Two departments: In 2025, about 34 cities will be selected to carry out the third batch of pilot projects for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on May 9, the General Office of the Ministry of Finance and the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on completing the pilot work for the digital transformation city of small and medium-sized enterprises in 2025. In 2025, about 34 cities will be selected to carry out the third batch of pilot work. The pilot cities should be prefecture-level cities and above, including provincial capitals of each province (district), other prefecture-level cities, and districts and counties directly under the Central Government. Cities that have already been included in the scope of the first two batches of pilots must not make repeated declarations. The implementation period for the third batch of urban pilots is two years, and calculation starts from the date of approval of the implementation plan.

The notice mentioned focusing on key industries. Pilot cities should insist on promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and promoting strategic emerging industries and future industrial development, and carry out digital transformation pilot projects in key manufacturing industries such as computer and communication electronic equipment manufacturing, general and special equipment manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, etc. The selected industry segments should conform to the national regional strategic development plan and industry orientation, reflect their own industrial base and characteristic advantages, and have the characteristics of large output value, high concentration of small and medium-sized enterprises, deep transformation potential, and obvious improvement in efficiency after transformation to avoid dispersion. It is necessary to combine the characteristics of different industries, thoroughly sort out the common transformation needs of the industry, and promote the digital transformation of pilot enterprises in a hierarchical manner.

The original text is as follows:

Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Finance and the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on completing the pilot work for the digital transformation city of small and medium-sized enterprises in 2025

Finance Office Construction [2025] No. 20

Finance departments (bureaus) of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and departments in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises:

In order to thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and increase support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, in accordance with the requirements of the “Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Launching Pilot Work for Small and Medium Enterprises Digital Transformation Cities” (Finance (2023) No. 117, hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), matters relating to the 2025 SME digital transformation city pilot application process are as follows:

I. General Requirements

Adhere to Xi Jinping's ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress and the Second and Third Plenums of the 20th CPC Central Committee, implement the relevant requirements of the government work report in accordance with the Central Economic Work Conference, thoroughly implement the “Special Action Plan for Digital Empowerment of Small and Medium Enterprises (2024)” (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (2024) No. 239), and solidly carry out pilot work on the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises to give full play to the main role of enterprise innovation, promote the development of new quality productivity, and accelerate new industrialization.

II. Key tasks

(1) Focus on enterprise needs and highlight the effectiveness of transformation. Accurately grasp the actual digital transformation needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, analyze the deep-seated reasons for “unwilling, afraid to change, and unable to transfer”, and target measures to push SMEs to carry out in-depth transformation around key aspects such as R&D and production. The digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises should be used as a key measure to help enterprises relieve and enhance their competitiveness, help enterprises achieve value improvement in innovation, market, quality improvement, cost reduction, efficiency, green, safety, etc., and effectively enhance the sense of acquisition and competitiveness of enterprises.

(2) Supply and demand work in both directions to strengthen professional supply. Guided by the digital transformation needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, the focus is on selecting and cultivating a group of service providers who understand both the industry and digitalization, developing a number of “small, quick and accurate” solutions with strong industry attributes and excellent empowering effects, and market-based and normalization to support small and medium-sized enterprises in segmented industries to carry out high-quality digital transformation.

(3) Encourage exploration and innovation, and strengthen path leadership. Using pilot work as an opportunity, the focus is on encouraging and supporting the exploration and application of new technologies and elements such as artificial intelligence and data elements, as well as new models such as “chain” transformation and cluster park transformation, in small and medium-sized enterprises, fully verifying viable paths for empowering small and medium-sized enterprises to improve quality and efficiency with real industrial scenarios, and systematically discover a number of innovative practices that are well suited to scenarios and have high enabling value.

(4) Strengthen institutional innovation and consolidate factor guarantees. Based on their unique advantages, pilot cities are encouraged to explore new work paths and methods according to local conditions around organizational leadership, policy collaboration, financial support, service supply, etc., to form a number of innovative initiatives that are pragmatic and practical, accurately adapted, and have distinct local characteristics, further strengthen the guarantee of the digital transformation factors of small and medium-sized enterprises such as talent, capital, and data, and form a long-term mechanism.

(5) Strengthen experience summary and continuously optimize initiatives. Provincial authorities should establish and improve dynamic tracking and experience summary mechanisms for the pilot work, promote pilot cities to strengthen mutual learning and mutual learning, regularly sort out and thoroughly analyze the successful experiences, innovation models, and difficulties and challenges encountered in the first two batches of pilot promotion, form a closed loop of “practice-summary-feedback-optimization” work, promptly apply the summed experience to the optimization and improvement of subsequent work arrangements and policy initiatives, and continuously improve the pertinence and timeliness of the pilot work.

