Staff members work at a workshop of a manufacturing company in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Feb 7, 2022. Photo:Xinhua

The 2022 national conference on the development of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that produce novel and unique products opened in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province on the morning of September 8.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, president of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a letter to extend warm congratulations.

In his congratulatory letter, Xi pointed out that SMEs are important to each household and have been a vital force to advance innovation, facilitate employment and improve people's livelihood. He hoped the specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce novel and unique products could focus on and refine their main business so as to play an even more important role in stabilizing the industrial and supply chains and promoting economic and social development.

Xi also urged Party committees and governments at all levels to resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and create a favorable environment for the development of SMEs. He required more efforts to support SMEs' growth and boost their confidence. Solid steps should be taken to advance enterprises' innovation, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and nurture more specialized and sophisticated SMEs that could produce novel and unique products.

Vice Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony via video link, and read aloud the congratulatory message.

The conference, with the theme "strengthen the foundation and consolidate the chain," is co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Jiangsu Provincial People's Government.

Leading officials of relevant departments of the central government and leading officials of Jiangsu provincial government, officials in charge of SMEs affairs from provincial-level bureaus, and representatives of specialized and sophisticated SMEs attended the meeting.