SMEs receive support and services for global expansion

Ti Gong

Technology firms, including several from Shanghai, are offering help to small businesses hit by the pandemic, covering loans, transaction payments and global expansion. By the third quarter, China's smaller businesses are regaining growth and speeding up global expansion, Shanghai Daily learned.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, are the backbone of China's economy and prime employers of millions of workers. Their ability to survive and prosper again is the key to get the post-lockdown economy up and running, industry insiders said.

New York-listed FinVolution, an online finance platform headquartered in the Pudong New Area, has set up a new platform for SMEs, offering over 20 special digital tools.

In the third quarter, FinVolution served 504,000 SMEs, a 43 percent growth from a year ago. Its SME loans reached 11.3 billion yuan (US$1.57billion), tripled from the third quarter in 2020, and accounting for a quarter of the total.

Its SME clients include retail, wholesales and light industrial manufacturing firms nationwide, which were seriously hit by the pandemic.

"We promote services to reach a wide range of small and micro enterprises, agriculture and other inclusive groups, and continuously enhance the quality and effectiveness of services to the real economy," said Zhang Feng, CEO of FinVolution.

In the third quarter, FinVoultion generated revenue of 2.97 billion yuan, offering online financial services to 3.2 million customers, including SMEs and individual business owners.

Shanghai-based XTransfer, which offers cross-border financial and payment services for global traders, posted a report for SME development.

Ti Gong

The China SME Export Index, released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and XTransfer, is steadily growing in the first nine months. Chinese SME exporters are actively expanding new channels and customers, while strengthening their technical level and service capability, gaining awareness and advantages in international competition, according to the report.

Since September, the export of electric heating equipment has grown rapidly to the European market, which is a major hot spot in the foreign trade industry. As the weather turns cooler, the order volume is expected to continue growing.

Meanwhile, new energy car and component export volumes have been growing in 2022, the report said.

The top regions for China's SME collection volumes are North America, Europe Union and ASEAN, also with rapidly growing volumes in Africa and Latin America, according to XTransfer.

"This reflects the increasing number of trade partners of Chinese SME foreign trade enterprises and the further optimization of the layout of overseas markets," said XTransfer in a report.

The situation will probably turn better in the fourth quarter, a traditional peak shopping season, it said.