuring the supply of raw materials, optimizing material transportation, and securing essential epidemic prevention supplies—including masks, disinfectants, and thermometers—while providing guidance to enterprises on self-help measures for production recovery. Promote relevant authorities to implement phased deferrals of electricity, water, and gas charges required by small and medium-sized enterprises during the pandemic, and adopt a “no service interruption despite arrears” policy during the deferral period. Intensify efforts to ensure labor supply for enterprise resumption, accurately identify and publicize information on enterprises’ employment needs, promote online matching and remote recruitment, strengthen local supply-demand connections, tap into local supply potential, and meet enterprises’ phased labor requirements.

4. Leverage the role of small and medium-sized enterprises in supporting epidemic prevention and control. For SMEs included on the list of key enterprises providing essential support for epidemic prevention and control, we must cooperate closely to ensure the smooth implementation of relevant support measures. For SMEs that are capable and willing to switch to producing epidemic-prevention supplies, we should adopt a “case-by-case” approach and do our utmost to help coordinate and resolve any challenges they encounter during the transition.

II. Further strengthen fiscal support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

5. Promote the implementation of the state’s financial and tax support policies for key enterprises in epidemic prevention and control. Assist local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) included on the list of key enterprises for central epidemic prevention and control to apply for subsidized interest rates and tax incentives in accordance with policy provisions. The competent authorities for SMEs in provinces and cities including Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Henan, Hunan, Anhui, Chongqing, Jiangxi, Beijing, and Shanghai shall strengthen policy implementation and service provision for SMEs listed as key enterprises for epidemic prevention and control in their respective regions. Encourage local governments to provide additional financial support on top of the central government’s subsidized loan programs.

6. Encourage local governments to introduce relevant fiscal support policies. Fully leverage the role of special funds for SME development at the local level; where conditions permit, localities may establish special relief funds to step up support for SMEs severely affected by the epidemic. Localities are encouraged to, based on the actual impact of the epidemic on their local SMEs, lawfully and in accordance with regulations reduce or exempt taxes and administrative fees. They should also promote the introduction of fiscal support policies such as waiving or reducing property rental fees, temporarily deferring or appropriately refunding social insurance contributions, extending tax payment deadlines, lowering costs of production factors, increasing subsidies for enterprise employee skills training, and providing incentives for stabilizing employment. These measures will effectively ease the cost burden on SMEs. In regions that have already introduced relevant policies, it is essential to strengthen inter-departmental coordination and ensure swift implementation and tangible results.

7. Promote intensifying efforts in government procurement and the settlement of outstanding payments. Guide budgetary units at all levels to increase their support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), raising both the amount and proportion of procurement directed toward SMEs. Step up efforts to clear overdue payments owed to SMEs by administrative agencies, public institutions, and state-owned enterprises, accelerate the completion of targets for settling outstanding debts, and ensure that no new overdue payments are allowed to accumulate.

III. Further strengthen financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

8. Increase support for credit lending. Localities should proactively strengthen coordination with financial institutions, encouraging them to appropriately lower loan interest rates for small, medium, and micro enterprises that show promising growth prospects but are temporarily facing difficulties due to the pandemic. Financial institutions should also increase the availability of credit loans and medium- and long-term loans, and must refrain from arbitrarily withdrawing, cutting off, or suppressing loans. For enterprises struggling to repay loans upon maturity, lenders may grant extensions or renew existing loans. Promote a new credit-rating model based on multi-dimensional big data analysis to address the information asymmetry between banks and enterprises, thereby enhancing the credit scores and loan accessibility of high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises. Fully leverage the role of emergency relending funds, reduce emergency relending fees, and provide emergency relending support to enterprises severely affected by the pandemic. Encourage localities with suitable conditions to establish loan risk compensation funds, providing appropriate compensation for the non-performing portions of loans issued by financial institutions to small and micro enterprises during the pandemic period.

9. Strengthen financing guarantee services. Guide government-backed financing guarantee and re-guarantee institutions at all levels to improve the efficiency of their business processing, eliminate counter-guarantee requirements, and reduce guarantee and re-guarantee fees. For small and micro enterprises that genuinely lack the ability to repay their loans, government-backed financing guarantee institutions at all levels providing them with financing guarantee services should promptly fulfill their indemnity obligations. Depending on the impact of the epidemic, they may appropriately extend the recovery period. Where the conditions for write-off are met, indemnity losses shall be written off in accordance with regulations.

10. Innovate financing products and services. Actively promote the use of supply-chain finance, commercial factoring, accounts receivable pledge and mortgage, intellectual property pledge, and other financing methods to expand financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Fully leverage the convenience and speed advantages of internet-based finance, and promptly develop financing products tailored to SMEs during the pandemic to meet their needs. Give full play to the role of local SME financing service platforms and actively facilitate online matchmaking between government, banks, and enterprises. Coordinate banks and insurance institutions to establish green channels for credit approval and insurance claims processing, thereby accelerating loan disbursement and claim settlement procedures.

11. Accelerate the promotion of equity investment and related services. Actively leverage the synergistic effects of national and local SME development funds to encourage social capital to expand the scale of equity financing for SMEs. Encourage increased investment in innovative and growing SMEs that are temporarily facing difficulties due to the pandemic, and expedite the pace of such investments. Guide various types of funds to capitalize on their respective platform and resource advantages, intensify post-investment support for portfolio companies severely affected by the pandemic, and coordinate various resources—including financing, talent, management, and technology—to help these companies overcome their challenges.

