(Adopted at the 26^th Session of the Standing Committee of the 13^th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on April 12, 2011; amended in accordance with the Decision on Amending Some Local Rules of This Municipality adopted at the 4^th Session of the Standing Committee of the 15^th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on May 24, 2018; revised at the 22^nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 15^th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on June 18, 2020)

 

Chapter I  General Provisions

　

Article 1 With a view to guaranteeing fair participation by small and medium-sized enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SMEs) in market competition, safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, supporting their entrepreneurship and innovation, stabilizing and expanding urban and rural employment, and bringing into play SMEs’ important role in the national economic and social development, these Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promoting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and other laws and administrative rules, and in the light of the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

Article 2 These Regulations apply to the work of promoting the development of SMEs in this Municipality.

SMEs mentioned in these Regulations mean the enterprises established according to law within the administrative area of this Municipality and meet the state-prescribed standards for categorizing SMEs, including medium-sized, small and micro enterprises.  

Article 3 The municipal and district people’s governments shall strengthen their leadership in the promotion of SMEs’ development, and incorporate their development into the national economic and social development planning, thus creating a congenial environment for the establishment and development of SMEs.

The municipal and district people’s governments shall establish and perfect a consultation and coordination mechanism to serve enterprises, strengthen the unified planning and overall coordination to promote SME development, and establish a system of visits to SMEs to better serve them.

The municipal and district people’s governments shall specify the first person responsible for the promotion of SME development in their respective administrative area.

Article 4 The municipal department of economy and informatization is the competent department for promoting SME development in this Municipality, and is responsible for the overall guidance, organizing, coordination and supervisory checks of the work of promoting SMEs.

The competent administrative departments of district people’s governments in charge of promoting SME development (hereinafter referred to as the district SME administrative departments) shall, under the guidance of the municipal department of economy and informatization, do well the work of promoting SME development within their respective administrative area.

The municipal and district departments of development and reform, science and technology, commerce, market regulation, human resources and social security, planning and natural resources, finance, taxation, local financial regulation, ecology and environment, intellectual property, and judicial administration shall be responsible for promoting SME development according to their respective functions and duties.

Where SMEs face problems and difficulties in their development while no specific competent department is held responsible or many departments are involved but cannot solve the problems and difficulties, the municipal department of economy and informatization shall be responsible for taking the lead in the coordination and solution thereof.

Article 5 This Municipality shall take the promotion of SME development as its long-term development strategy, and adhere to the principle of equal access, preferential support and special protection, thus creating a market environment conducive to SMEs’ sound development.  

This Municipality shall guarantee equal rights, equal opportunities and the same rules for enterprises of various categories, and shall not impose additional conditions for SMEs in the market areas where laws and administrative regulations do not prohibit or restrict SMEs’ investment and business operation. This Municipality shall provide SMEs with stronger financial and tax support and with policy support in financing, startup and innovation, so as to expand the development scope for SMEs. Moreover, this Municipality shall provide SMEs, especially small and micro enterprises, with better service and stronger guarantee for their rights and interests to enhance their ability for self-development.

Article 6 The municipal and district people’s governments shall support SMEs to integrate into and serve the national strategies, so that SMEs will play a role in building Shanghai into  international economic, financial, trade, shipping and sci-tech innovation centers.

The municipal and district people’s governments shall guide the development of SMEs so that they will be more specialized, be finely-tuned to a certain purpose, have special features, and be innovative, and they will, while focusing on their main business, accelerate transformation and upgrading according to the local conditions. The municipal and district people’s governments shall sharpen SMEs’ competitive edge in their respective sub-market, and support them to become better and stronger so that more of them can take the lead in the industry and have core competitiveness.

Article 7 This Municipality shall establish and perfect a system of monitoring and analyzing the statistics of SMEs in order to provide reference for decisions in formulating and adjusting policies in support of SMEs. The municipal statistics and economy and informatization departments shall periodically categorize, calculate, monitor, analyze and publish relevant statistical information on SMEs above the prescribed scale, and improve statistical analysis of SMEs below the prescribed scale, so as to accurately reflect the development of the enterprises.

 

Chapter II Service Guarantee

 

Article 8 This Municipality shall establish an overall coordination mechanism concerning policy support for SMEs. While the functional departments of the Municipal People’s Government are drawing up SME-supporting policies, they shall solicit the opinions of the competent department in charge and the other related departments to ensure the rationality of the policies and the coordination among these polices. In case of different opinions among the relevant departments and failure to reach an agreement, the disagreement may be resolved through the coordination by the municipal enterprise-service consultation and coordination mechanism.