III. Eligibility

In 2025, about 34 cities will be selected to carry out the third batch of pilot work. The pilot cities should be prefecture-level cities and above, including provincial capitals of each province (district), other prefecture-level cities, and districts and counties directly under the Central Government. Cities that have already been included in the scope of the first two batches of pilots must not make repeated declarations. The implementation period for the third batch of urban pilots is two years, and calculation starts from the date of approval of the implementation plan.

IV. Job Requirements

(1) Focus on key industries. Pilot cities should insist on promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and promoting strategic emerging industries and future industrial development, and select specific segments to carry out digital transformation pilot projects in key manufacturing industries such as computer and communication electronic equipment manufacturing, general and special equipment manufacturing, and automobile manufacturing (see Annex 2). The selected industry segments should conform to the national regional strategic development plan and industry orientation, reflect their own industrial base and characteristic advantages, and have the characteristics of large output value, high concentration of small and medium-sized enterprises, deep transformation potential, and obvious improvement in efficiency after transformation, so as to avoid dispersion. It is necessary to combine the characteristics of different industries, thoroughly sort out the common transformation needs of the industry, and promote the digital transformation of pilot enterprises in a hierarchical manner.

(2) Focus on key enterprises. Among the identified industry segments, pilot cities should select small and medium-sized enterprises at key links in the industrial chain as the key targets of this digital transformation, and priority should be given to including specialized and new SMEs and industrial SMEs above scale (hereinafter referred to as regulations) in the scope of transformation. The focus is on promoting enterprises to carry out deep digital transformation of key business links such as production processes, product life cycles, and industrial chain supply chains, and promote data collection, scenario integration, and system interconnection. Promote the application of artificial intelligence models, big data, blockchain and other technologies in R&D and design, visual quality inspection, parameter optimization, energy consumption management, and intelligent sorting according to local conditions. The number of transformed enterprises and the level of digitalization to be achieved in pilot cities in each region are implemented in accordance with the “Notice”.

(3) Expand replication and promotion. Pilot cities should select a number of pilot enterprises with good basic conditions, outstanding transformation results, high input-output ratio, and strong replicability as transformation models to guide enterprises in the same industry to “learn from the same example.” It is necessary to promote service providers to focus on specialization and new development in industry segments, create a number of “small, quick and easy” digital technology products and solutions that are highly adapted to the transformation needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in the segmented industry, summarize specialized transformation paths for segmented industries, and strengthen publicity and promotion. At the end of the implementation period, it is necessary to achieve “thorough reform” for specialized and new SMEs and industrial small and medium-sized enterprises according to industry segments (the proportion of provincial specialized and new SMEs and regulated industrial SMEs in each industry segment should reach level 2 or above, and the digital level of national-level specialized and innovative “little giant” enterprises should reach level 2 or above); industrial SMEs below scale (the proportion of industrial SMEs at level 2 and above should be significantly increased under regulations). The selection and management of pilot enterprises and service providers in pilot cities should treat all types of ownership equally, compete fairly, and be fully open.

5. Organization Report

The province (district, city) that has declared the pilot city shall select the pilot city to be declared on merit by the provincial finance department in conjunction with the competent departments of small and medium-sized enterprises at the same level, and submit letters of recommendation to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter collectively referred to as the two departments).

In order to further support major economic provinces to take the lead, make better use of their driving and pillar role, and strengthen support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, by the end of 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of industrial SMEs exceeds 15,000 (including 12 provinces including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Hebei). Other provinces (districts, cities) recommend at most 1 city.

Provincial finance departments and departments in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises at the same level should do a good job in organizing and recommending pilot cities. For cities that intend to apply for pilot projects, they should prepare pilot implementation plans for cities with digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises as required (see Annex 1 for the template), which must include the city's existing work base, work goals, specific implementation content, direction of use of funds, guarantee measures, division of responsibilities, etc. The implementation plan should fully summarize and analyze the practical experiences and problems of the first two pilot cities, clarify how to inherit effective practices and continuously optimize initiatives in this work, and improve the pertinence and feasibility of the plan. At the same time, cities that have already been included in the scope of the first two batches of pilot projects are required to report the progress of the implementation plans approved by the two departments, and will be used as a reference for the selection of the third batch of pilot cities. The above information will be submitted in duplicate by the provincial finance department and the SME competent department at the same level to the two departments by May 20, 2025, and the letter of recommendation with an official seal.

Related tasks such as allocation and use of funds, performance management, and organizational implementation will be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the “Notice”. All pilot cities need to strengthen the management of the use of central financial resources, resolutely put an end to “old wine in new bottles” such as packaging projects that have already been renovated into new projects during the pilot period, and strictly prevent counterfeiting, withholding and misappropriation, and all kinds of other illegal and illegal acts. The same renovation project must not be reapplied for different types of central financial resources. For the implementation process of the follow-up pilot work, please also refer to the latest edition of the “Small and Medium Enterprises Digital Transformation City Pilot Implementation Guide”.

General Office of the Ministry of Finance General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

May 7, 2025

This article was edited from the “Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's official website”; Zhitong Finance Editor: Li Fu.