Small, medium businesses to get 2b yuan in digital upgrades

The China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises on Monday announced it will invest about 2 billion yuan ($309 million) to help small and medium enterprises with digital upgrades in the era of Internet Plus.

The association decided to establish an Internet Plus committee, which will be dedicated to exploring supporting methods for small and medium enterprises by utilizing internet technologies.

"Since the Internet Plus strategy has been put forward for over one year, traditional enterprises that cover manufacturing, health care and retail industries have regarded the internet as their next step in transformation and upgrading, but small and medium enterprises are on the verge of Internet Plus due to limited resources," said Zhang Jingqiang, the association's vice president.

The association has cooperated with with Beijing Weipass Panorama Information Technology Co Ltd to offer payment and transfer solutions, to provide hardware facilities and help them evolve towards Internet Plus.

Zhang added, "We will set up operation centers across the country or choose service partners, and provide digital intelligent terminals for small and medium enterprises and hold lectures for them."

"We will make one million enterprises successfully connected to the Internet within two years, and offer credit investigation services based on big data and help them solve financing problems in the future," said Li Yan, CEO of Beijing Weipass Panorama Information Technology.

"Through POS devices provided by the company, we aim to build up an ecological system that involves payment, coupons, credit and loans", Li added.