Shanghai to release policies for SMEs and 'little giants'

Over 700 "little giant" firms, or small enterprises owning core technologies, are to attend a city-level conference on Sunday.

It is being held to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and optimize the supply chain for the city's strategic industries such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine and chip.

The firms will attend the SME conference held from Sunday to Tuesday in Zhangjiang in the Pudong New Area. It will have several forums and an SME innovation exhibition covering new materials, artificial intelligence, commercial aerospace and bio-manufacturing.

A batch of policies to support SMEs will be released during the conference, the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, the conference's major organizer, said on Wednesday.

SMEs, especially the "little giants," play an important role in China's innovation-driven development and its digital China strategy. There are 11,466 SMEs with specialized tech innovation in Shanghai, of which 857 are "little giants," enterprises, according to the commission.