In addition, the central government pledges to push forward plans to launch a new board, the "Strategic Emerging Industries Board", at the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), according to the guideline.

"The proposed new board will aim to attract private capital in emerging and creative businesses, and provide an exit channel for private equity and venture capital investors," SSE vice general manager Liu Shi'an said at a forum in Shanghai, the country's financial hub, in May.

The new board will mainly target firms in the computing, renewable energy and biological technology sectors which have passed the startup stage, reached a certain size and shown a clear strategy, said Liu.

The guideline calling for accelerated plans to introduce the new board came three months after the SSE said in March that it had submitted a proposal to the country's top securities regulator.

"All these moves are set to stimulate the growth of private equity and venture capital investors, which will in turn promote the strategy of mass entrepreneurship and innovation," Dong said.

The guideline also encourages local governments to set up startup funds to support entrepreneurship and innovation.

These would help new firms "survive their most difficult times, the early stages", according to Chen Kexin, chief analyst at the Beijing-based Lan'ge Economic Research Center. Startups mainly rely on bank loans and venture capital for funding ordinarily.

The new policies are seen as part of the government's efforts to tap the potential of innovation and entrepreneurship in bolstering the world's second-largest economy as it slows down amid restructuring.

The central government has approved a slew of new measures in this drive, including financial support, tax incentives, facility construction and administrative assistance.

Weighed down by a housing market downturn, weak domestic and external demand and stuttering local investment, the economy grew at its lowest rate in six years in the first quarter, expanding 7 percent.

The central government has singled out "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" as "a new engine for the economy".