Shanghai Municipal Special Fund for SME Development (2019 annual call, first batch)

The Shanghai Municipal Special Fund for SME Development is a programme launched in the past years and sponsored by the Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatisation.

It is exclusively directed to SMEs, and offers support in various forms such as financial assistance, grants, loan interest subsidies, discounted loans, etc. For the 2019 annual call (first batch), one category of projects in particular is attractive for foreign-invested SMEs:

Training Programme for SME Restructuring and Listing.

Benefits

One-time award of 250,000 RMB

Requirements

The eligibility requirements for the Training Programme for SME Restructuring and Listing are:

Joint-stock companies which have filed pre-listing coaching materials to the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau after 1 January 2020;
Already registered with the corresponding district-level commission, and included in the pre-listing coaching database.

Date of publication

9 January 2020

Deadline for submitting applications

3 February 2020

Applications are submitted through the web portal of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatisation. An official account should be created on the system in order to submit applications. Hard copy versions of the application materials should also be submitted to relevant district-level authorities.

International participation: opportunities and figures

Domestic and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) are equally eligible to apply as long as they comply with the requirements listed above.

According to the list of approved projects in 2018 and 2017, several foreign-invested SMEs are actively participating in the programme, with participation rates exceeding 10%. Although these mainly consisted of enterprises invested or incorporated in Hong Kong, Taiwan or off-shore jurisdictions, or founded by foreign nationals ethnic Chinese, a few instances of approved projects from joint ventures with European partners, or of wholly foreign-owned SMEs, was identified. More details in the link below.