Specialized and innovative enterprises are those with core competitive advantages in a specific field, characterized by "specialization, refinement, characteristic features, and novelty." These enterprises are the best among SMEs and are known as "small giants." Such enterprises require small investments, yield quick results, and are highly efficient, making their impact on economic development immediately apparent.

Since 2023, Changsha has accumulated 185 "small giant" enterprises specializing in specialization and innovation, ranking third in central China. Changsha's "small giant" enterprises account for 37% of the province's total (496 in the province), specialized and innovative SMEs total 1127, accounting for 30% of the province's total (3702 in the province), and innovative SMEs total 1899, accounting for 44% of the province's total (4345 in the province).

Following reporters' visits to some of Changsha's "small giant" enterprises, we learn about their growth and the vibrant energy of Changsha's manufacturing industry.

Aiwei Technology independently developed the first fully automatic urine analysis modular production line in China.

Machine vision technology brings medical microscopes to life.

In the production workshop of Aiwei Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aiwei Technology"), testing and analysis instruments for medical institutions have been assembled, and technicians are carrying out debugging one by one.

Aiwei Technology's independently developed testing and analysis instruments have an automatic microscopic examination function. Based on artificial intelligence and machine vision technology, they can perform fully automated detection of physical, chemical, and morphological indicators in medical clinical specimens such as urine, stool, blood, and gynecological secretions.

“The number of specimens that can be tested per hour by equipment of different models and grades varies from dozens to hundreds. In the case of manual testing, an experienced laboratory technician can only test about 10 specimens per hour,” said Lin Changqing, Aiwei Technology’s vice general manager.

For a long time, the domestic high-end medical testing equipment market has been dominated by brands from developed countries such as Europe and the United States.

After years of research, Aiwei Technology took the lead in applying "machine vision technology" to the morphological testing of clinical pathology specimens in medical and health institutions, achieving automated microscopic examination of urine, stool, blood, body fluids, and gynecological secretions, filling the technical gap in the field of automated morphological testing of medical microscopes in China, and representing original innovation in terms of technical routes, methods, and levels.

Currently, the company's leading products have a market share of over 40%, serving more than 5,000 hospital users, and have been promoted and applied in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Wisdom Eye's independently developed integrated service terminal for medical insurance business.

AI + big data empowers people's healthy lives.

Large hospitals are often overcrowded, and doctors see many patients every day, making it difficult to communicate patiently and for extended periods with patients.

In the face of the increasing number of patients with chronic diseases, "human resources" are clearly insufficient to meet the huge management needs. In the field of chronic diseases, Wisdom Eye extends treatment services outside the hospital, improving hospital service efficiency through a chronic disease management platform. By integrating data from in-hospital and out-of-hospital systems and IoT devices, it summarizes patient information including health status, disease development, medication records, treatment methods, allergic reactions, etc., uses AI algorithms and evidence-based medical knowledge graphs to perform intelligent analysis of the data, forming a data model of the physiological indicators, metabolism, and behavior correlation of chronic disease patients, providing a basis and convenience for patients to receive treatment at primary care hospitals.

Wisdom Eye's early research and development of a pension benefit qualification certification system based on big data + biometric technology has been applied to provincial social security platforms in more than 20 provinces nationwide, solving the problem of preventing pension fraud.

Currently, the company, focusing on the digital health industry chain covering smart medical insurance, diagnosis and treatment, chronic disease prevention and control, home-based elderly care, and internet healthcare, continuously develops intelligent consultation systems, comprehensive chronic disease management service systems, smart medical service systems, wearable devices, and smart health electronic products and human-computer interaction technologies and products, so that innovative AI services can benefit more Chinese people.

“Let there be no materials in the world that are difficult to cut!”

Relying on an inconspicuous band saw blade, it ranks first in comprehensive strength nationwide and among the top three globally. Hunan Taijia New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Taijia Shares") has embarked on a legendary path through two decades of strategic perseverance and continuous innovation breakthroughs.

Sawing products are known as the "teeth of industry" and are essential tools for metal cutting processing. The processing of core metal components of major national "heavy equipment" such as launch vehicles, high-speed rail, and ocean-going vessels cannot be done without sawing products. With economic development, there are more and more difficult-to-cut materials.

With the mission of “Let there be no materials in the world that are difficult to cut!”, and with the confidence of "one out of every four band saw blades sold domestically is made by Taijia," Taijia Shares is continuously reclaiming domestic market share previously occupied by foreign products.

