As prelude to the China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair, which opens here today, the Guangdong Provincial SME Growth Summit Forum and a conference on the first report of the growth of industrial small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Guangdong Province were held on Tuesday.

The events were jointly sponsored by the Guangdong Small and Medium Enterprises Bureau, Nanfang Daily, Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau and Guangdong Provincial Small and Medium Enterprises Research and Consultation Centre.

The conference and forum are expected to play an active role in accelerating the development of SMEs in the province and boosting the implementation of the nation's SME growth program in the province, said Lin Ying, deputy secretary-general of Guangdong provincial government, on behalf of Tong Xing, vice-governor of Guangdong.

"The research indicates that Guangdong is among the provinces and regions that have the largest number of growing SMEs and their industrial added value, assets, sales revenues, profits, after-tax profits and employee numbers were much higher than the average of the nation from 2001 to 2004," he said.

"That speaks voluminously for the fact that the provincial authorities' strategy is correct and the policies are feasible as well as effective."

Liu Huanquan, deputy director-general of Guangdong Provincial Economy and Trade Commission and head of Guangdong SME Bureau, said that he expected the events to call upon financial institutions, credit guarantee agencies, social service institutions, professional training institutions, as well as all social circles to pay attention to and support the growth of SMEs and to build up a good environment for the growth of SMEs in the province.

And Yang Xingfeng, editor-in-chief of Nanfang Daily, said the events would serve as a platform for brainstorming among experts and businesspeople for the future development of SMEs in Guangdong.

According to the evaluation report of growing industrial SMEs in Guangdong Province, which was released on Tuesday, growing industrial SMEs have become an important force driving the economic development of Guangdong Province and their scale has been steadily expanding.

SMEs involved in the industries of beverage production, telecom, IT and electronic equipment manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, agricultural by-product processing, medicine making, chemical raw material and chemicals have big scales, as means that the province has comparative advantages and competitiveness in the sectors.

The report said that the Pearl River Delta is the most favorable destination in Guangdong for most of the industrial SMEs, followed by the eastern region of the province.

Of the province's top 500 SMEs, 116 are in Guangzhou, 63 in Foshan, 62 in Shenzhen, 41 in Dongguan, 37 in Jiangmen, 35 in Zhongshan all the cities are situated in the Pearl River Delta region and 31 in Shantou in the eastern region of the province.

The province began the evaluation research in early 2004 and a joint task group was set up among the provincial statistics bureau, SME bureau and the provincial SME research and consultation centre in December 2004.