Article 9 The municipal and district people’s governments and their relevant departments shall explain and publicize the SME-related laws, rules and policies in a timely manner, and provide SMEs with free legal and policy consultation and public information service in such areas as market regulation, public finance, taxation, private finance, environmental protection, safe production, labor employment, social security, etc., to create an open, transparent and predictable policy environment for SME development.

The municipal economy and informatization department shall, jointly with relevant departments, overhaul and collect the state and municipal laws, regulations, industry policies, support measures, and other information concerning SME development, and compile a list of enterprise-benefiting policies and a list of public services for enterprises, in a bid to provide SMEs with rapid, convenient and free information service.  

When SMEs are undergoing the procedure of registration, the district administrative service centers shall provide them with the list of enterprise-benefiting policies and the list of public services for enterprises, and inform them of the related support policies.

Article 10 By relying on the “Integrated Online Platform”, this Municipality shall set up a cloud platform for serving enterprises in Shanghai so as to provide SMEs with professional services such as management consultation, market exploration, sci-tech innovation, investment and financing. This Municipality shall create a system of the whole-process responsibility by the staff member who accepted the case so that he/she will handle the various demands of the SME, and shall perfect the closed-loop mechanism of demand-handling, whole-process supervision, and feedback.

Depending on the enterprise webpage of the “Integrated Online Platform”, the Shanghai Municipal Big Data Center shall provide SMEs with individualized and targeted service.

Article 11 The municipal and district people’s governments shall each establish and perfect a public-service system for SMEs, as well as create and perfect a public-service agency for SMEs.

The municipal and district SME public-service agencies shall, under the guidance of the municipal department of economy and informatization and the district SME administrative departments, appoint SME service commissioners to provide public service for SMEs, and shall contact and guide various service agencies to provide service for SMEs.

Article 12 The various service agencies shall provide SMEs with such services as startup training and coaching, intellectual property protection, management consultation, information consultation, credit service, marketing, project development, investment and financing, finance and accounting, taxation, property trading, technical support, human resources, foreign-oriented cooperation, exhibitions and trade shows, and legal consultation. If a service agency conforms to the prescriptions, it is eligible to enjoy the support policies of the municipal or district people’s government.

The various service agencies shall be supported to set up overseas service agencies for SMEs to provide SMEs’ overseas development with such services as startup, business site selection, market exploration and professional consultation. If a service agency conforms to the prescriptions, it is eligible to enjoy the support policies of the municipal department of economy and informatization.

Article 13 The administrative departments at all levels of this Municipality and public institutions with the functions of public administration and service shall dynamically adjust the list of released public data and increase the released data in accordance with the development needs of SMEs.

This Municipality shall encourage SMEs to open their self-owned data according to laws so as to promote safe and orderly integration and application of public data and non-public data.

Article 14 The municipal departments of education and human resources and social security shall, in response to the SMEs’ development requirements, guide the higher-education institutions, vocational-education institutions, and professional technical training institutions in this Municipality to adjust their majors and foster innovative, professional and practical talents.

The municipal departments of economy and informatization, human resources and social security, science and technology, commerce, market regulation, etc. shall organize in a planned way the training for SME managerial personnel to raise SMEs’ marketing, managerial and technological levels.   

The municipal departments of economy and informatization, human resources and social security shall guide and support non-governmental professional institutions to provide SMEs with such human resource services as talent recruitment and service outsourcing to help SMEs solve their needs for work force.

Article 15  Social organizations such as trade associations and commerce chambers in this Municipality shall safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of their member SMEs according to laws, reflect their demands, strengthen trade self-discipline, and play a role in helping SMEs participate in such activities as formulation of standards, startups, innovation, and market expansion.

Unless otherwise provided for by laws and regulations, social organizations such as trade associations and commerce chambers in this Municipality shall stick to the principle of voluntary membership and free withdrawal, and shall not coerce, or coerce in a disguised form, SMEs to join the organizations or prevent them from withdrawing from the organizations. The organizations such as trade associations and commerce chambers shall not, without authorization, set up fee items or raise the fee levels in the name of the government or under the pretext of entrustment from the government.    

