The key tasks include five aspects: focusing on enterprise needs and highlighting the effectiveness of transformation; making two-way efforts between supply and demand to strengthen professional supply; encouraging exploration and innovation to enhance path guidance; strengthening mechanism innovation to consolidate factor guarantees; and summarizing experience to continuously optimize measures. This year, about 34 cities will be selected to carry out the third batch of pilot work. The pilot cities should be at or above the prefecture-level, including provincial capitals, other prefecture-level cities, and districts/counties under municipalities directly under the Central Government. Cities already included in the first two batches of pilots are not allowed to apply repeatedly. The implementation period of the third batch of urban pilots is two years, starting from the date of approval of the implementation plan. As of the end of 2024, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, provinces with more than 15,000 industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) above designated size (including 12 provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Hebei) can recommend up to 2 cities for this pilot, with no priority in the recommendation order. Other provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) can recommend at most 1 city. I. General Requirements Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirits of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, follow the arrangements of the Central Economic Work Conference, implement the relevant requirements of the government work report, in-depth implement the "Special Action Plan for Digital Empowerment of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (2025-2027)" (Gong Xin Bu Lian Qi Ye 〔2024〕 No. 239), and solidly carry out the pilot work of digital transformation of SMEs in cities. Give full play to the main role of enterprises in innovation, promote the development of new productive forces, and accelerate the advancement of new industrialization. II. Key Tasks (1) Focus on enterprise needs and highlight transformation effectiveness. Accurately grasp the actual needs of SMEs in digital transformation, analyze the in-depth reasons for "unwillingness to transform, fear to transform, and inability to transform", and take targeted measures to promote SMEs to carry out in-depth transformation in key links such as R&D and production. Digital transformation of SMEs should be regarded as a key measure to help enterprises relieve difficulties and enhance competitiveness, assisting enterprises in achieving value improvement in innovation, market, quality improvement, cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, green development, and safety, so as to effectively enhance enterprises' sense of gain and competitiveness. (2) Make two-way efforts between supply and demand to strengthen professional supply. Guided by the needs of SMEs in digital transformation, focus on selecting and cultivating a number of service providers who understand both the industry and digitalization, develop a number of "small, fast, lightweight, and accurate" solutions with strong industry attributes and excellent empowerment effects, and provide market-oriented and regular support for SMEs in segmented industries to carry out high-quality digital transformation. (3) Encourage exploration and innovation to enhance path guidance. Taking the pilot work as an opportunity, focus on encouraging the exploration and application of new technologies and elements such as artificial intelligence and data elements, as well as new models such as "chain-style" transformation and cluster park transformation in SMEs. Fully verify the feasible paths of cutting-edge technologies and models in empowering SMEs to improve quality and efficiency through real industrial scenarios, and systematically explore a number of innovative practices with good scenario adaptation and high empowerment value. (4) Strengthen mechanism innovation to consolidate factor guarantees. Encourage pilot cities to rely on their characteristic advantages, explore new work paths and methods in areas such as organizational leadership, policy coordination, financial support, and service supply in light of local conditions, form a number of practical, effective, accurately adapted, and distinctive local innovative measures, further strengthen the guarantee of elements such as talents, funds, and data for the digital transformation of SMEs, and form a long-term mechanism. (5) Strengthen experience summary and continuously optimize measures. Provincial competent departments should establish and improve a dynamic tracking and experience summary mechanism for the pilot work, promote pilot cities to learn from each other, regularly sort out and in-depth analyze the successful experience, innovative models, and difficulties and challenges encountered in the promotion of the first two batches of pilots, form a work closed-loop of "practice - summary - feedback - optimization", and timely apply the summarized experience to the optimization and improvement of subsequent work arrangements and policy measures, so as to continuously improve the pertinence and effectiveness of the pilot work. III. Targets of Support In 2025, about 34 cities will be selected to carry out the third batch of pilot work. The pilot cities should be at or above the prefecture-level, including provincial capitals, other prefecture-level cities, and districts/counties under municipalities directly under the Central Government. Cities already included in the first two batches of pilots are not allowed to apply repeatedly. The implementation period of the third batch of urban pilots is two years, starting from the date of approval of the implementation plan. IV. Work Requirements (1) Focus on key industries. Pilot cities should adhere to both promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and facilitating the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries. They should select specific segmented fields in key manufacturing industries such as computer and communication electronic equipment manufacturing, general and special equipment manufacturing, and automobile manufacturing (refer to Annex 2) to carry out digital transformation pilots. The selected segmented industries should conform to the national regional strategic development plan and industrial orientation, reflect their own industrial foundation and characteristic advantages, and have the characteristics of large output value, high agglomeration of SMEs, deep transformation potential, and obvious efficiency improvement after transformation, avoiding dispersion. In