China aims to cultivate about 600 "little giants", or small, highly specialized world market leaders, in three years, as part of its broader push to promote the development of small-and-medium-sized enterprises, the country's top industry regulator said on Monday.

On a document released on its official website, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it will first select 100 excellent SMEs in 2018 to help them improve innovation capabilities, explore overseas market, boost corporate and accelerate digital transformation.

That is part of MIIT's broader plan to cultivate 600 such SMEs, which work in a market segment and master key technologies with strong innovation ability and big market share. These "little giants" are roughly the same as "hidden champions", a term coined by German author Hermann Simon to describe the small, highly specialized world market leaders in Germany.