If a company fails to apply for high-tech enterprise certification, the declaration cost of tens of thousands of yuan will be covered by government insurance! Recently, Zhongkai High tech Zone completed the government procurement bidding for the 2025 "High tech Enterprise Identification and Application Cost Insurance Project", which was won by the Huizhou Branch of PICC Property and Casualty Insurance Co., Ltd., with a total guarantee amount of 22.5 million yuan, covering more than 400 enterprises applying for the zone. It is reported that this is the first high-tech enterprise certification insurance project in China that is centrally procured by the government. For the first time, insurance tools have been used to innovate and provide a "safety net" for technology enterprises, accurately eliminating the worries of "wanting to declare and fearing losses" for enterprises.

　　The 'bottom line' effect:

　　Cracking down on the anxiety of "fear of loss" in applying for high enterprise status

　　Last year, we were rejected due to a 0.8 percentage point difference in the collection of research and development expenses, resulting in a loss of all 62000 yuan in declared expenses, "said the person in charge of a new energy battery management system enterprise in Zhongkai High tech Zone helplessly. His experience is not an exception - in the process of identifying high-tech enterprises, companies need to pay professional service fees, audit fees, intellectual property application fees, etc. The average cost for small and micro enterprises is 50000 to 100000 yuan, and for large-scale enterprises it even exceeds 100000 yuan.

　　If the declaration fails, these expenses will be 'wasted', especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, which will face great pressure, "said Wen Bo, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Innovation and Investment Promotion Bureau of Zhongkai High tech Zone. The recognition of high-tech enterprises is an important way for enterprises to enjoy national tax preferential policies, expand development platforms and qualifications, but this' sunk cost 'anxiety directly inhibits the willingness of enterprises to declare. Data shows that in 2024, 56% of the high tech enterprises in Zhongkai High tech Zone intended to apply were below designated size, but 22% of them delayed their applications due to cost concerns.

　　How to eliminate the worries of enterprises? Zhongkai Hi tech Zone actively responded to the national requirement of putting science and technology finance in the first place, innovated and introduced insurance tools, cooperated with PICC Property Insurance Huizhou Branch, and launched the first nationwide "insurance project recognized by high enterprises", which was purchased by the government through unified bidding, to provide direct guarantee for enterprises and achieve the "bottom-up" effect.

　　Through this method, we leverage more financial resources with limited fiscal funds to empower enterprises in applying for high-tech certification and reduce the costs caused by their failure to pass certification. "Wen Bo introduced that the innovation of this project is reflected in the efficient use of fiscal funds. The government purchased insurance services with a budget of 2.5 million yuan, leveraged 22.5 million yuan in risk protection, and increased the efficiency of funds by 9 times. At the same time, through the actuarial model of insurance, the "single point risk" of enterprises declaring high enterprises can be transformed into manageable "pooled risk". The government does not need to pre judge which enterprise can succeed, but achieves "declaration is protection" through unified insurance.

　　"If the enterprise fails to identify, the insurance company will make compensation according to the actual situation, and each enterprise can get an average of about 53000 yuan of protection to achieve 'low-cost declaration'." Tao Annan, deputy manager of Zhongkai Business Department of PICC Property and Casualty Insurance Huizhou Branch, said that the project adopts the form of a fixed total insurance amount and an average corporate reinsurance amount. At present, the total insurance coverage in the entire district is 22.5 million yuan. Based on the estimated number of recommended enterprises by the municipal bureau, each enterprise can receive about 53000 yuan in protection, eliminating the concern of "fear of loss" among enterprises.

　　Mode innovation:

　　Transitioning from 'outcome rewards' to' process assurance '

　　Traditional subsidies are mostly rewarded after successful recognition, while the insurance model shifts policy resources from 'outcome rewards' to' process guarantees', solving the cash flow pressure of enterprises, better meeting the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, and truly activating the endogenous power of technology enterprises. Wen Bo pointed out that more importantly, insurance covers all applicants (including failed enterprises), effectively solving the dilemma of traditional subsidies being easy to add icing on the cake but difficult to provide timely assistance.

　　It is reported that the traditional reward and subsidy policy has a dual contradiction: on the one hand, it incentivizes enterprises to apply with rewards, and on the other hand, it only benefits successful enterprises after the fact, causing small and medium-sized enterprises to be afraid of failure and dare not apply. At the same time, it may also trigger some low-quality applications that are made up to obtain subsidies. The insurance model not only eliminates the worries of enterprises by covering the cost of failure, but also standardizes the declaration behavior through a professional compensation review mechanism, achieving a qualitative leap in policy effectiveness from "selective incentives" to "universal protection".

