China is developing a group of leading small and medium-sized enterprises to fuel the rapid growth of the national economy.

"It has been unanimously agreed in different countries that SMEs can serve as an important engine to stimulate the world's economic recovery," said Liang Zhifeng, director of the SME department under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

SMEs have played an irreplaceable role in increasing employment, propelling economic growth and scientific innovation, and promoting social stability, he noted at a news conference in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Tuesday.

One of the country's most important fairs for SMEs kicked off today in the city.

Liang's ministry, one of the organizers of the 17th China International SMEs Fair, had launched a program back in 2018 named "little giant" to nurture and discover a group of SME leaders. Each must possess special technologies, fine products and techniques, unique products or services, or innovation in technology or production models.

So far the program has recognized nearly 5,000 such little giant SMEs and has inspired the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of China to launch similar plans.

Another 40,000 SMEs have reached provincial requirements while no less than 110,000 have been nurtured, said Liang.

The ministry plans to grow an additional 10,000 little giants in the next three to five years, which will help to hatch around 1 million burgeoning SMEs, he said. The plan will also foster 1,000 SMEs that are champions in a single category of the manufacturing industry.

The ministry has set up a fund especially for SMEs to increase their innovational input and it launched other incentive policies to solve the problems for the SMEs in terms of finance, talent, market and information, Liang noted. The fair has been working as an important platform for SMEs around the world to become stronger and bigger, said Tu Gaokun, director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong.

Nearly 50,000 exhibitors, including 10,000 from abroad, have participated in 16 sessions of the fair since 2004. Intended agreements signed at the fair are valued at 800 billion yuan ($124.2 billion) accumulatively, according to the organizing committee.

The fair organizers also invited a group of industrial leaders, including 17 of the world's top 500 companies such as Huawei Technology, Alibaba, Gree, SAP and Philips to exhibit, Tu said.

He added that they can provide opportunities to SMEs to participate in their production chains, value chains and supply chains.

The fair will also debut more than 20 new products of the SMEs for better exposure to the global market.

"We promoted six products in the 16th session of the fair, some of which were initially unknown but they turned out to be hotly pursued in the domestic and global markets," Tu said.

Guangdong attaches importance to the development of SMEs, which have contributed to more than half of total investment in the province, 55 percent of its gross domestic product and 60 percent of its taxes, according to official figures.

Executives share their views at the China SME Summit in Guangzhou in 2019. CHINA DAILY

Visitors look at products displayed during the event. CHINA DAILY