“Previously, foreign bimetallic band saw blades and carbide band saw blades monopolized the Chinese market. Now, this situation has been broken by us,” said Li Hui, general manager of Taijia Shares. The company’s production capacity has increased from 17 million meters in 2018 to 25 million meters in 2022.

Strategic investment in AKG, a century-old German company; establishment of subsidiaries in the Netherlands and India… In recent years, Taijia Shares has continuously accelerated its globalization layout, with its own brand products fully participating in the competition for high-end, mid-range, and economy-type products in the global market. Products have been successfully exported in large quantities to more than 50 industrialized countries and regions including Germany, Japan, and the United States. “Our goal is to achieve a 50% domestic market share of bimetallic band saw blades and 50% of our saw cutting business sales from overseas,” said Li Hui with determination in his eyes.

A leader in China's industrial control field

In the office building of Hunan Xianbu Information Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xianbu Information"), the slogan "Make the system healthier, make the machine smarter" is quite eye-catching.

A catheter production line undergoing testing embodies the meaning of this slogan.

“Producing 1800 catheters per hour, the efficiency is increased by 60% compared to manual labor, the quality is stable, and the production process is fully automatic, requiring no manual intervention,” Xianbu Information chairman Hu Yanliang said confidently when talking about the latest innovations. “This equipment has achieved modular production of intelligent equipment, which is a pioneering technology in China.”

The SSPCU intelligent controller is another star product of the company. Appraised by an expert committee headed by Academician Gui Weihua, an expert in automatic control from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, it fills a domestic gap in the industrial control field and reaches the international synchronous level. Its performance allows it to replace foreign brand PLC controllers in large-scale projects such as port terminals, sand and aggregate, and coal-fired power plants, successfully breaking the foreign monopoly.

In the field of artificial intelligence, Xianbu Information is undoubtedly a dark horse. Xianbu Information has been committed to intelligent automation research and independently developed several nationally leading intelligent solutions, with hundreds of demonstration cases in the energy, port, and green building industries.

Revenue increased by over 40% for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022. So far this year, the company has received over 40 million in orders. "This year's revenue is expected to increase by over 50%, and we plan to list on the Beijing Stock Exchange," Hu Yanliang said.

Philster's self-developed heated anemometer.

58 years at the forefront of the sensor market

Hunan Philster Sensor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Philster") is a sensor company with origins in the military industry. Its predecessor was Changsha Red Flag Instrument Factory, founded in 1965, mainly supporting the military industry. It is one of the earliest four major sensor companies in China.

In January this year, Philster's self-developed heated anemometer underwent product testing on some wind turbines in China. The results showed that the sensor can meet the needs of precise measurement in various extreme environments such as temperatures of minus 40 degrees, sandstorms, and blizzards. The technology has reached a domestically advanced level. Import substitution will greatly meet customer needs for cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

"Relying on the development of emerging industries such as new energy and the Internet of Things, the market demand for sensors will explode, and the market opportunities and potential are huge. The application of sensors has great potential." Philster's Vice General Manager Su Zihong introduced that, in addition, Philster's sensor products have covered many smart city fields, including smart agriculture, smart environment, smart building property management, smart fire protection, and smart water affairs. In the 58 years since its establishment, the company has achieved domestic substitution for more than 10 sensor products and sold them to more than 60 countries.

"Next, we will continue to increase technological innovation, introduce strategic investors, accelerate breakthroughs in key industries, and especially achieve rapid growth in the Internet of Things sector." Su Zihong said that in the first quarter of this year, Philster's orders grew steadily. This year's revenue is expected to grow by over 50%.

Changsha launched a series of "industrial chain + capital chain" activities to alleviate difficulties over 100 days.

Cultivating fertile ground for the growth of "small giant" enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises are an important part of the national economy and an important source of industrial innovation and development. "Specialized, sophisticated, and new" SMEs focus on niche markets, have strong innovation capabilities, high market share, master key core technologies, and excellent quality and efficiency. They are the vanguard enterprises that have become a catalyst for the market, countering the impact of the epidemic.

Currently, under the guidance of the national strategy for innovation-driven development, how to accelerate high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement and better support the growth of innovative SMEs has become a new mission.

For "small giant" enterprises, technological innovation hinges on talent. In terms of talent supply, Changsha's total number of talents has increased 4.6 times from 500,000 in 2012 to 2.8 million today. The net inflow rate of high-end and mid-range talents ranked among the top three nationally in 2021, with 95% of high-level and sophisticated talents concentrated in strategic emerging industries. The "talent attractiveness index" has risen to tenth nationally and first in central China. These high-quality, sophisticated talents have laid a solid foundation for the cultivation of specialized and sophisticated SMEs.

