BEIJING, June 16 -- As China gears up to unleash the full potential of innovation, a powerful tool that could reverse the economic slowdown and help restructuring, it released a guideline on Tuesday.

The State Council, China's cabinet, publishes guidelines to inform the drafting and revision of policies and regulations. Tuesday's guideline was on supporting new businesses and facilitating innovation.

In addition to financial support and tax incentives, the guideline also suggested that governments at all levels to purchase innovation products and services from start-up companies to support their development.

The government plans to empower startups with bespoke rules relating to IPOs, bonds, and crowdfunding.

To file for an IPO, businesses must have turned a profit for the most recent two years and have posted accumulated profits of no less than 10 million yuan (about 1.6 million U.S. dollars). For startups, this means filing for an IPO is out of their reach.

As such, plans for a new board, the strategic emerging industries board, at the Shanghai Stock Exchange are gaining momentum.

The Shanghai bourse is mulling relaxed criteria for listings on the new board, and the government will look into ways to allow the listing of Internet and high-tech companies that are still unprofitable on the ChiNext, the NASDAQ-style board.