China moves to stimulate business vitality to promote high-quality development

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China is implementing various measures to stimulate the vitality of business entities and promote high-quality economic development, officials said at a press conference on Wednesday.

These measures include deepening reforms and innovation, promoting fair competition, enforcing the law in a strict, standard and fair manner, improving the assistance offered to business entities, and standardizing market order, said Pu Chun, vice head of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), at the press conference.

The SAMR is also guiding local branches to help provide efficient and convenient online credit repair services for business entities, according to Pu, who is also the director of the National Certification and Accreditation Administration.

About 22.58 million individually owned businesses were newly registered in 2023, representing year-on-year expansion of 11.4 percent, said Ren Duanping, another official with the SAMR, at the press conference.

A total of 124 million individually owned businesses had been registered in China by the end of last year, accounting for 67.4 percent of business entities nationwide, said Ren.

These businesses provided employment for nearly 300 million people in China, according to Ren, adding that the steady development of individually owned businesses has helped sustain hustle and bustle on the streets and maintain the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, demonstrating the strong vitality and resilience of the Chinese economy.