The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published a notice on its official website on October 21 titled "Notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Carrying Out the Construction of Specialized and Sophisticated Empowerment Centers" (MIIT Enterprise Letter No. 350 of 2026). The notice states that, in order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on promoting the high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), establish a mechanism for promoting the growth and expansion of specialized and sophisticated SMEs, and address the development needs of SMEs pursuing specialized and sophisticated development, a batch of specialized and sophisticated empowerment centers will be built tailored to local conditions.
Construction Goals
During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, following a model of "piloting first, then scaling up," a batch of specialized and sophisticated empowerment centers will be established nationwide, forming an empowerment network that covers key fields and radiates across the country. This will shore up shortcomings in high-level technological innovation services for SMEs, raise the level of support for innovation resources and factors, accelerate the enhancement of SMEs' innovation capability, core competitiveness, and industrial chain supporting capacity, drive a marked improvement in the quality of SMEs' specialized and sophisticated development, and ensure that specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises continue to emerge, providing strong support for developing new quality productive forces, strengthening advanced manufacturing, and building a modern industrial system.
Construction Requirements
Specialized and sophisticated empowerment centers are positioned as technological innovation service institutions that focus on segmented fields, take full-process technological innovation services as their priority, and empower SMEs in their specialized and sophisticated development. They emphasize service professionalism, highlight a "small incision" approach, and embody "high-level" capabilities. They may be built through new establishment or by integrating and optimizing existing institutions; existing institutions should not simply be rebranded, in order to prevent "emphasizing rebranding while neglecting effectiveness."
The construction of specialized and sophisticated empowerment centers should adhere to the following principles: First, focus on demand. All service content, resource matching directions, and collaborative research topics should take the actual needs of SMEs' specialized and sophisticated development as the starting point, target the real technological pain points and innovation shortcomings of enterprises, strive to "give what enterprises need as much as possible," and let enterprises judge "how well the service is doing." Second, professional empowerment. Closely centering on specialized and sophisticated empowerment, focusing on hard technological innovation services, forming professional teams, and becoming a reliable "innovation partner" for SMEs' specialized and sophisticated development, providing full-chain, high-level, and professional innovation services. Third, collaborative synergy. Fully integrate and utilize existing innovation resources, promote the precise flow and efficient allocation of innovation factors to enterprises, and build a collaborative innovation pattern of "government, industry, academia, research, application, and finance." Empowerment centers in various fields will connect into a network, forming a national specialized and sophisticated empowerment network to enhance the accessibility, efficiency, and precision of technological services. Fourth, mechanism innovation. Implement a model of "province-led, ministry-province co-construction," fully leverage local initiative and creativity, rely on local industrial foundations and resource endowments, and pilot first in policy support, operating mechanisms, and service models to form replicable and scalable construction experience. Establish a technical committee led by specialized and sophisticated SMEs to propose demand content, coordinate resource selection, and evaluate service effectiveness, ensuring that empowerment center services always align with the actual needs of SMEs' specialized and sophisticated development. Fifth, sustained operation. Implement full-cycle management including preparation and acceptance, annual performance evaluation, and dynamic adjustment, explore a dual-driven operation model of "public welfare plus market-oriented," and basic public services shall be purchased or subsidized by the government.
