Vice-Premier Liu He addressed the first conference held by the State Council leading group on promoting small and medium enterprises’ development on Aug 20.

Officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, central bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, and some business leaders attended the conference, led by Liu.

According to the conference statement, equal treatment should be given to State-owned and private economies, and to large, medium and small enterprises.

The conference urged improving the capital market, broadening direct financing channels for SMEs to meet their financing needs.

Favorable fiscal and taxation policies should be issued for SMEs, such as tax cuts and financing assurance. Enterprises’ intellectual property rights should be protected.

It is important to support small and medium enterprises, according to the conference. SMEs are crucial to economic and social development, job creation, taxation and technology innovation.

The conference stressed that SMEs should forge competitiveness, and improve the management and quality of their products and services.