On July 3, 10 and 17, Zheng Shanjie, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), chaired three entrepreneur symposiums, welcoming the top executives of at least 14 private companies, and listened as they elaborated on their operational status, the difficulties they face and their suggestions.

Attendees represented enterprises involved in engineering, new energy resources, express delivery services, information technology, food processing, and more, including small, medium-sized as well as large companies located in the eastern, central and western regions of the country.

This mix of differently sized companies made it possible to obtain firsthand information from a highly diverse range of sectors.

Zheng said at the July 10 gathering that the opinions of private businesses on China's macroeconomic policies, together with their suggestions based on their own development, serve the country's further formulation and fine-tuning of said policies. By listening to the voices of private enterprises and looking deeper into their on-the-ground situations, the government can come up with a more objective and timely assessment of current policies and the formulation of more effective ones. As for the attending companies' specific demands, the NDRC will ensure the related departments circle back to them about these as soon as possible.

Xu Guanju, Chairman of Transfar Group, was invited to the July 17 symposium. The company, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, employs 15,000 staff in businesses such as chemical engineering, logistics and agriculture. Its products and services have penetrated more than 130 countries and regions around the world. Xu said the symposium had been designed to help private enterprises solve the difficulties at hand, something many are in dire need of right now.

Based on his experiences in the world of business, Xu suggested promoting industrial competition and development based on technological breakthroughs, and supporting enterprises in building world-famous brands. It's important to encourage positive competition and in turn push up the overall technological prowess of the industry, rather than simply pursuing the expansion of quantity and scale.

At an NDRC press conference on July 18, Li Hui, Deputy Director of the NDRC's Department of National Economy, said the NDRC had recently established a communication and exchange mechanism with private enterprises.

Under this mechanism, according to Li, the NDRC will regularly host similar meetings to get an idea of what's really on the minds of private entrepreneurs. The NDRC will also provide local development and reform departments, from county to provincial level, with detailed instructions to jointly create a better business environment.

Apart from the NDRC, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Commerce have also organized similar symposiums recently, which were attended by top officials from both.

On July 6, Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, hosted a symposium for manufacturing enterprises, expressing the ministry's resolve to lend them a helping hand. The following day, Jin hosted a panel discussion with entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized enterprises, calling on them to focus on their areas of expertise and promising to streamline administrative services to support their development.

On July 5, Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, hosted a panel discussion with representatives from 12 foreign-funded enterprises, including American multinational GE Healthcare, Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, and Bayer, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company.

Wang said since 2020, the Ministry of Commerce has hosted 17 symposiums with foreign-funded companies and helped them solve hundreds of problems. The ministry will continue to improve the meeting mechanism and be more responsive to their concerns.

On July 17, Wang had a dialogue with representatives from several Japanese companies, including Mizuho Bank, manufacturer of electric appliances and consumer electronics products Panasonic and vehicle manufacturer Toyota, inquiring about their current operations in China and asking for their suggestions on China-Japan economic and trade cooperation. Wang reaffirmed that China's modernization will inject impetus into the world's development and create a huge market for companies from around the world.

"Such meetings help restore enterprises' confidence in growth," Zhu Keli, founding Director of the China Institute of New Economy, told China News Service. Regular meetings of this kind will help the Chinese Government increase its access to firsthand information about enterprises' difficulties and collect their suggestions. Timely solutions in response are conducive to stabilizing the development of private and foreign-funded enterprises and boosting their confidence in and expectations of the market, in turn resulting in high-quality development, Zhu said.

(Print Edition Title: Pivotal Panels) 

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

Comments to panxiaoqiao@cicgamericas.com 

Growing the Private Economy 

Chinese authorities have issued a guideline on boosting the growth of the private economy, promising to improve its business environment, enhance policy support, and strengthen the legal guarantee for its development. 

The document was released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council on July 14. 

The country will help grow, improve and strengthen the private economy so that it can play a bigger role in advancing national rejuvenation, the document said. 

To provide an improved environment for the private economy, China will work to remove barriers in market access and fully implement policies and mechanisms for fair competition. 

The country will protect intellectual property rights, the property rights of private firms and the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs as part of the legal guarantee for the growth of the private economy. 

More policy support will be provided to facilitate financing for companies and meet labor demand, according to the guideline. 

In promoting the high-quality development of the private economy, the country will encourage private companies to accelerate their digital transformation and invest more in research and development. 

The guideline also pledged measures to promote entrepreneurship in the private economy and measures to create a nurturing social environment for the private economy. 

The private economy has become an intrinsic element of China's economic system and a significant force in sustainable and healthy economic development, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission said when answering questions about the document. 

From 2012 to 2021, the share of China's national tax revenue from private enterprises increased from 48 percent to 59.6 percent, while the proportion of private enterprises in the Chinese business landscape increased from 79.4 percent to 93.3 percent from 2012 to 2022, the official said. 

Meanwhile, 50.9 percent of foreign trades were conducted by private enterprises in 2022, higher than any other type of business since 2019. 

The official noted that the private economy has become a new force to promote Chinese modernization and an indispensable foundation for high-quality development. 

Still, some private enterprises are facing difficulties. The system and mechanism to promote the development and growth of the private economy should be further fine-tuned to boost its confidence and vitality, the official added.  

(Source: Xinhua News Agency)