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Chinese tech firms pledge more help for street stalls, small vendors after premier’s comments
- Premier Li Keqiang says the Chinese government will provide more support for street stalls and small businesses as they are the “fire” of China’s economy
- Tech platforms like WeChat and JD.com responded to Li’s comments by announcing new initiatives to help smaller retailers
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Major tech platforms – including Tencent Holding’s ubiquitous app WeChat, mobile payments platform Alipay and e-commerce platforms JD.com and Suning – announced new plans to help street vendors and smaller retailers recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic after Premier Li Keqiang described small businesses as the driving force behind China’s economy.
On Monday, Li said the Chinese government will provide more support for street stalls and small businesses as they are an important source of jobs and the “fire” of China’s economy.
The country can only develop well if its people are living well, Li said while visiting street vendors in the city of Yantai in east China’s Shandong province, according to a post on the Chinese Central Government’s official website.
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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which account for more than 90 per cent of enterprises in the country, are the backbone of China’s economy. Collectively, they contribute to about half of all tax revenue, more than 60 per cent of gross domestic product and account for over 80 per cent of urban employment, according to China’s central government.
But they were also among those that suffered most from production disruptions and lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. With more barriers to obtaining credit than larger businesses, many thousand SMEs are thought to have gone bust during the lockdown in January and February.
While tech platforms had already previously introduced some measures to support local SMEs, Li’s reiteration of the government’s support for small retailers on Monday sparked a new wave of responses from industry giants.
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