China announces guidelines to support SMEs

China will enhance support for small and medium-size businesses and optimize the financing and credit enhancement system for the private sector.

The Party’s Central Committee and the State Council released guidelines to advance reform of the country's socialist market economy system on Monday to stimulate market potential and energize market entities, according to Xinhua news agency.

The document attached great importance to the private sector with plans to provide it with major support in various aspects including capital and property rights protection.

Equal treatment will be given to enterprises of all forms of ownership in areas such as access to factors, getting access permits, business operation, government procurement and tendering. 

Meanwhile, barriers to market competition will be broken down, with the time of creating a market environment in which entities of all kinds of ownership can reach and use resources equally, and can participate in market competition openly and fairly with equal treatment and protection under the law.

Green channels will be established, through which violations of fair competition can be reported to authorities. The country will also strengthen enforcement of anti-trust regulations and improve policies against unfair competition, to increase enforcement efforts and raise the cost of violations.

The system for supporting the development of SMEs will also be improved, with the supply of financial services to such enterprises increased and the development of private banks, community banks and other small and medium-sized financial institutions boosted. 

The support system for financing and credit enhancement for private enterprises will also be optimized.

In terms of the capital market, the document reiterated the country's commitment to accelerating the establishment of a standardized, transparent, open, dynamic and resilient capital market.

China will strengthen the basic system of the capital market, promote reform of the registration system for stock issuance with information disclosure at its core, and optimize the compulsory delisting and voluntary delisting systems, to improve the quality of listed companies and strengthen investor protection.

The country is also exploring the implementation of a registration management system in the field of corporate credit bond issuance.

The document also noted that property tax legislation will be pushed forward steadily.