Article 16 The municipal and district people’s governments shall promote the building of SME credits, establish a system of incentives for credits and multiple-department penalties against discredits, guide SMEs to operate honestly, and help good-credit enterprises to obtain more commercial opportunities and real benefits in their economic and social activities.   

 

Chapter III  Financial and Tax Support

 

Article 17 The municipal and district finance departments shall provide a special fund for SME development and include the fund in the SME category, and gradually increase the fund input and other support. Of the total SME-development special fund, the proportion used for small and micro enterprises shall not be less than one third.   

Other special funds of this Municipality in support of enterprise development shall appropriately favor SMEs, and the proportion of these funds used for SMEs shall, in principle, not be lower than one third.  

Article 18 The SME-development special fund may be used in such forms as interest subsidies, government-purchased service, financial support, and awards, with focus on SMEs’ transformation and upgrading, improvement of the public service system, creation of a financing service environment, and market expansion.

The management and use of the SME-development special fund shall follow the principle of standardization, openness and transparency, and the method of budge performance management shall be adopted.

Article 19 The municipal government-led fund for supporting SME development shall adhere to the principle of policy guidance and market operation, and shall be used mainly to guide and encourage non-governmental funds to support startup SMEs and promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

The district people’s governments shall set up a district-level SME development fund in the light of the actual circumstances.  

Article 20 The municipal finance department shall, jointly with relevant departments, implement the state and municipal policies and measures concerning the reduction and exemption of the administrative and institutional charges.

The municipal taxation department shall, according to the relevant state provisions, carry out the measures of postponing, reducing and exempting the enterprise income tax and value-added tax for small and micro enterprises that meet the requirements, and shall simplify the procedure of tax collecting and management.

The municipal departments of development and reform, finance, and taxation shall, according to their respective functions and duties, publicize the state and municipal preferential policies for administrative and institutional charges and taxation to promote SME development, and guide and help to lighten the tax burden on SMEs

 

Chapter IV Promotion of Financing

 

Article 21 The financial regulatory department shall develop inclusive finance according to state requirements, strengthen its monitoring and evaluation of the loans by banks and financial institutions, encourage them to create new forms of credit loans and services, list the credit loans for small and micro enterprises in a separate plan, establish a credit-granting system suiting the characteristics of small and micro enterprises, strive to ensure the growth rate of inclusive loans for small and micro enterprises is not lower than the growth rates of other types of loans, gradually increase the scales and proportions of credit loans, first loans and non-repayment loan renewal, and grant more long-term and middle-term loans.

This Municipality shall support various types of financial institutions to provide financial service for small and micro enterprises in a bid to promote the development of the real economy.

The municipal state-owned assets supervision and administration department shall, jointly with relevant departments, include the municipal state-owned banks’ financial service for small and micro enterprises into its evaluation of these banks’ performance.

Article 22 This Municipality shall implement the state-formulated policy of differentiated supervision on financial services for small and micro enterprises, promote commercial banks to perfect their internal evaluation mechanism, enlarge the proportion of inclusive finance in the evaluation, lower the requirements for evaluating the profits from inclusive finance, increase the weighting of the service for small and micro enterprises in the evaluation, and establish and improve the mechanism of liability exemption after one fulfills his duties in credit grating.  

The municipal finance department shall, jointly with the municipal local financial regulatory department and the state financial regulatory department stationed in Shanghai, establish the mechanism of credit-loan risk compensation and credit-loan rewards to encourage and guide financial institutions to step up their credit-loan support for SMEs.

Article 23 This Municipality shall guide and support eligible SMEs to be listed on the stock market for financing.  

The municipal economy and informatization department shall, jointly with the relevant departments, trade associations, commerce chambers and intermediary agencies in this Municipality, strengthen the work of cultivating SMEs’ resources for them to be listed, and promote SMEs to perfect their corporate governance structure.

The municipal local financial regulatory department shall reinforce contact and communication with the state financial regulatory department to collaboratively promote SMEs in this Municipality to be listed on the stock market.

This Municipality shall guide and encourage startup investment companies and angel investment companies to focus on investment for innovative SMEs, and support their development in the form of equity investment.

Article 24 This Municipality shall support SMEs to issue collective bonds and collective bills.

With regard to charges for such intermediary services as rating, auditing, guarantee and legal consultation incurred by SMEs in issuing collective bonds and collective bills, the municipal economy and informatization department shall provide fund support according to the provisions.

