"15th Five-Year Plan" Brings New Opportunities for Private Enterprises Going Global, Qingdao-Shanghai Collaboration, China-Thailand Securities Unveils Six Major Initiatives

China Securities Journal, March 15 (Reporter Lin Jian) The “14th Five-Year Plan” proposes to “strengthen the main role of enterprise technological innovation” and “expand high-level opening-up to the outside world,” providing broad opportunities for the development of private enterprises. Currently, local governments have launched a series of new implementation measures.

It has been learned that recently, the Qingdao Municipal Government, together with the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, and the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Pilot Zone Lingang New Area, held a special event on the globalization development of small and medium-sized enterprises. On one hand, this event marks the substantive stage of cooperation between Qingdao and Lingang New Area; on the other hand, it provides practical references for the national free trade pilot zones to collaboratively serve the internationalization of the private economy and build core competitiveness in high-level opening-up services for enterprises. Nearly 200 institutions and industry experts participated.

The high standard of this special event reflects its importance. It was organized by the Shandong Province Gazelle Enterprise Development Promotion Association, the Intelligent Investment Research Technology Alliance (ITL), and co-hosted by the Lingang New Area “Go Global” comprehensive service platform, “Qingqi Outbound” comprehensive service port, China Taiping Securities, China CITIC Bank, and others. Vice Mayor of Qingdao, Gao Jian; Yang Zhengwei, member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Lingang New Area; and Guo Zhendong, Director of Qingdao’s Private Economy Development Bureau, attended and delivered speeches. Guo Zhendong presided over the opening remarks.

Why does this event have practical reference value? The “14th Five-Year Plan” clearly states to expand international circulation through institutional opening-up, improve overseas comprehensive service systems, and guide enterprises to optimize their global market layout. Against this background, SMEs, as key players in the market economy, are increasingly internationalizing, which is an important driver for high-quality economic development. Regional coordination and resource integration are crucial ways to address the pain points of SMEs going abroad.

Moreover, the role of financial institutions such as Chinese investment banks has been highlighted. As one of the organizers, Feng Yidong, General Manager of China Taiping Securities, mentioned that the company will focus on the needs of Qingdao’s SMEs for globalization and continuously optimize their outbound service plans. He believes that promoting high-quality “going out” of Qingdao’s SMEs is significant. In the current complex market environment, it is necessary to gather the collaborative efforts of government, platforms, finance, and enterprises.

The event focused on core needs such as enterprise outbound, compliance management, brand building, and financing support, and at least two practical projects have been implemented: establishing the Qingdao branch of Lingang New Area’s “Go Global” comprehensive service platform and launching the “Qingqi Outbound” empowerment plan. In the long term, this will help form a complementary global service network for Lingang New Area and Qingdao’s local industry service system, enabling Qingdao SMEs to directly connect with national and even global professional outbound services.

Regional coordination creates a new model for private enterprise internationalization

The draft outline of the “14th Five-Year Plan” explicitly states to expand international circulation through institutional opening-up, improve overseas comprehensive service systems, and guide enterprises to optimize their global market layout. Under this background, SMEs, as vital market players, are naturally key to high-quality economic development. Facing many challenges in going abroad, what models can more efficiently solve these pain points? The answer lies in regional coordination and resource integration.

From a national perspective, the internationalization of SMEs is shifting from single product exports to a globalized industrial chain layout. The “14th Five-Year Plan” is a critical period for cultivating and developing SMEs, with internationalization becoming an important way for specialized, innovative, and high-tech enterprises to enhance core competitiveness. However, SMEs still face complex international market environments, strict compliance requirements, and diverse financing needs. The traditional mode of going abroad alone is no longer suitable for market changes; collaborative government-enterprise, regional linkage, and multi-party empowerment are becoming trends.

The SME outbound service system jointly built by Qingdao and Shanghai is a practical response to the new requirements for enterprise internationalization during the “14th Five-Year Plan.” The event integrated Lingang New Area’s institutional innovation advantages with Qingdao’s industrial foundation, achieving resource sharing and information exchange through dual-platform linkage, providing policy support, resource matching, risk prevention, and capacity building services throughout the entire process. This model offers a replicable and promotable example for other regions across the country to support SME internationalization.

As a major northern open port city, Qingdao boasts a large number of high-quality SMEs such as specialized “little giants,” gazelles, and hidden unicorns, with a solid industrial base. Lingang New Area is Shanghai’s “growth pole” and “engine” of economic development, with mature experience in institutional innovation and overseas service system construction. The cooperation between the two places has achieved complementary advantages, allowing Qingdao SMEs to directly access Lingang’s professional service resources and global layout network, reducing trial-and-error costs for going abroad.

From an industry development perspective, this Qingdao-Shanghai joint effort further improves the domestic SME outbound service ecosystem. Through government guidance, platform support, financial empowerment, and enterprise participation, a full-process service system covering outbound activities has been established, solving issues such as fragmented services and dispersed resources faced by SMEs, injecting new momentum into the internationalization of the private economy nationwide.

Financial institutions support enterprises’ global expansion

In the process of SMEs going abroad, the professional services of financial institutions are crucial. China Taiping Securities and other institutions are providing integrated financial solutions throughout the entire lifecycle to help enterprises achieve high-level “going out,” which is also a common trend in the securities industry’s service to the real economy and global enterprise development.

Feng Yidong, General Manager of China Taiping Securities, shared six strategic initiatives:

1. Lead development direction with a professional think tank, acting as a “strategic guiding partner”;

2. Support enterprise leapfrogging with financing services, acting as a “growth partner”;

3. Accelerate industrial transformation through capital aggregation, acting as an “industrial cluster partner”;

4. Use futures tools to hedge market volatility, acting as a “risk management partner”;

5. Assist value inheritance with professional services, acting as a “wealth protection partner”;

6. Enable resource integration to attract “double recruitment and double introduction,” acting as a “city development partner.”

From the perspective of the functions of securities firms, their deployment is increasingly aligned with the diverse financial needs of enterprises going abroad. On the financing side, securities firms can provide cross-border equity and debt financing, Hong Kong IPOs, and other services to meet funding demands; on the industrial side, they promote industry transformation through capital aggregation, helping SMEs integrate into the global industrial chain; on the risk side, they utilize futures tools to help enterprises hedge against international market price fluctuations, enhancing cross-border risk resilience; on the strategic side, they provide market guidance through professional think tanks, helping enterprises understand overseas market rules and layout strategies.

Data shows that China Taiping Securities has helped 230 companies nationwide raise over 140 billion yuan through equity and debt financing, and has facilitated nearly 80 companies along the Yellow River region with over 32 billion yuan in financing under major national strategies like the Yellow River development and “dual carbon” goals. In outbound services, it has underwritten 114 offshore bonds and 11 Hong Kong IPOs, raising 2.04 billion yuan.

This is not an isolated case. The securities industry is accelerating its cross-border financial services, becoming a core financial force for enterprise globalization. Leading securities firms are expanding their global networks and deepening cross-border cooperation, while smaller firms leverage regional expertise and specialized services to meet outbound needs. Many domestic securities firms are establishing international subsidiaries in Hong Kong, expanding into Southeast Asia and other emerging markets, participating in overseas listings, cross-border M&A, and bond issuance, serving as vital bridges connecting domestic companies with international capital markets.