The Zhitong Finance App learned that on October 21, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Notice on Launching the Construction of Specialized, Special and New Empowerment Centers”. The notice mentioned that during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, according to the “pilot first, then promotion” model, a number of specialized, special and new empowerment centers were built throughout the country to form a specialized, special and new enabling network covering key areas and covering the whole country, fill up the shortcomings of high-energy technological innovation services for small and medium-sized enterprises, raise the level of guarantee of innovative resource factors, accelerate the innovation capacity, core competitiveness and industrial chain support capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises, and promote the emergence of specialized, innovative “little giant” enterprises continued to emerge to develop new productivity and expand advanced manufacturing, building a modern industrial system Providing strong support. The Specialized, Special and New Empowerment Center is positioned as a technology innovation service agency focusing on full-process technological innovation services and empowering small and medium-sized enterprises to specialize in special and new development. It emphasizes service professionalism, highlights “small cuts”, and reflects a “high energy level”. It can promote construction by building new or integrating and optimizing existing institutions. It does not directly and simply list existing institutions to prevent “re-listing and light effectiveness”.
The original text is as follows:
Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on carrying out the construction of specialized, special and new enabling centers
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Enterprise Letter (2026) No. 350
The competent departments of small and medium-sized enterprises in each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government and planned separate municipalities, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:
In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council to promote the high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises, establish a mechanism to promote the development and growth of specialized, special and new small and medium-sized enterprises, and build a number of specialized, special and new empowering centers according to local conditions around the specialized, special and new development needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. The relevant work notice is as follows:
I. Construction goals
Guided by Xi Jinping's ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, thoroughly implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress and the 20th Plenary Session of the Party, focusing on promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and strengthening the dominant position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, a number of specialized, special and new empowerment centers were built throughout the country according to the “pilot first, then promote” model to form a specialized, special and new enabling network covering key areas and covering the whole country to make up the shortcomings of high-energy technological innovation services for small and medium-sized enterprises, raise the level of innovation resource factor guarantee and accelerate the improvement of the innovation capacity and core industrial chain of small and medium-sized enterprises Supporting capabilities promote a marked improvement in the quality of specialized and innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the continuous emergence of specialized and innovative “little giant” enterprises, providing strong support for developing new quality productivity, expanding advanced manufacturing, and building a modern industrial system.
II. Construction Requirements
The Specialized, Special and New Empowerment Center is positioned as a technology innovation service agency focusing on full-process technological innovation services and empowering small and medium-sized enterprises to specialize in special and new development. It emphasizes service professionalism, highlights “small cuts”, and reflects a “high energy level”. It can promote construction by building new or integrating and optimizing existing institutions. It does not directly and simply list existing institutions to prevent “re-listing and light effectiveness”.
The construction of specialized, innovative and empowering centers should adhere to the following principles: First, focus on demand. All service content, resource connection direction, and collaborative research topics are based on the actual needs of small and medium-sized enterprises to specialize in new development, target the real technical pain points and innovation shortcomings of the enterprise, so that the enterprise “wants what it wants to do its best”, so that “how is the service” judged by the enterprise. The second is professional empowerment. Focus closely on expertise, special and new empowerment, focus on technological innovation and hard services, and form specialized teams to become “innovation partners” that small and medium-sized enterprises can rely on for specialized, special and new development, and provide full-chain, high-energy, and specialized innovation services. The third is coordination and linkage. Fully integrate and utilize existing innovation resources, promote the accurate flow and efficient allocation of innovative elements to enterprises, and construct a “government, industry, academia, research and investment fund” collaborative innovation pattern. Empowering centers in various fields are connected into a network to form a national specialized, special and new empowerment network to enhance the accessibility, efficiency and accuracy of technical services. Fourth, institutional innovation. Implement the “provincial as the main focus, joint construction between ministries and provinces” model, give full play to local initiative and creativity, rely on local industrial infrastructure and resource endowments, and pilot policy support, operation mechanisms, and service models to form a construction experience that can be replicated and promoted. Set up a technical committee led by specialized small and medium-sized enterprises to put forward the content of requirements, coordinate resource selection and evaluate service effectiveness, and ensure that the services of the Empowerment Center are always in line with the actual needs of small and medium-sized enterprises specializing in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. The fifth is continuous operation. Implement preparation and acceptance, annual performance evaluation, dynamic adjustment and full-cycle management, explore and implement a “public benefit+market-based” two-wheel drive operation model, and basic public services are purchased or subsidized by the government.