The financial regulatory department, the municipal finance department, etc. shall encourage financial institutions to support SMEs’ bond financing and reduce their financing costs by creating risk-mitigating tools and providing guarantee to increase their credit.

Article 25 The municipal departments of local financial regulation, science and technology, economy and informatization, etc. shall guide and support the Shanghai Equity Exchange to conduct innovations in the institution and business, provide SMEs with comprehensive financial service, improve such systems as the conditions for listing, the review mechanism, trading methods and financing tools --systems that meet SMEs’ requirements for financing.

Article 26 This Municipality shall improve and optimize the application of big-data inclusive finance application, the comprehensive credit service platform for SMEs financing, and the platform of interaction among the taxation department, the banking and insurance regulatory commission, and banking institutions. The Municipality shall, according to law, collect information on tax payment, social security, utility bill payment, the customs’ information on enterprises, warehousing and logistics, gradually expand the scope of the data open to the public, improve the data standards, raise the data quality, urge banks and financial institutions to improve their procedure of examining and approving credit loans, and improve the efficiency and coverage of the financing service for SMEs.       

Industrial parks, trade associations and commerce chambers shall strengthen cooperation with financial institutions, and legally share the business information and credit information of SMEs.

Article 27 Municipal departments of economy and informatization, financial regulation etc. shall establish a mechanism for communication with the core enterprises in the supply chain, advance financial service for the whole industrial chain and supply chain. Also, they shall encourage financial institutions and supply-chain core enterprises to strengthen cooperation and share information on supply-chain upstream and downstream trading, and develop supply-chain financial products for order forms, warehouse receipts, inventories, receivables-based financing, etc.

The procurement entities of various-level governments and large enterprises shall confirm their credits and debts with SMEs in a timely manner, and help them with financing based on their receivables, so as to alleviate the fund pressures on them.  

The municipal and district people’s governments shall encourage establishment of a risk-sharing and compensation mechanism for the intellectual-property-right-mortgage financing market, and support intellectual-property-right-mortgage financing between SMEs and financial institutions.

This Municipality shall also facilitate SMEs’ financing via the system of unified registration and publicity of real-estate-based financing.   

Article 28 The municipal and district people’s governments shall establish a government-financing-guarantee system for SMEs to increase the SMEs’ credit in financing. The loan guaranteed by a government-financing-guarantee agency shall, in principle, be no less than five times the guarantee fund with a compensatory rate of up to 5%. In the case of a compensation loss incurred by a government-financing-guarantee agency, the municipal or district finance department shall write it off in a timely manner, and replenish the agency with funds according to the provisions. Where a unit or individual has already diligently preformed its/his/her duties and exercised the duty of reviewing the legality of the case, it is possible not to pursue the responsibility of the unit or individual.  

The municipal and district finance departments shall promote the development of the government-financing-guarantee industry, perform the duty as investors, and organize and implement evaluation of the performance. The Municipality’s financial funds used to support SME development shall first of all ensure government-financing-guarantee agencies’ needs of guaranteeing SMEs’ financing and replenishing the financing guarantee funds.

The department of finance, economy and informatization etc. shall provide guarantee subsidies to SMEs in policy-encouraging key areas, or guide the financing-guarantee-agencies to lower their guarantee and re-guarantee rates. The municipal economy and informatization department shall, according to provisions, offer rewards or subsidies to the financing-guarantee-agencies that provide financing guarantee for SMEs.

Article 29 This Municipality shall support insurance institutions to actively conduct loan guarantee insurance and credit insurance for SMEs, and develop insurance products that suit SMEs’ needs for risk diversification and loss compensation.  

Article 30 The municipal local financial regulatory department shall bring into play the SMEs-serving functions of local financial organizations such as small-loan companies, financial leasing companies, pawnshops, and commercial factoring companies, thus expanding the channels for SME financing.   

Article 31 This Municipality shall establish and perfect a mechanism of overhauling the intermediaries’ fee levels for SME financing, and standardize such matters as the insurance, evaluation, notarization, etc. for SME-financing.  

Where a financial institution has undertaken the above fees, it may apply to the municipal economy and informatization department for fund support.  

Article 32 This Municipality shall encourage financial institutions to conduct financial innovations for SMEs’ products, business and services. The Municipal People’s Government shall establish financial innovation awards to support financial innovation activities that serve SMEs.

 

Chapter V Support of Entrepreneurship

 

Article 33 The municipal and district departments of human resources and social security, economy and informatization, science and technology, commerce, etc. shall strengthen guidance on entrepreneurship and provide people starting a business with guidance and service in policy consultation and startup training.

The universities and vocational education colleges shall be encouraged to conduct education in entrepreneurship and offer courses on starting a business, and shall give publicity to the latest state and municipal policies and offer guidance in entrepreneurship.

Article 34 The municipal and district market regulation departments shall explore ways of optimizing the registration of the business scope and improving the registration efficiency in response to the development needs of emerging industries and SMEs.

The municipal and district market regulation departments shall further simplify SMEs’ work site registration materials. If startup and innovative enterprises do not have or do not need a physical work site in their early startup stage, they may use the registration place in a popular entrepreneurship space as their place of registration.

Article 35 The municipal and district people’s governments shall, in response to the needs of SME development, arrange the necessary land and facilities in their land space planning to facilitate SMEs’ acquisition of production sites and business premises. Development zones, high and new technology parks, and urban commercial complexes are encouraged to use their existing real estate such as idle factories to invest in the construction and creation of startup bases, incubation bases and brand-cultivating bases of small and micro enterprises, to provide small and micro enterprises with low-cost production sites and business premises and with supporting services, and to support small and micro enterprises in conducting special-feature business.  

Article 36 Small and micro enterprises that meet the requirements may apply to the local district human resource and social security department for a certain amount of subsidy for the rent of their startup site.

The municipal and district state-owned assets supervision and administration departments shall encourage state-owned industrial parks to grant preferential rents to startup enterprises.

Article 37 Finance departments and human resource and social security departments shall formulate and perfect this Municipality’s guarantee policy for startup loans. They may grant startup loan guarantee and loan subsidy to eligible startup persons and organizations in accordance with the provisions.

Article 38 Where university graduates, veterans and unemployed people are setting up small and micro enterprises, they shall be entitled to preferential taxes and fee reduction or exemption according to the state provisions.

People who find it difficult to get a job and eligible university graduates who are launching small or micro enterprises may, according to the provisions, apply to the local district human resource and social security department for a one-time startup subsidy.

The municipal and district people’s governments shall encourage SMEs to create jobs. The district human resources and social security department may grant, according to the provisions, eligible small and micro enterprises the social-security subsidy for their early-stage startup organizations.

Article 39 Because of special working conditions, SMEs may, according to the provisions, apply to the local district human resource and social security department for a system of flexible working hours or total working hours.   

This Municipality shall strengthen protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the flexible employees. Laborers of flexible employment may also participate in the social security scheme according to law.

Article 40  In the case of startup personnel who meet the requirements, the municipal and district human resources and social security departments shall, according to the provisions, grant them standard points for a residence permit, shorten the time of conversion from a resident permit to the permanent residence, or even directly grant them the permanent residence.

 

Chapter VI Support of Innovation

 

Article 41 This Municipality shall support SMEs to focus on technological renovations in key areas and key links of the industry; and support them to create or use methods like a digitalized platform to achieve digitalization, networking, and intelligent upgrading in research and development (R&D), production, manufacturing, operation, management, etc., thus realizing higher quality and better efficiency.    

If an SME carries out technological renovations conforming to the aforesaid development direction, it may apply to the department of economy and informatization or other relevant departments for fund support.

Article 42 The municipal and district people’s governments shall encourage SMEs to set up R&D institutes such as corporate technological centers, engineering technology research centers, corporate design centers, and academicians’ work stations, and shall participate in the construction of innovation centers of the manufacturing industry .

If the R&D expenses incurred by SMEs in developing new techniques, new products and new technology conform to the state taxation provisions, they may enjoy tax deduction based on figures larger than the real R & D expenses.

If SMEs conduct technological innovations that conform to the provisions, they may apply to the department of science and technology or economy and informatization for support by the sci-tech SME technological innovation fund and the SME development special fund.

Article 43 This Municipality shall encourage research institutes, higher-education institutions and large enterprises to open their large scientific apparatuses, equipment and platforms to SMEs for technological R&D and cooperation, and help them develop new products. The municipal or district science and technology departments shall, according to relevant provisions, give rewards to the eligible units that open their resources for sharing.  

The municipal department of economy and informatization, education, science and technology etc. shall organize SMEs, universities and research institutes to conduct exchanges and cooperation in production-teaching-research projects in order to promote the transformation and transfer of scientific and technological achievements into productivity. Higher-education institutions and research institutes shall be encouraged to adopt such forms as transfer, licensing, calculating the price of a research result as an investment, and production-teaching-research cooperation to give priority, other conditions being equal, to SMEs in transferring proprietary intellectual property rights or providing technical support, and the relevant government departments shall facilitate such operations.

Article 44 The municipal department of economy and informatization shall, jointly with the municipal science and technology department, include eligible SMEs’ products into the list of recommended innovative products to promote marketization and industrialization of the innovative products.

The municipal department of economy and informatization shall support SMEs’ independent innovation, and provide a certain proportion of the amount of money stated in the contract to the eligible SMEs’ first high-end intelligent equipment, first-version of a software product and first batch of new materials.  

Article 45 The municipal departments of science and technology, reform and development, economy and informatization, etc. shall promote the construction of a service platform for Yangtze River Delta SMEs’ technological innovations, provide these SMEs with such specialized and intensive services as consultation on technology trading, handling of intellectual property rights, property evaluation, and investment and financing.

Article 46 The municipal and district planning and natural resources departments shall, according to such industry performance indicators as the industry type, investment amount, output value, environmental protection, safety, employment, etc., grant land to eligible SMEs in such forms as leasing before granting, and shortening the land-granting years within the statutory longest period.  

If SMEs engaging in key industries such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine in China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area Zone meet the requirements, they may enjoy support in land use.

Article 47 The municipal departments of market regulation, economy and informatization etc. shall encourage SMEs to strive to improve the quality of their key products, and push them to raise the technical, managerial and overall levels of their qualities simultaneously.  

When SMEs are undergoing international standard certification, including the certification of their quality management system, environmental management system, measuring management system, and product quality, the municipal market regulation department and other relevant departments shall give them guidance and support.

This Municipality shall support SMEs and related trade associations to organize or participate in formulating high-level technical standards with proprietary intellectual property rights, and to conduct innovation and application of the standards. In the case of SMEs that lead in the formulation of state standards, industry standards and local standards, the municipal market regulation department shall provide them with technical guidance and fund support according to the relevant provisions.

Article 48 The relevant departments of this Municipality shall encourage SMEs to research on and develop technology and products with proprietary intellectual property rights, guide and help them establish norms for internal intellectual-property-right management, and provide financial support, according to provisions, to SMEs in their application for and maintenance of intellectual property rights.

The municipal intellectual property administrative department shall improve its basic public service, establish service agencies for SME intellectual property to facilitate SMEs’ patent information retrieval, help with the distribution of SMEs’ technological researches, and promote such services as the coaching, early warning, agency and trust of intellectual property.     

The municipal intellectual property administrative department shall push forward the construction of a mechanism of rapid protection of SME’s intellectual property, and promote rapid handling of disputes.  

 

Chapter VII Market Expansion

 

Article 49 This Municipality shall, according to relevant state provisions, adopt such measures as budget reserves and preferential evaluation to implement the policy of government procurement in support of SMEs. Innovative products of SMEs shall be supported with government procurement.

The government-procurement purchasers and purchasing agencies in this Municipality shall release the government procurement information to the public, publicize, according to law, the complete information on the procurement budget, process and results, and provide guidance and service for SMEs to participate in government procurement. The purchasers and purchasing agencies shall be encouraged to provide good-credit SME suppliers with reduction or exemption of bid bonds and performance securities.   

The procurement sum reserved for SMEs shall not be lower than 30% of the total budget for a department’s annual government procurement. Of the sum reserved for SMEs, no less than 60% shall be reserved for small and micro enterprises, with the exception of SMEs that cannot provide commodities and services.

Article 50 The municipal departments of economy and informatization, market regulation, and commerce shall support the cultivation and development of SMEs’ independent brands, put in place the strategy of brand development, encourage SMEs to develop a management system for cultivating brands, and provide eligible SMEs with fund support.

The municipal departments of market regulation, commerce, and intellectual property right management shall guide and help SMEs in their application for trademark registration, geographical-indication product protection, and China time-honored brands.

Article 51 This Municipality shall promote collaborations between large enterprises and SMEs, guide and support large enterprises and SMEs to conduct joint venture cooperation in such forms as the former’s investment in the latter and assets integration, so as to complement each others’ advantages and drive and promote SMEs’ development.

