国内英语新闻:Top legislature holds joint inquiry meeting on SME development

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Friday held a joint inquiry into a report on the enforcement of the Law on Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

During the inquiry, legislators asked questions about measures to help SMEs improve innovation and professional capabilities, measures to help them cope with difficulties and high costs of financing and how to facilitate the building of SME credit system, among others.

State Councilor Wang Yong and officials from multiple ministries and government agencies including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance answered the questions.

During his speech, Li called for strengthening supervision to ensure thorough implementation of the law and improved policies and measures.

Li also stressed protecting legal rights and interests of SMEs and improving related laws and regulations to better define legal responsibilities.

Wang, on behalf of the State Council and related government agencies, vowed to push for the implementation of the law.

He promised more efforts to help SMEs reduce costs and cope with difficulties and high costs of financing, as well as protect their legal rights and interests.

The report was submitted on Wednesday to the NPC Standing Committee for review at its ongoing bimonthly session.