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VIENNA,Austria - The China SME Global Development Forum opened Monday in Vienna,focusing on topics including the difficulties of Chinese SMEs in global development. More than 100 small and medium-sized enterprises from China's Zhejiang province and about30 enterprises from Austria and the other EU countries attended the forum. During his speech on the forum, Director General of the United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization Kandeh K. Yumkella said that China is not only a huge market for enterprisesover the world, but also increasingly an important breeding ground for scientific andtechnological innovation. In this sense, during the future development of the global economy, the world needs China,and China needs the world, too, he said. The UNIDO is willing to provide the Chinese enterprises with necessary assistance in theprocess of globalization, especially in their investment in developing countries and regionsincluding Africa, he said. "SMEs play a very important role in our national economic and social development," said GaoYingzhong, head of Zhejiang SME Bureau. Like the other types of enterprises, Zhejiang's SMEs were also impacted by the financial crisisand the European debt crisis further exacerbated the impact on their traditional exports, hesaid. "Therefore, this year we have organized the forum to provide a platform to promote theexpansion of Zhejiang's SMEs in the European market, to seek cooperation with theircounterparts in Europe, and to promote the development and prosperity of Zhejiang's SMEs,"he said. The forum is among the events held during the EU-China SME Partnership Week 2012 toadvance cooperation between China and the EU. | 
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