By Ma Shuping, Enterprise Research Institute, DRC & Tian Liu, University of International Business and Economics

Research Report, No.80, 2021 (Total 6145) 2021-4-6

Abstract: Countries around the world all attach great importance to promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) mainly by means of government procurement service. However, government procurement service must overcome two key obstacles including the high threshold of government procurement system and the relatively weak capacity of SMEs. Owing to the proactive exploration and system innovation made by some relevant departments and local governments, China has gained rich experience which can be summed up as follows. One, preferential treatment needs to be offered to SMEs to encourage them to participate in government procurement by formulating and implementing relevant measures including arranging reserved share ratios, making known to the public government procurement intentions in advance and strengthening personnel training for giving wide policy publicity to SMEs. Two, the transaction procedures for SMEs needs to be simplified by promoting the whole-process electronic transaction system, simplifying identity certificate procedures, reducing or canceling bids and performance bonds and cutting down the transaction costs. Three, efforts such as providing financial support and legal rights protection for SMEs are needed through relevant measures including implementing government prepayment system, providing credit loans and intensifying the protection over legal rights for SMEs. And further efforts to summarize and promote the experience mentioned above will cultivate a sound business environment for SMEs’ future development.

Keywords: business environment, government procurement, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)