Agencies to help SMEs market sci-tech products

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other central departments have unveiled a plan to improve the ability of small- and medium-sized companies to market their technological achievements over the next two years, according to a document issued on Thursday.

Noting that SMEs play an important role in promoting innovation, creating jobs and improving lives, the document said that efforts will be made to strengthen the core competitiveness of SMEs so that they can become more specialized and sophisticated, and capable of producing innovative products.

To this end, efforts are needed to accelerate the accumulation of their sci-tech achievements and facilitate the integration of industry, academia and research.

The document said that a repository of sci-tech achievements will be created to enable SMEs to access scientific resources from laboratories and research and development centers to help them develop their own technological products.

It also encouraged large companies to share their equipment and laboratories with SMEs.

Expansion of marriage, divorce registries

Authorized by the State Council, China's Cabinet, 21 provincial-level regions, including Beijing and Tianjin, will implement a cross-regional marriage and divorce registration policy on a trial basis.

The pilot policy will come into force on June 1, according to a news conference by the Ministry of Civil Affairs last Thursday.

Under the new policy, mainland residents who plan to get married can choose registries in the places of habitual residence of either the bride or groom, instead of having to return to the cities where they hold household registration, or hukou.

Seven of the 21 provincial-level regions have been allowing cross-regional marriage registration since June 2021, and five have also permitted cross-regional registration for divorce.

More than 125,000 couples have benefited from the program, according to the ministry.

With an increasing number of people not living or working in the places where they hold hukou, the expanded program now covers about 78.5 percent of the population, said Wang Jinhua, an official with the ministry.

Marriage registries handle marriage and divorce registration, and reissue marriage certificates for about 18 million couples on average annually, the ministry said.

Rural students can earn free medical degree

More than 6,150 students will be enrolled in a tuition-free bachelor's degree program in medicine as part of the country's efforts to address its shortage of doctors in rural areas, the Ministry of Education said in a notice on May 24.

After earning their bachelor's in majors including clinical medicine, traditional Mongolian medicine and traditional Uyghur medicine, the graduates can work as doctors in rural medical institutions in China's less-developed central and western regions.

According to the ministry, the program is only open to students from rural areas, and the candidates also need to take the national college entrance exam, or gaokao.