SMEs' Costs Soared in 2011, CPPCC Delegate Says

(Beijing) – Operating costs for small and medium-sized manufacturers increased30 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, a delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference says.

Hu Chengzhong, vice chairman of the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce, an organization of businessmen and industrialists, said at the annual meeting of the political advisory body in Beijing on March 9 that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were facing great difficulties. Besides rising raw material and labor costs, Hu also cited a 15 percent increase in the minimum wage in 2011 over a year earlier as also straining SMEs.