　　In recent years, the number of high-tech enterprises in various regions has grown rapidly, but some enterprises have the phenomenon of "heavy declaration and light innovation". The innovation attempt of Zhongkai High tech Zone aims to promote the "reporting as much as possible" of enterprises through the risk sharing mechanism, and more importantly, to promote the strategic transformation of the cultivation of high-tech enterprises in the whole district from "quantity growth" to "quality improvement". On the one hand, the "fallback" mechanism effectively reduces the risk threshold for enterprises to declare, and encourages high-quality enterprises with real potential to dispel concerns and "report as much as possible"; On the other hand, against the backdrop of the weakening of traditional high recognition and reward policies, coupled with this "backstop" guarantee, it has prompted enterprises that are mainly seeking subsidies and have average qualifications to gradually withdraw from the re examination, leaving and focusing on supporting high-quality entities that truly possess independent innovation capabilities, ultimately achieving sustained optimization of the structure for cultivating high-level enterprises.

　　The government has innovatively achieved risk transfer and financial leverage effect by purchasing insurance to bear the high enterprise declaration risk for enterprises. This not only relieves the cost burden for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also guides resources to gather with high-quality innovative entities through market-oriented screening, providing new ideas for solving similar problems nationwide. "Professor Lin Jiang from the Department of Economics at Lingnan College, Sun Yat sen University pointed out that this" small for big "model efficiently transforms limited financial funds into innovative support for enterprises, significantly improves resource allocation efficiency, reduces fiscal pressure, and better meets the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, demonstrating the inclusiveness and fairness of policies, and demonstrating the innovative idea of combining fiscal funds and financial tools.

　　Policy effectiveness:

　　Stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises to apply and continuously optimize the innovation ecosystem

　　Due to concerns about potential losses from failure, we have been hesitating whether to declare. Now that the government has taken out insurance, we have confirmed that we will declare this year. A certain optoelectronic enterprise located in Tonghu Science and Technology Town has become one of the first beneficiaries. The head of the enterprise calculated an account: in the past, declaring a high-tech enterprise required paying a service fee of 80000 yuan, but if it failed, it would result in a complete loss; Nowadays, even if the government fails to purchase insurance, they can still receive a compensation of about 53000 yuan, which is equivalent to "using 27000 yuan of 'trial and error costs' to exchange for a qualification upgrade opportunity". It is reported that the company's R&D investment accounted for 8% last year. If it is successfully identified as a high-tech enterprise, it can enjoy a 15% corporate income tax discount and more market opportunities.

　　The policy implementation has shown immediate results. The latest data from the Science and Technology Innovation Bureau of Zhongkai High tech Zone shows that, under the incentive of insurance policies, more than 60 companies that were originally hesitant have clearly stated their intention to apply for high-tech enterprise recognition. It is expected that the total number of applications in the entire district will exceed 400 this year.

　　This transformation is a vivid manifestation of the transformation from "quantity" to "quality" in promoting the cultivation of high-tech enterprises in Zhongkai High tech Zone. In recent years, the district has established a technology finance service system covering the entire life cycle of enterprises through continuous innovation and technology policies that benefit enterprises. Statistics show that the number of high-tech enterprises in the district has doubled in four years, with a current total of 1117, including 308 specialized, refined, and new enterprises and 25 national level specialized, refined, and new "little giant" enterprises.

　　Looking towards the future, Zhongkai is building an upgraded version of high-tech enterprise cultivation: focusing on the cultivation of key enterprises, increasing the cultivation efforts for large-scale enterprises and industrial land enterprises, and continuously increasing the proportion of large-scale high-tech enterprises; Deepen the integration of technology and finance, fully implement the enterprise innovation credit system, and effectively reduce the financing costs of enterprises through a combination of credit loans, guarantee support, interest subsidies, and other policies linked to credit points; Strengthen innovation service capabilities and collaborate with Tsinghua University to establish the Zhongkai iCenter Future Industry Capability Center and the Zhongkai Future Industry Scene Innovation Verification Center under the name of "Zhongli Magnetic Field". By creating more innovation platforms, we aim to provide high-quality public technology services for high-tech enterprises in the region and provide strong technical support for their development.