combination with the characteristics of different industries, thoroughly sort out the common transformation needs of the industry, and promote the digital transformation of pilot enterprises by industry and level. (2) Focus on key enterprises. Pilot cities should select SMEs in key links of the industrial chain as the key objects of this digital transformation in the determined segmented industries, and give priority to including specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and novel SMEs and industrial SMEs above designated size (hereinafter referred to as "above-scale industrial SMEs") in the transformation scope. Focus on promoting enterprises to carry out in-depth digital transformation in key business links such as production process, product life cycle, and industrial chain supply chain, and promote data collection, scenario integration, and system interconnection. Promote the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence large models, big data, and blockchain in scenarios such as R&D and design, visual quality inspection, parameter optimization, energy consumption management, and intelligent sorting in light of local conditions. The number of transformed enterprises in pilot cities of various regions and the digital level to be achieved after transformation shall be implemented in accordance with the "Notice". (3) Expand replication and promotion. Pilot cities should select a number of pilot enterprises with good basic conditions, outstanding transformation effects, high input-output ratio, and strong replicability as transformation models, and guide enterprises in the same industry to "learn from the models". Encourage service providers to focus on the development of specialization, sophistication, distinctiveness, and novelty in segmented industries, create a number of "small, fast, lightweight, and accurate" digital technology products and solutions that are highly adapted to the transformation needs of SMEs in segmented industries, summarize professional transformation paths for segmented industries, and strengthen publicity and promotion. By the end of the implementation period, it is required to realize "should-transform-must-transform" for specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and novel SMEs and above-scale industrial SMEs in segmented industries (the proportion of provincial specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and novel SMEs and above-scale industrial SMEs in each segmented industry that reach level 2 or above in digital level should be more than 90%, and all national-level specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and novel "little giant" enterprises should reach level 2 or above in digital level); for industrial SMEs below designated size (hereinafter referred to as "below-scale industrial SMEs"), "willing-to-transform-must-transform" should be realized (the proportion of below-scale industrial SMEs that reach level 2 or above in digital level should be significantly increased). In the selection and management of pilot enterprises and service providers, pilot cities should treat all ownership types equally, ensure fair competition, and be fully open. V. Organization of Application For provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) applying for pilot cities, the provincial financial departments, together with the counterpart SME competent departments, shall select the proposed pilot cities and submit a recommendation letter to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter collectively referred to as the two departments). To further support major economic provinces to play a leading and pillar role and strengthen support for the digital transformation of SMEs, as of the end of 2024, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, provinces with more than 15,000 industrial SMEs above designated size (including 12 provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Hebei) can recommend up to 2 cities for this pilot, with no priority in the recommendation order. Other provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) can recommend at most 1 city. Provincial financial departments and counterpart SME competent departments should do a good job in organizing and recommending pilot cities. For cities intending to apply for the pilot, they should formulate the implementation plan for the digital transformation pilot of SMEs in the city in accordance with the requirements (see Annex 1 for the template), which should include the existing work foundation, work objectives, specific implementation contents, fund use direction, guarantee measures, and division of responsibilities of the city. The implementation plan should fully summarize and analyze the practical experience and problems of the first two batches of pilot cities, clarify how to inherit effective practices and continuously optimize measures in this work, so as to improve the pertinence and feasibility of the plan. At the same time, cities already included in the first two batches of pilots need to submit the work progress in accordance with the implementation plans approved by the two departments, which will be used as a reference for the selection of the third batch of pilot cities. The above materials, including two copies each of the paper version with official seals, the PDF version (burned on CD-ROM), and the recommendation letter, should be submitted by the provincial financial departments together with the counterpart SME competent departments to the two departments before May 20, 2025. Work related to fund allocation and use, performance management, and organization and implementation will be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the "Notice". All pilot cities should strengthen the management of the use of central financial funds, resolutely put an end to situations such as packaging already completed transformation projects as new projects during the pilot period (like "putting old wine in new bottles"), and strictly prevent acts such as obtaining subsidies by fraud, embezzlement, and other illegal and irregular behaviors. The same transformation project shall not apply for different types of central financial funds repeatedly. For the implementation process of the subsequent pilot work, please also refer to the latest version of the "Guidelines for the Implementation of Digital Transformation Pilots for SMEs in Cities". Annexes: 1. Template of the Implementation Plan for the Digital Transformation Pilot of SMEs in XX City, XX Province in 2025 2. Key Industries and Fields for the Digital Transformation Pilot of SMEs General Office of the Ministry of Finance General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology