Liu made the remark during a meeting with Roberto Formiconi, head of the European Four Engines Association and president of Italy's Lombardia Region.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, said his city's economy has registered an annual growth rate of over 10 percent in the past decade and is on track to double per-capita GDP to 6,000 US dollars before the Olympic Games to be held in 2008.

With Beijing's economic focus turning to new and high-tech development, he noted, more and more technological experts are turning to SMEs, a phenomenon which is stimulating the sector's growth.

Liu pointed to the example of Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, which now houses some 10,000 enterprises, and which is attracting about 1,000 new ones every year.

In view of the robust development of SMEs, he said, the municipal government hopes to create an even better environment for them through international cooperation.

Sharing Liu's view, Formiconi cited SME growth as the basis forsocial and economic development, and said that the two had agreed that SME development should be undertaken as a priority.

Following the meeting, the two sides signed an agreement to further their cooperative partnership.

(People's Daily November 24, 2002)