Industrial robots work on a car production line at a factory in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shandong's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) showed stable development since the beginning of this year, laying a solid foundation for the steady operation of the province's macroeconomy, said local officials.

The province has been rolling out preferential policies to ease the financial burdens of smaller businesses, further boost their vitality, and promote high-quality development of SMEs.

Shandong is now home to 16,075 SMEs that specialize in niche sectors, command a high market share, have strong innovative capacity, boast cutting-edge technologies and show great potential. It is also home to 756 "little giant" firms that are considered the elites of China's SMEs.

SMEs are important to each household and have been a vital force to advance innovation, facilitate employment and improve people's livelihood, said Shandong officials. They added that specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce novel and unique products play an important role in stabilizing the industrial and supply chains and promoting economic and social development.

Shandong will unveil further measures in the fields of funding, talent and technologies to create a better environment for the development of "little giant" firms, said local officials.