Encourage local communities to adapt to local conditions and pragmatically explore the construction of specialized, special and new enabling centers. The construction includes, but is not limited to, the following aspects: First, coordination and gathering innovative elements. The Empowerment Center should play a central role in resources, and the system should integrate and connect with high-end innovative elements. Establish a normalized cooperation mechanism with innovative resources such as national laboratories, major science and technology infrastructure, manufacturing innovation centers, pilot testing platforms, public service platforms, and inspection and testing institutions. Expand cooperation channels with internationally renowned R&D institutions, intellectual property organizations, standardization organizations, and technology transfer agencies to help enterprises connect with innovation resources at home and abroad. Precisely connect with leading and high-level technical talents in this field. Establish a normalized docking mechanism with financial institutions such as leading industrial funds, venture capital funds, banks and insurance. The second is to deeply support technological innovation. Focusing on the technical research needs of specialized, special and new SMEs, we provide systematic support for benchmarking international advanced standards. Organize “industry questions, science and technology answers” to solve problems where enterprises struggle alone and find it difficult to penetrate the whole chain of innovation. Organize key common technology research with enterprises as the lead, focus on the “stuck neck” technology links of enterprises, build a conditional environment for technological innovation, form innovation consortia for large, medium, and small enterprises, coordinate industry-university-research forces, promote collaboration among different R&D entities, attack new technologies, develop new products, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The third is scientific and technological intelligence and technical consultation. Track cutting-edge technology trends and development trends at home and abroad in this field, provide enterprises with timely innovation trend research and judgment, technical warning, patent and standard analysis services, and provide intelligence support for enterprise technological innovation decisions. Provide technical advice such as technical route verification, technical problem solving, intellectual property layout, standard preparation and promotion, etc., to help enterprises identify innovation tracks, avoid technological risks, and build technical barriers. Establish an early warning mechanism for intellectual property risks to prevent infringement risks. Fourth, digital intelligence and green transformation services. Encourage scenario-based and mapping to promote the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises in segmented industries, make full use of service resources such as manufacturing digital transformation promotion centers, industrial Internet platforms, and public service platforms for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises to systematically cultivate scenario-oriented digital intelligence toolboxes and solution resource pools, guide the accurate connection between supply and demand, and reduce the cost of digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises. Strengthen the empowerment of data elements, explore effective paths and innovative models for industrial data collection, collection and use, and provide enterprises with high-quality data resources. Facing the green transformation needs of enterprises, we carry out services such as green design, green diagnosis, green transformation, and green finance to help enterprises raise the level of green manufacturing and effectively deal with green trade barriers. Fifth, industrial chain integration and international cooperation. Organize supply and demand connections and scenarios in the industrial chain to help specialized, special and medium-sized enterprises enter the industrial chain innovation chain. Give full play to the role of large enterprises and leading enterprises, and organize specialized small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in testing new technologies and new product scenarios. Build a platform for international industrial cooperation, organize enterprises to participate in international exhibitions and technical exchanges, and connect with global market resources. Assist enterprises to deal with international technical trade barriers and provide compliance consulting and certification services.
III. Work procedures
(1) Carrying out declarations. Each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government and planned separate municipalities, and the competent departments of small and medium-sized enterprises of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (collectively referred to as provincial SME authorities) take the lead in formulating construction plans, which are approved by the provincial people's governments and then reported to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In principle, the Empowerment Center focuses on no more than 2 areas (the number of small and medium-sized enterprises specializing in this field should rank among the highest in the country, with one sub-plan for each field). The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organizes expert reviews, focusing on areas such as focus, industrial base, talent team, professional ability, resource integration ability, operational sustainability, and local policy support.
(2) Approve and prepare for construction. After passing the review, construction is carried out under the name of “Specialized, Special and New Empowerment Center (planning)”. In principle, the preparation period is 1 year. The Small and Medium Enterprises Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments and bureaus, is strengthening preparation guidance and promotion. Institutions prepared or officially certified without the approval of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shall not carry out publicity and services under the name of a “Specialized, Special and New Empowerment Center”.
(3) Organizational acceptance. At the end of the preparation period, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in conjunction with the provincial people's government, organized and carried out inspections, mainly focusing on organizational mechanisms, team building, system building, resource integration, service effectiveness, enterprise evaluation, etc., and those that meet the inspection standards were officially awarded the “Specialized, Special and New Empowerment Center (Region+ Field)”. The area in the name is a symbol of the construction site. It is not used as a geographical limitation for services. It supports the Empowerment Center to carry out cross-regional technological innovation services for the whole country around the segmented areas it focuses on.
(4) Dynamic evaluation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organizes an evaluation of the Empowerment Center every year, mainly on aspects such as the degree of matching enterprise technology needs, enterprise service coverage, resource docking efficiency, enterprise development effectiveness, and enterprise satisfaction. Outstanding results are encouraged and promoted, yellow card warnings and rectification requirements are put forward for unsuccessful evaluations, and those that fail evaluations for two consecutive years are adjusted and withdrawn.
(5) Support guarantee. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is coordinating the construction of a national network of specialized, special and new enabling centers to promote exchange, learning and resource sharing, and support affiliated universities, manufacturing innovation centers, pilot platforms, etc. to collaborate and connect with the Empowerment Center. Provincial departments in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises are responsible for the organization and implementation of the Empowerment Center, coordination of resources, guidance on daily work, and introduction of relevant support policies.
IV. Others
Provincial SME authorities prepare a “Specialized and New Empowerment Center (Region+ Field) Construction Plan” according to local conditions, taking into account actual regional voluntary declarations. The “Construction Plan” shall include and not be limited to the project overview, construction foundation and advantages, overall construction ideas and goals, core construction content and main tasks, a list of innovative services that can be provided, operation management mechanisms, implementation schedule, operation service team building, guarantee measures, expected results, etc., and related supporting materials. Please report the “Construction Plan” to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (SME Administration) by 31 December.
This article was selected from the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Zhitong Finance Editor: Chen Siyu.