(Yicai) Dec. 2 -- Shanghai will provide special policy and financial support for specialized, high-end, innovation-driven small and medium-sized enterprises in the city to help them quickly grow into leading companies in their respective fields, according to the city’s deputy mayor.

Shanghai will expand the scale of special funds for the development of SMEs in the municipality, Chen Jie said at the China Specialized, High-end, Innovation-driven SME Development Conference held yesterday.

The metropolis will hike the allocation of special funds used to support specialized, high-end, innovation-driven SMEs, which are those that have the potential to become leaders in specific emerging industrial sectors, and it will set high-growth incentive funds for ‘little giants,’ which are companies that are already leaders in their particular areas of expertise, Chen said.

Shanghai’s specialized, high-end and innovation-driven enterprises are thriving and are becoming an important force in driving innovation and building up industrial chains, Chen said. Companies that apply to be categorized as specialized, high-end and innovative enterprises, and which meet the thresholds set by the government, can obtain government funds as well as taxation and financing support.

China has 141,000 such government-certified enterprises at present, according to the latest data released at the conference. This includes 14,600 ‘little giants,’ of which nearly 90 percent are manufacturers that are engaged in strategic emerging industrial chains such as integrated circuits and aerospace. More than 90 percent of these companies are suppliers for well-known large companies at home and abroad.

Shanghai has over 11,000 specialized, high-end and innovation-driven SMEs and more than 900 ‘little giants,’ of which 46 have become unicorns.

Shanghai will also encourage commercial banks to set up specialized, high-end and innovation-driven loans with CNY400 billion (USD55 billion) available, Chen said. The city government will also provide loan guarantees for qualified enterprises which apply for the loans, and will increase the upper limit of the guaranteed amount for a single company to CNY30 million (USD4.1 million) from the previous CNY20 million, Chen said.

Shanghai will also strengthen cooperation with the National SME Development Fund, which is headquartered in Shanghai, to increase the total scale of the fund's Shanghai sub-funds to CNY10 billion (USD1.3 billion), and to support and attract more sub-funds and projects to land in Shanghai, Chen said.

The National SME Development Fund, which has a total scale of CNY35.7 billion (USD4.9 billion), has already established five sub-funds in Shanghai, and more than 200 SMEs have received investment from the fund.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor