GUANGZHOU: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the province of Guangdong should solve problems of fund raising, human resources, IT application, and the establishment of a service system for sustained development in the future, an expert noted.

Lan Hailin, head and professor of the school of business administration at South China University of Technologies, aired his views at a conference releasing the evaluation research report of the growing industrial SMEs in Guangdong Province earlier this week.

He said his views are based on the research findings that cover 11,665 SMEs, including 6,295 growing industrial SMEs, across the province.

"SMEs' difficulties in fund raising find expression in their comparatively low credit reputation, in their limited channels for fund raising, as well as in the limited choices for financial products suitable for SMEs," he said.

He suggested that the province should improve the credit rating system, while improving the credit guarantee system for SMEs.

And the province should do more to help SMEs whose businesses perform well to go public, while encouraging financial institutions to diversify financial products and services tailor-made for SMEs in the province, he added.

HR problem

In regards to the problem of human resources, he said, the province should issue guidelines to encourage training institutions to offer tailor-made training programmes for SMEs, and the training of managerial staff should be further highlighted.

He said that the provincial authorities should also consider hammering out favourable policies to encourage college graduates to work with SMEs.

According to the SME evaluation report, even the top 500 SMEs in the province have been facing the problem of their employees' low education levels.

Employees with two-year short-term college educations and above, account for a mere 6.65 per cent of the total in the top 500 SMEs of the province.

"We are in an era of information. Extensive application of information technology to the operation of an SME will be absolutely beneficial," Lan said. "SMEs in the province should have a better understanding of the significance of IT applications."

Many SMEs in the province either underestimate the significance of IT applications or lack professionals able to perform IT application work, he said, the situation should be changed as soon as possible to keep SMEs informed of market information, business opportunities and to improve the efficiency of their business operations.

Service systems are very crucial for the development of SMEs, he continued, the provincial authorities should redouble efforts to bolster and improve the systems.

He suggested the government should make use of the special funds for the construction of an SME-oriented service platform and encourage universities and research institutes to open their large precision testing instruments to SMEs, offering them research and development (R&D) and testing services.

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