For the growth of "small giant" enterprises, finance needs to be invigorated. By playing the role of financing support from industrial funds and giving a helping hand during the difficult and critical periods of SMEs' growth, we can help SMEs solve the problems of survival and development.

As of the end of June 2023, the revolving loan fund has served a cumulative total of 1014 enterprises, with a revolving loan scale of 19.448 billion yuan, saving enterprises about 1.65 billion yuan in revolving loan costs. Among them, since 2023, 176 new enterprises have been served, with a revolving loan amount of 4.058 billion yuan.

As of the end of June 2023, the Changsha SME Credit Risk Compensation Fund has supported 8 cooperative banks in providing a cumulative total of 29,403 credit loans to 12,245 SMEs, with a loan amount of 29.635 billion yuan and a loan balance of 7.616 billion yuan. Among them, as of the end of June 2023, 2426 enterprises received 4.55 billion yuan in credit loans.

As of the end of June 2023, the balance of medium and long-term loans for manufacturing industries reached 242.567 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.99%, 23.75 percentage points higher than the average loan growth rate.

The balance of loans for small and micro enterprises reached 1403.42 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.10%, 3.86 percentage points higher than the average loan growth rate.

In addition to talent supplementation and financial support, in recent years, Changsha has successively introduced comprehensive policies such as the "30 Measures for Industry," the "Implementation Plan for Vigorously Implementing the "Strong Provincial Capital" Strategy and Promoting the "Thousands, Hundreds, and Tens" Project for Industrial Development," "Several Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Small and Micro Enterprises in Changsha," and the "Action Plan for Doubling the Scale of Above-Scale Industrial Enterprises in Changsha," as well as a series of special policies for integrated circuits, food and biomedicine, aerospace, and advanced computing.

"Since being recognized as a 'small giant' enterprise, the company has received support from the Changsha Municipal People's Government on numerous occasions, including R&D subsidies and loan interest subsidies. The injection of funds has further strengthened the company's determination to make greater contributions in its niche market." In an interview, Li Hui, general manager of Taijia New Materials, told reporters.

It is reported that since 2020, 47 national specialized and sophisticated "small giant" enterprises and service institutions in Changsha have received a total of 93.36 million yuan in central government special funds for SMEs, and 261 SMEs have received a total of 70.63 million yuan in provincial special funds for SMEs. Among them, 92 enterprises received 25.65 million yuan in provincial special funds for SMEs in 2022. From 2020 to 2022, a total of more than 210 million yuan in financial subsidies were given to municipal-level specialized and sophisticated "small giant" enterprises, supporting more than 700 enterprises (times).

Changsha held a special salon to empower the innovative development of small and micro enterprises.

"Small giant" enterprises drive a new engine

In recent years, Changsha has based itself on local realities to guide and organize specialized and sophisticated "small giant" enterprises to find benchmarks globally, resources nationally, teams provincially, and orders in the market. By encouraging innovation and financial empowerment, leveraging the power of technology and capital, and relying on talent support, these enterprises have become industry benchmarks and hidden champion enterprises in their respective niche fields.

Multi-dimensional support and cultivation have enabled numerous "small giant" enterprises to emerge, standing tall in Changsha's industrial economy. Recently, the Hunan Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology announced the first batch of innovative SMEs in the province. A total of 2460 enterprises were included in the province, of which 933 were from Changsha, accounting for nearly 38% and ranking first in the province.

In June 2022, the identification standards for specialized and sophisticated "small giant" enterprises underwent a major change. The "Interim Measures for the Graded Cultivation and Management of High-Quality SMEs" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that the country will uniformly carry out graded cultivation of high-quality SMEs according to the levels of innovative SMEs, specialized and sophisticated SMEs, and specialized and sophisticated "small giant" enterprises. In the future, provinces and cities will no longer independently identify "small giant" enterprises.

"Next, we will actively introduce social forces, gather and integrate advantageous resources, and further focus on cultivating a group of "specialized and sophisticated" enterprises with distinct industrial characteristics and advantages in the city's 22 industrial chains." A relevant person in charge of the Changsha Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology said that in the future, Changsha will continue to focus on 22 industrial chains and carry out graded cultivation of high-quality SMEs, striving to surpass 1000 specialized and sophisticated SMEs and 300 specialized and sophisticated "small giant" enterprises during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, creating a new engine for the high-quality development of the city's industrial economy.