Localities are encouraged to explore the construction of specialized and sophisticated empowerment centers tailored to local conditions and in a pragmatic manner. Construction content includes but is not limited to the following aspects: First, coordinate and gather innovation factors. Empowerment centers should play the role of a resource hub and systematically integrate and connect high-end innovation factors. Establish normalized cooperation mechanisms with innovation 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 institutions to help enterprises connect with domestic and overseas innovation resources. Precisely connect with leading and high-level technical talent in the field. Establish normalized connection mechanisms with leading industrial funds, venture capital funds, banks, insurance and other financial institutions. Second, deeply support technological innovation. Around the technological research needs of specialized and sophisticated SMEs, provide systematic support benchmarked against international advanced levels. Organize "industry poses the question, science and technology answers," to solve the problem of enterprises fighting alone and being unable to connect the entire innovation chain. Organize key generic technology research with enterprises as the lead, focus on enterprises' "bottleneck" technology links, build the conditions and environment for technological innovation, form innovation consortia of large, medium, and small enterprises, coordinate industry-academia-research forces, promote collaborative interaction among different R&D entities, tackle new technologies, develop new products, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Third, science and technology intelligence and technical consulting. Track domestic and international frontier technology trends and development trends in the field, timely provide enterprises with innovation trend analysis, technology early warning, patent and standard analysis services, and provide intelligence support for enterprises' technological innovation decisions. Provide technical consulting such as technical route demonstration, technical problem tackling, intellectual property layout, standard drafting and dissemination, help enterprises identify innovation tracks, avoid technical risks, and build technical barriers. Establish an intellectual property risk early warning mechanism to prevent infringement risks. Fourth, digital, intelligent, and green transformation services. Encourage scenario-based and map-based promotion of digital and intelligent transformation of SMEs in segmented industries, make full use of service resources such as manufacturing digital transformation promotion centers, industrial internet platforms, and SME digital and intelligent transformation public service platforms, systematically cultivate scenario-oriented digital and intelligent toolboxes and solution resource pools, guide precise matching of supply and demand, and reduce the cost of enterprises' digital and intelligent transformation. Strengthen data factor empowerment, explore effective paths and innovative models for industrial data collection, aggregation, and use, and provide enterprises with high-quality data resources. Facing enterprises' green transformation needs, carry out services such as green design, green diagnosis, green transformation, and green finance, help enterprises improve green manufacturing levels, and effectively respond to green trade barriers. Fifth, industrial chain integration and international cooperation. Organize industrial chain supply-demand matching and scenario matching, help specialized and sophisticated SMEs enter the industrial chain and innovation chain. Give play to the role of large enterprises and leading enterprises, and organize specialized and sophisticated SMEs to participate in scenario testing of new technologies and new products. Build international industrial cooperation platforms, organize enterprises to participate in international exhibitions and technical exchange meetings, and connect with global market resources. Assist enterprises in responding to international technical trade barriers and provide compliance consulting and certification services.
Work Procedures
(1) Application. The competent departments for SMEs of each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government, city under separate state planning, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (collectively referred to as provincial SME competent departments) shall take the lead in formulating construction plans, which shall be submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology after approval by the provincial people's government. Empowerment centers shall focus on no more than 2 fields in principle (the number of specialized and sophisticated SMEs in the field should rank among the top in the country, with one sub-plan for each field). The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shall organize expert review, focusing on field focus, industrial foundation, talent team, professional capability, resource integration capability, operational sustainability, and local policy support. (2) Approval for preparation. After passing the review, construction shall be carried out under the name of "Specialized and Sophisticated Empowerment Center (in preparation)," with a preparation period of generally 1 year. The SME Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments and bureaus, shall strengthen guidance and assistance during preparation. Institutions that have not been approved for preparation or formally recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shall not conduct publicity or services under the name of "Specialized and Sophisticated Empowerment Center." (3) Organization of acceptance. Upon expiration of the preparation period, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the provincial people's government, shall organize acceptance, mainly focusing on organizational mechanisms, team building, institutional development, resource integration, service effectiveness, and enterprise evaluation. Those meeting acceptance standards shall be formally awarded the title "Specialized and Sophisticated Empowerment Center (Region + Field)." The region in the name is an identifier of the construction location and shall not serve as a service area restriction. Empowerment centers are supported in carrying out cross-regional technological innovation services nationwide around the segmented fields they focus on. (4) Dynamic evaluation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shall organize annual evaluations of empowerment centers, mainly evaluating aspects such as matching degree of enterprise technological needs, enterprise service coverage rate, resource matching efficiency, enterprise cultivation effectiveness, and enterprise satisfaction. Those with outstanding results shall be incentivized and promoted; those failing evaluation shall receive a yellow card warning and rectification requirements; those failing evaluation for two consecutive years shall be adjusted and withdrawn. (5) Support and safeguards. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shall coordinate the construction of a national specialized and sophisticated empowerment center network, promote exchange, learning, and resource sharing, and support ministry-affiliated universities as well as manufacturing innovation centers and pilot testing platforms in coordinating and connecting with empowerment centers. Provincial SME competent departments shall be responsible for the organization and implementation, resource coordination, daily work guidance, and introduction of relevant support policies for empowerment centers. Other provincial SME competent departments may voluntarily apply based on regional realities and prepare a "Construction Plan for Specialized and Sophisticated Empowerment Center (Region + Field)" tailored to local conditions. The "Construction Plan" should include but not be limited to project overview, construction foundation and advantageous conditions, overall construction ideas and goals, core construction content and main tasks, list of innovation services that can be provided, operation and management mechanisms, implementation schedule, operation service team building, safeguard measures, expected results, and related supporting materials. The "Construction Plan" shall be submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (SME Bureau) before December 31.
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