In recent years, Huai'an has closely followed the national goal of building an innovative city, focused on the "353" initiative for developing strategic emerging industrial clusters, and continuously promoted the expansion and quality improvement of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In 2025, Huai'an achieved a leapfrog improvement in evaluating technology-based SMEs and building a database. A total of 2,103 enterprises underwent evaluation throughout the year, up 20.9% year-on-year; 1,268 enterprises were successfully included in the database, up 21.9% year-on-year, and the database inclusion rate increased by 0.5 percentage points. In the database, over 60% of enterprises are in industries such as intelligent manufacturing equipment, new chemical materials, software, and information services, while those in the two leading industries of equipment manufacturing and new materials account for more than 48% of the total. This sound pattern demonstrates the characteristics of industrial leadership and innovation clustering.

Huai'an provides precise policy support. Huai'an has refined its evaluation operation manual and implemented tax and fee concessions, such as additional deductions for R&D expenses, to reduce the innovation costs for enterprises. In 2025, eight companies received municipal-level technology project support, with financial subsidies exceeding RMB 3.5 million. At the same time, the "Jiangsu Technology Loan" and "Huai'an Technology Loan" were upgraded, and the "Innovation Credit Loan" was introduced to broaden corporate financing channels.

Huai'an promotes city-county coordination and collaboration. The city scientifically breaks down tasks to improve the regular collaboration mechanism, strengthen accountability, and ensure that comprehensive evaluation is carried out as needed. Leveraging the provincial evaluation system, the city has identified and cultivated resources, and it has established a working pattern featuring city-level coordination, county and district implementation, and vertical linkage.

Huai'an continues to optimize service supply. The city has conducted multi-level specialized training. It has invited provincial experts and organized key personnel to provide on-site guidance, fully implemented online processing, and provided 24/7 consultation services. Besides, it routinely reviews application materials, provides targeted assistance to solve common difficulties, and has achieved a dual improvement in the scale of applications and the quality of entries.