A work plan issued by Chongqing municipality in Southwest China for the period from 2022 to 2025 suggests that by 2025, Chongqing should be home to 25,000 innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), 2,500 specialized and new little giant firms at the municipal level, and 300 such firms at the State level.
Liangjiang New Area ranks first in the municipality with 15 national and 20 municipal little giant companies, most of which are involved in manufacturing, software, IT services, and five other sectors.
The so-called "little giant" firms usually focus on innovation and becoming forerunners in their respective fields.
The new area takes full advantage of its innovation platforms, including the Chongqing Liangjiang Coordinative Zone, Liangjiang Digital Economy Industrial Park, and Lijia Yuelai Smart Park, striving to develop an innovation-oriented industrial cluster and build an open industrial eco-system.
Compared with industrial titans, SMEs face obstacles in capital, technology, talent, and digitalization, which has made them unsure about whether they can become little giant firms, said Hu Jinbin, director of Liangjiang's industrial promotion bureau.
To solve this problem, the government has arranged a special team to help enterprises determine whether they are qualified for the title, and aid them in the application procedures.
The establishment of the chain chief system, industrial functional areas, and the little giant company breeding library has also aided cultivation work.
For enterprises that have already been recognized as little giants, Liangjiang also provided a series of targeted services related to talent training, product testing, finance, technological innovation and industrial design.
John Edwards, the UK trade commissioner for China, praised Chongqing over its rise as a burgeoning center in intelligent manufacturing.