The municipal departments of economy and informatization shall, jointly with the departments of development and reform, finance, state-owned assets supervision and administration, science and technology, and commerce, organize regular exchanges between large enterprises and SMEs in projects, technologies and supply-demand, foster an industry ecology featured by synergetic innovation, resource sharing and integrated growth of large enterprises and SMEs, and boost entry of SMEs’ products and services into large enterprises’ industry chain and procurement system. These departments shall also build special-feature parks characterized by financial integration among large, medium and small enterprises, and promote cooperation among them in R&D innovation, creative design, production, manufacturing, material procurement, marketing, financial integration, etc.   

Article 52 This Municipality shall implement the project of popularizing informatization, e-commerce and Internet application for SMEs, guide SMEs to use information technology to improve their R&D, management, manufacturing and service, guide SMEs to use the e-commerce platform and the public information platform to expand their domestic and overseas markets, and promote faster development of an industry-serving platform for innovative SMEs.

This Municipality shall advance the development of e-commerce, establish and perfect an administrative system for the customs, taxation, payment and settlement that suits cross-border e-commerce, so as to facilitate SMEs’ cross-border e-commerce business.  

Article 53 Where SMEs participate in overseas exhibitions and trade shows, obtain invention patents or register trademarks, or apply for certification of their management system or certification of their products, they may, according to provisions, apply to the municipal departments of commerce, market regulation, or intellectual property administration for fund support.

The municipal departments of commerce, economy and informatization shall strengthen their guidance and service for SMEs in investment in and exploration of international markets, and organize SMEs to participate in international exhibitions, procurement and trading.

The municipal commerce department shall establish and perfect an early-warning mechanism against damage to the industries, monitor abnormal situations in imports and exports, track industries involved in imports and exports, and guide and serve SMEs in effectively adopting trade remedy measures to protect their safety.

 

Chapter VIII Protection of Rights and Interests

 

Article 54 This Municipality shall, according to law, protect the property right, management right and other legitimate rights and interests of SMEs, and protect the SME operators’ personal safety and property safety. No units or individuals shall infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of SMEs and their operators.

No units or individuals shall force, or force in a disguised form, SMEs to buy products, accept designated services, make contributions or donations, or accept arbitrary charges; nor shall they illegally force, or force in a disguised form, SMEs to participate in evaluations, examinations, commendation activities, trainings, etc.

State organs, public institutions and large enterprises shall not force SMEs to accept unfair trading terms, sign unequal agreements, delay payments, in violation of the agreement, for SMEs’ goods, projects, service and investment. In its audit and supervision work, an audit department shall, according to law, strengthen its auditing of the payments by state organs, public institutions and large enterprises to SMEs.

Article 55 This Municipality shall establish an emergency aid mechanism for SMEs. In the case of emergencies like natural disasters, public health events and other important events that affect SMEs’ production and operation, the municipal economy and informatization department and the district SME administrative departments shall coordinate with relevant departments to take measures and do well the work of emergency aids to SMEs.  

With regard to the SMEs affected by the aforesaid emergencies or major events, the municipal and district people’s governments and their relevant departments shall introduce targeted policy measures, step up their support in stabilization of employment, financing for bailouts, rent reduction or exemption, fund support, etc. to lighten the burden on the enterprises, and shall guide the enterprises in need in such legal issues as liability exemption owing to force majeure and flexible employment, in a bid to help enterprises to resume their normal production and business.

With regard to SMEs participating in emergency rescue and handling during contingencies, the municipal and district people’s governments and their relevant departments shall provide them with awards, subsidies and compensations.

Article 56 While this Municipality is formulating local rules, government regulations and normative documents that are closely connected with the right and interests of SMEs, it shall hold forums, hearings, questionnaires, etc. to solicit opinions from SMEs, and establish and perfect a mechanism of opinion solicitation and feedback.

Article 57 The municipal and district people’s governments and their relevant departments shall, according to the principle of encouraging innovations and being inclusive and discreet, formulate and implement different categories of supervisory rules and standards according to the nature and characteristics of new-technology, new-industry, new-form and new-model SMEs, and shall optimize the supervision mode by paper inspection and internet oversight.   

