City ranks 1st in SME development environment

A scene from the Second China Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Environment Forum which was held in Shenzhen on Tuesday. DT News

Shenzhen ranked first in terms of environment for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2022, followed by Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Beijing, according to the evaluation report targeting the environment for SME development.

The report was released at the Second China Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Environment Forum held in Shenzhen on Tuesday. The year’s report was made after probing 34,000 SMEs from 36 typical Chinese cities.

The city moved one place ahead, winning the crown with a comprehensive score of 79.42, an increase of 2% from the previous year.

According to the report, the city also took the lead in terms of growth speed in innovation investment and specialized and sophisticated firm cultivation. A total of 30 cities have seen innovation input growth for two consecutive years.

In 2022, the city’s investments in R&D accounted 5.49% for the city’s gross domestic product (GDP), which amounted to 3.24 trillion yuan (US$469.63 billion) in 2022.