A specialized board for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, or "little giants", started trading in Beijing on Thursday, with the first batch of such firms numbering 50.

Operated by the Beijing Equity Trading Center, the board marks part of the capital city's efforts to leverage the regional equity market to further facilitate listing channels for innovative SMEs.

Designated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, "little giants" refer to SMEs that typically specialize in niche sectors, command high market shares and boast strong innovative capacity.

Su Guobin, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said more "breakthrough" policies will be launched to support such firms, including facilitating the issuance of stocks and bonds for innovative SMEs.

Su highlighted that efforts will also be made to boost cooperation with the Beijing Stock Exchange to enable more such companies to get listed on the BSE.

Beijing's goal to cultivate more than 8,000 innovative SMEs and 700 national-level little giants by the end of this year has nearly been achieved, he added.

Beijing's efforts come as China steps up its push to nurture innovative SMEs to stabilize industrial and supply chains and inject more vitality into the market. So far, China has cultivated more than 10,000 national-level little giants.

In China, SMEs are responsible for nearly 50 percent of the nation's tax revenue and 60 percent of its GDP. They also contribute to 70 percent of the nation's technological innovation and 80 percent of urban employment, said the MIIT.

Xu Xiaolan, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said in a news conference earlier this year that innovative SMEs had a sound performance last year by accounting for 59 percent of last year's initial public offerings in the A-share market.

A report from CITIC Securities last year showed that little giant companies grew more than other SMEs last year, meaning such companies were less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and were still growing rapidly.

"For any country, innovation capabilities and well-rounded supply chains have played an increasingly prominent role in economic development, especially when economic uncertainties continue to grow around the world," said Li Chao, chief economist at Zheshang Securities.

"These little giants, which are able to fill in certain weak points for the economy, will help improve the industrial and supply chains and enable the country to weather more uncertainties in the future," Li said.