The proportion and frequency of random checks by relevant departments on SMEs shall be pegged with SMEs’ credit ratings and rule-breaking risk levels. If multiple checks are needed for an SME, they shall be merged into one check or incorporated into a multi-departmental joint check.

Article 58 The relevant municipal and district departments shall collect and use the information on SMEs and their operators on the principle of legality, objectivity, necessity and relevance, and shall not illegally expand the scope of discredit information and the list of discredit persons and units, and shall not illegally add penalties against discredit behaviors.

This Municipality shall establish and perfect the mechanism of credit repairing that suits the characteristics of SMEs, and improve essential credit-repairing factors such as the conditions, standards and procedures. In the case of applicants for credit repairing, the relevant department shall verify the facts, and repair their credit and cancel the penalties if they meet the requirements.

Article 59 The relevant departments of the municipal and district people’s governments and trade associations shall publicize the methods of accepting complaints and reports, and handle SMEs’ complaints and reports. SMEs may lodge complaints and reports via the 12345 citizen service hotline, the Shanghai enterprise service platform, etc. Upon receipt of complaints and reports, the relevant departments and trade associations shall make investigations and provide feedback on the results of the handing within the prescribed time limits.

The municipal economy and informatization department and the district SME administrative departments shall each establish a special channel for soliciting SMEs’ opinions and suggestions on the government administration, and provide prompt feedback for the relevant departments and urge them to make improvements.

Article 60 This Municipality shall accelerate the construction of a public legal service system and integrate legal service resources to provide all-round legal service for the sound development of SMEs.

The trade associations of lawyers, mediators, public notaries, forensic examiners, etc. shall set up professional legal service teams for SMEs so as to provide offer legal service to safeguard SMEs’ legitimate rights and interests.

This Municipality shall explore the scope of legal aid for small and micro enterprises, and provide legal aid for small and micro enterprises in production and operation difficulties.

 

Chapter IX Supervisory Inspection

 

Article 61 The municipal department of economy and informatization shall entrust a third-party agency to regularly evaluate the SME development environment including the implementation of the policies and measures and the use of the funds for SME developing, and on the basis of the evaluation results, the relevant departments shall adjust their policies dynamically. The evaluation results shall be made public and be subject to public supervision.  

The district people’s governments shall entrust a third-party agency to evaluate the SME development environment in the light of the actual circumstances.

Article 62 The municipal department of economy and informatization shall, jointly with the municipal departments of taxation, financial regulation, market regulation, human resources and social security, intellectual property management, finance, etc., regularly collect and summarize the information about SMEs’ tax payment, financing, registration, employment, intellectual property right, and matters related to government procurement.

The municipal department of economy and informatization shall, jointly with the relevant municipal departments and the district people’s governments, compile the annual SME development report, summarize and analyze the development, service guarantee, protection of rights and interest, etc. for SMEs, and make the report known to the public.  

Article 63 The municipal and district people’s governments shall submit to the standing committees of the same-level people’s congresses an annual report on promoting SME development, which shall include:

1. the basic information on SME development;

2. the policy supporting SME development and the actual implementation;

3. the use of capital and funds supporting SME development;  

4. problems and countermeasures concerning SME development; and

5. other matters that should be reported.

The standing committees of the municipal and district people’s congresses shall strengthen supervision over the work on SME development in their respective area by means of hearing and deliberating on the special work reports, organizing enforcement inspections, etc.

The standing committees of the municipal and district people’s congresses shall, while examining the budget compilation and supervising the implementation thereof, strengthen supervision over the use of the SME-development special funds by the same-level finance departments.  

Article 64 The Municipal People’s Government shall conduct supervisory inspections on the work of promoting SME development. In the case of an act in violation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promoting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, the person-in-charge of the relevant municipal department or the district people’s government shall be ordered to make rectifications within the prescribed time limit; in the case of failure to organize the rectifications or make proper rectifications, disciplinary sanctions shall be imposed on the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons according to law.

Article 65 Where state functionaries abuse their power, neglect their duty, play favoritism, commit irregularities, infringe upon SMEs’ legitimate rights and interests, the unit which they work for or the higher-level competent administrative department shall give them disciplinary sanctions according to law; where a loss is caused to the affected SME, compensation shall be made according to law; where a crime is constituted, the wrongdoer shall be prosecuted for criminal liability according to law.

 

Chapter X Supplementary Provisions

　　

Article 66 These Regulations shall be effective as of June 18, 2020.