The 2020 APEC SME Business Forum will be held between Sunday and Dec. 15 in Shenzhen, bringing together guests from more than 10 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) member economies, scholars from business sectors and enterprise representatives to share ideas on the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), digital economy and innovation, AI application and law services for SMEs.
This is the third year that the forum, organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, China Center for Promotion of SME Development and China International Cooperation Association of SMEs, will be held in the city. This year’s event will be held both offline and online.
Through the main forum and seven parallel forums, the representatives will explore ways of improving business environment for SMEs, discuss digital transformation, law services for SME healthy development, integrated development of enterprises in the whole industrial chain and AI application.
Besides forums, the organizer will host the finals of the SMEs Innovation Competition, Jia Xingdong, director of the Shenzhen Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau, said at the news conference Monday.
During a parallel forum on the development of industrial Internet, Bao’an District, the co-organizer of the event, will be cited as a typical example to illustrate new thoughts and patterns in the development of industrial Internet.
In the first 10 months of this year, Shenzhen saw a total of 253,800 new SMEs registered, or 846 a day, according to statistics released at the news conference. By the end of October, Shenzhen had a total of 2.23 million registered SMEs, accounting for more than 99 percent of the city’s total enterprises.
There are 165 enterprises for every 1,000 residents, making the city No. 1 in terms of enterprise density, according to Jia Changsheng, director with Shenzhen SMEs Service Bureau. Of the city’s 17,000 State-level high-tech enterprises, 90 percent are SMEs.
The forum was previously held in Shanghai, Nanjing and Changsha in 2001, 2014 and 2017.