National Business Daily:

We are rather concerned about the development of the private economy. It has been over a year since the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy was published. What progress has been made in this regard over the past year? What steps will be taken next to further boost confidence in the growth of the private economy? Thank you.

Zhao Chenxin:

I would like to direct these questions to Mr. Yuan Da.

Yuan Da:

Thank you for your questions. As Mr. Zhao mentioned, we have been consistently upholding and fulfilling the commitments to the public and non-public sectors. Following the CPC Central Committee and the State Council's publication of the Opinions on Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy last July, the NDRC along with related departments has diligently worked to implement these measures effectively, thereby bolstering the progress of the private economy. I would like to briefly outline some of these endeavors.

First, we have continuously optimized the business environment. We have moved faster to build a unified national market, conducted special campaigns to resolve the issue of overdue payments to enterprises, and established the national financing credit service platform and the platform for recommending projects to the private capital, among others. We have built sound communication mechanisms to facilitate regular interactions between the government and private businesses at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels. Significant meetings focusing on the private sector were organized across various locations such as Wuxi, Jinjiang in Quanzhou, Wenzhou and Shenzhen, where we took the initiative to make interpretations of relevant policies and promote experiences.

Second, we have made a concerted effort to enhance support of elements and resources. We have introduced and implemented 25 measures on providing financial support for the private economy and have continuously improved the unified markets for urban and rural construction land and professional talent.

Third, our commitment to the rule of law remains unyielding. We are continuously enhancing a legal system related to enterprises and advancing the formulation of a private sector promotion law. A number of major wrongful criminal cases concerning property rights have been corrected.

Through the joint efforts of all parties, the private economy has maintained steady and sound momentum. In the first half of the year, the industrial added value of private industrial enterprises above the designated size grew 5.7% year on year, 3.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year. RMB-denominated exports by private enterprises rose 10.7%, outpacing the overall export growth by 3.9 percentage points and elevating their share of the country's total exports to 64.9%, a year-on-year increase of 2.3 percentage points. As of the end of June, more than 55 million private enterprises had been registered, marking a year-on-year increase of 7.8%; the number of self-employed individuals reached 125 million, up 5.1% year on year; and the total number of private market entities surpassed 180 million, accounting for 96.4% of the total.

Looking ahead, the NDRC will thoroughly implement the decisions and plans of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, giving full play to the interdepartmental joint meeting mechanism for fostering the expansion of the private economy. We will remain committed to the guidelines and polices for providing a conducive environment as well as numerous opportunities for the private sector, and advance the sustained and healthy development of the private economy. First, we will bolster policy support. We will support capable private enterprises in leading national initiatives to make breakthroughs in major technologies and provide private enterprises with greater access to major national scientific research infrastructure. We will refine financing support policies for private businesses, build a sound credit enhancement system for small and medium-sized enterprises within the private sector, and speed up efforts to alleviate financing difficulties and high financing costs. Second, we will remove obstacles to market access. We will work to see that the competitive areas of infrastructure are open to market entities in a fair manner, improve the long-term mechanism by which private enterprises participate in major national projects, and cultivate an open, transparent, and convenient market access environment. Third, we will strengthen legal guarantees. We will formulate a private sector promotion law. We will improve the legal framework for the long-term regulation of charges levied on enterprises and for clearing overdue payments owed to them. We will work to bolster law enforcement and justice administration to protect property rights and establish an efficient system for the comprehensive management of intellectual property rights. Thank you.