IV. Further strengthen innovation support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

12. Organize and carry out technological and product innovation related to epidemic prevention and control. Encourage “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” (SRDI) “little giant” enterprises and SRDI SMEs to conduct technological research and development and production innovation in areas such as testing technologies, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, medical devices, and protective equipment, specifically targeting the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. SRDI SMEs that achieve significant breakthroughs will be given priority consideration when applying to become SRDI “little giant” enterprises. Immediately launch the call for entries for the “Epidemic Prevention and Control” category of the 2020 “Maker China” SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Take the lead in soliciting innovative projects in diagnostic reagents, medical devices, equipment manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, and protective equipment, and provide comprehensive support services including technology refinement, certification testing, qualification application, and promotion and application.

13. Support the digital transformation of enterprises. Vigorously promote internet platform services tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), actively encourage online office work, video conferencing, remote collaboration, and digital management, and use these as a foundation to comprehensively enhance the level of management informationization among SMEs. Assist enterprises that currently provide offline services in innovating their business models and expanding into online services. Accelerate the deployment of 5G and industrial internet applications, popularize a batch of industrial software applications suitable for SMEs, and support SMEs in improving their agile manufacturing and lean production capabilities. Encourage SMEs within industrial clusters to leverage networked collaboration to make up for the resource and capability limitations of individual enterprises; through collaborative manufacturing platforms, integrate dispersed manufacturing capacities and achieve shared access to technology, production capacity, and orders.

14. Support enterprises in enhancing their intelligent manufacturing capabilities. Guide large enterprises and specialized service providers to launch cloud manufacturing platforms and cloud service platforms tailored for SMEs, and develop products, solutions, and toolkits that meet the intelligent manufacturing needs of SMEs. Promote the cloud-based deployment of business systems for SMEs and facilitate their integration with industrial internet platforms. Encourage SMEs with the necessary foundations and conditions to accelerate the intelligent transformation of their production lines, and promote the deployment and application of low-cost, modular intelligent manufacturing equipment and systems in SMEs.

15. Promote integrated and innovative development among large, medium, and small enterprises. Accelerate the implementation of the Three-Year Action Plan for Facilitating Integrated Development among Large, Medium, and Small Enterprises. Fully leverage the roles of state-owned enterprises and industry-leading companies to drive collaborative efforts among SMEs across the industrial chain in epidemic prevention and control, resuming production, and technological innovation. Assist SMEs in communicating and cooperating with upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain, fostering solidarity and mutual support, and creating an integrated ecosystem characterized by shared prosperity and joint overcoming of difficulties.

5. Further strengthen public services for small and medium-sized enterprises.

16. Leverage the role of public service platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Fully harness the roles of national and provincial demonstration public service platforms for SMEs, as well as local SME public service platform networks, to provide high-quality and efficient online services for SMEs. Guide local SME public service platform networks to promptly compile and disseminate various policies supporting businesses through special columns and other means, and to offer specialized services such as consultation and interpretation of SME epidemic prevention and control support policies. Encourage national and provincial demonstration bases for entrepreneurship and innovation among small and micro enterprises, as well as specialized platforms that have previously benefited from fiscal support policies, to appropriately reduce or defer the collection of rent, property management fees, and other charges from SMEs during the pandemic, thereby supporting their innovative development.

17. Strengthen training services. Through online training and other methods, deliver policies, technologies, and management expertise to small and medium-sized enterprises, helping them make all necessary preparations for resuming normal production and operations. Guide enterprises affected by the epidemic to organize employees for vocational training during shutdown and recovery periods—provided that epidemic prevention and safety measures are strictly observed—and include such training in the scope of subsidy-eligible programs as per regulations.

18. Strengthen legal services related to the epidemic. Actively provide pro bono legal assistance and legal advice to small and medium-sized enterprises, helping them resolve legal issues arising from the epidemic, such as contract performance and labor-management relations. Assist SMEs whose foreign trade orders cannot be fulfilled on time or cannot be fulfilled at all due to the epidemic in obtaining factual certificates of force majeure, thereby minimizing their losses. For enterprises that are genuinely unable to fulfill their relevant obligations due to the epidemic, coordinate arrangements to ensure that such failures are not recorded in their credit histories.

6. Further strengthen overall coordination and integration.

19. Leverage the role of coordination mechanisms at all levels for promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, propose convening special meetings of the leading group to conduct focused research and make strategic arrangements, and adopt targeted and effective measures tailored to actual conditions to ease the burden on enterprises, reduce production costs, stabilize employment, ensure the supply of key production factors, help SMEs build confidence, minimize losses, overcome difficulties, resume work and production in an orderly manner, and effectively safeguard the steady operation of the economy.

20. Competent authorities at all levels responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must earnestly fulfill their duties, strengthen monitoring and analysis of SMEs’ production and operations, promptly identify and promote solutions to the prominent issues encountered by enterprises during the resumption of work and production. They should also intensify public opinion publicity efforts to encourage SMEs to remain confident and jointly overcome these difficult times. Furthermore, they should enhance inter-departmental coordination, foster synergy in their work, and collectively ensure the effective implementation of various government policies—both national and local—that benefit enterprises. They should guide SMEs to make full and effective use of these policies, broaden the scope of enterprises benefiting from them, and enhance SMEs’ tangible sense of gain.

Localities should promptly report to the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the progress of implementing relevant tasks.
 

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
February 9, 2020