China:Little Giant and Great Vitality
  • 2022-04-27
  • Entrepreneurship Research Center on G20 Economies
  • Edit
  • At present, China has cultivated 4,762 state-level SDRI (specialized, refinement, differential, and innovation) “Little Giant” enterprises, and driven more than 40,000 provincial-level “specialized and innovative” SMEs. From the perspective of SDRI “Little Giant” enterprises, over 50% of R&D investment is above 10 million yuan, of which more than 60% are from industrial basic fields, and more than 70% have been deeply involved in the industry for more than 10 years. SDRI “Little Giant” enterprises have strong innovation ability and sufficient development resilience. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology tracked more than 1,000 “Little Giant” enterprises, showing that from January to September 2021, the operating income and total profit of “Little Giant” enterprises increased by 31.6% and 67.9% respectively, which were 8.8 and 35.4 percentage points higher than the growth rate of operating income and total profit of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises above designated size. Among the 4,762 SDRI “Little Giant” enterprises, 296 have been listed in the A-share market. In terms of industry classification, specialized and special new listed companies cover 18 first-class industries. Among them, there are 76 companies in the machinery and equipment industry, 48 in the chemical industry, 34 in the pharmaceutical and biological industry, 28 in the electronic industry, and 22 in the electrical equipment industry. A total of 208 companies in these five industries are on the list, accounting for more than 70%. By registration place, SDRI companies cover 27 provinces and cities in China. Among them, 56 companies in Jiangsu are on the list, ranking first. Guangdong followed closely with 39 companies, while Shanghai and Zhejiang had 26 companies and 25 companies respectively, ranking third and fourth respectively. A total of 146 companies from these four economically developed coastal provinces and cities were selected, accounting for 49%, nearly half. 

    Little Giant enterprises emphasize “SRDI”; S represents specialized, R refinement, D differential, and I innovation. In 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology first proposed “SRDI” as an important way for the transformation and upgrading of SMEs. In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Notice on Cultivating SDRI “Little Giant” Enterprises, which made strict requirements on the application conditions from key areas, degree of specialization and innovation ability.

    It is generally recognized in China that SMEs perform well, and China’s economy will be better. Nowadays, increasingly more SDRI SMEs stand out and stand up bravely, whether they are medical equipment and smart homes that adapt to consumption upgrading, or precision components and wireless security that serve super-large projects. Although these enterprises are small in scale, they have their own “specialty” and “flagship products”, and many of them are “individual champions” or “supporting experts” in the industry, even outstanding in the world. The essence of encouraging “SDRI” is to encourage innovation. Innovation is the soul of “SDRI” and its most distinctive feature.





  • Partners

  • Global Health Innovation Center (GHIC)
  • World Intelligent Incubation Network (WIIN)
  • National University of Singapore
  • Canada-China Institute For Business & Development
  • TusPark Research Institute for Innovation
  • Cross-strait Tsinghua Research Institute
  • Tsinghua X-Lab

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