In order to fully understand the general situation of development environment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Gansu Province, and promote its healthy and high-quality growth, LUSM, together with China Research Center for Government Performance Management, will launch “The Evaluation Project on Development Environment for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Gansu Province” (hereafter as the Project) recently. The Project was required by CPC Gansu Provincial Committee and Provincial Government, and entrusted by the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology. The core team, by gathering experts from various research fields as government performance management public finance, enterprise strategy, financial management, economic law, and so on, would initiate the comprehensive evaluation in 14 cities (autonomous prefectures), Lanzhou New Area, and 86 counties (districts), based on the long-term accumulation of theoretical research, achievements, and experiences by LUSM, China Research Center for Government Performance Management, as well as the LZU Research Center for Enterprise Innovation. Prof. He Wensheng, the Dean of LUSM, would be the Project PI, and Prof. Bao Guoxian as the academic counsellor.

SMEs, the main force of our national economic growth and social development, are not only critical to creating jobs, improving people’s livelihood, and promoting entrepreneurship and innovation, but also vital to stabilizing growth, promoting reforms, adjusting structure, and preventing risks. For the past few years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached significant priority to the SMEs development with a series of supporting policies on fiscal finance, taxation, business environment, public service, etc., all proved to work well. The Gansu provincial government, in response to the call from the central government, has introduced several measures to improve the SMEs development environment.

The Project will carry out the evaluation from 8 aspects—such as business environment and policy environment— with the purpose of getting a full view of the implementation of central and local related policies, recognizing the real challenges and prominent problems for SMEs, providing targeted and feasible solutions under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, and promoting the continuous efforts to be made in improving the SMEs’ development environment. 

It is the second time for LUSM to take on major provincial-wide project, after “The Evaluation Project on Government Performance by Non-public Enterprises in Gansu Province” from 2004 to 2006. The current Project could fully demonstrate LSUM’s upgrading ability to serve society with academic research, and will definitely exert importance on the integration of discipline construction, research on government performance, and social service.

LUSM has undertaken more than a hundred projects on various levels from government organs to enterprise sectors, and generated a series of research reports as well as policy proposals with academic and applied values to the development of local economy and society. With these efforts, LUSM has already formed its own “brand” in the aspect of driving social service by scientific research. The Project, as a new carrier to connect the school and the local government, will be a new model to intensify the cooperative relationship between universities and governments.