Report Launch: Public Incentives for Tech SMEs: Examples from Zhejiang and Hangzhou

Government administrations in China at all levels, have been extremely active in establishing a wide range of incentives and funding instruments to support the growth of innovative and tech companies within their jurisdictions. These target different company development stages and cover all types of innovation activities, from research and development (R&D) to application, demonstration, and commercialisation, and also to technological upgrading achieved by purchasing new hardware/software. Though dominated by domestic actors, government incentives and funding instruments in China are also open to foreign-invested enterprises. Awareness of these opportunities, however, remains overall low. This report directly addresses this issue, thus aiming to increase the awareness and accessibility of European tech SMEs 1 to Chinese public resources.

This topic was addressed extensively in a new report formulated under the phase III of the EU SME Centre project [download it here]. This workshop will serve as a launch event for the report. At the same time, it will also bring in another speaker to present a concrete example and a case study of incentives and support offered to tech SMEs in Zhejiang province, Hangzhou municipality, and Gongshu district.

Agenda

16:00-16:10 EU SME Centre introduction – Alessio Petino, Knowledge Coordinator

16:10-16:40 Launch of the EU SME Centre report “Incentives, subsidies and funding for tech SMEs in China”. – Alessio Petino, Knowledge Coordinator, EU SME Centre

Key content covered:

• Market entry incentives: made available by local administrations to attract innovative international companies to settle in their jurisdiction.
• Status recognition: namely certain statuses that tech companies can be ‘recognised’ to hold for different purposes.
• Subsidies and rewards: offered ex post at all levels of administration for basically any type of innovation activity.
• Research grants: offered ex ante to support activities such as R&D, application, and demonstration in priority areas and topics specified in annual calls (年度申报指南) published on the websites of local departments of science and technology.
• Innovation vouchers: consisting of small lines of credit granted to micro, small and medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs to purchase, at discounted rates, specific services provided by local providers.

16:40-17:00 Case sharing of support policies from Zhejiang and Hangzhou. – Athena Wang

Key content covered:

• Overview of Zhejiang’s industrial focuses and relevant support policies during the 14th Five-year Plan
• Brief intro of the different districts in Hangzhou
• Landing support policy introduction, specific example of the “Canal Elite Programme” of Gongshu District
• Support from Sino-European Technology Innovation Cooperation (SETIC), a cooperation platform based in Hangzhou. Including: landing support, business development, and financing support, with concrete examples of ongoing projects

17:10-17:30 Q&A

About the speakers