China gives SMEs a boost

China will allocate 10.6 billion yuan to a special fund to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) undergo technological upgrading, reports Bernama.

Premier Wen Jiabao says the government plans to establish a complete SME Service System, reorganise SME grouping standards and accelerate the development of a SME public service platform, information service network and small enterprise start-up base.

"The government will also implement a preferential income tax policy for small enterprises with low profits and develop a multilevel system of credit guarantees for these enterprises," says Wen. China has 4.3 million registered SMEs which contribute nearly 60% of GDP and three-quarters of job opportunities.

Premier Farnell has released the British SME Technology survey which focused on the electronics sector in the UK, states Trading Markets.

Conducted in conjunction with The Electronics Leadership Council and the UK Electronics Alliance, it gathered information to help understand the current state of mind, challenges and needs of SMEs and support them to push forward out of the recession to a profitable future.

In response to the findings, Premier Farnell released a dedicated SME portal on its element14 technology e-community for electronic design engineers. The element14 Small Enterprise Resource Centre is a platform for discussion and knowledge sharing and will contain training modules in the form of podcasts, round-the-clock technical support and relevant careers information.

Workbooks.com and InvisibleCRM have signed a partnership in which they will jointly create a new Outlook integration offering for SMEs using Workbooks.com, says Your Story.

Based on InvisibleCRM's InvisibleSync Bridge and OutlookBridge technology platform, the software allows Workbooks users to integrate contacts, appointments and e-mails with Microsoft Outlook even when offline. Enhancements will more fully integrate Workbooks CRM and Outlook, allowing Workbooks users to manage core CRM data from within the Outlook client.

“We are proud to partner with Workbooks.com. They have a remarkable software-as-a-service business suite that provides incredible value to the SME marketplace,” says Vlad Voskresensky, CEO of InvisibleCRM.