Every morning, Liu Daqing, 48, owner of a small engineering company, drives to inspect his project sites one by one.

Having graduated from Beijing University of Technology, Liu was once a researcher at the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection. About 15 years ago, he resigned and started his engineering company. At present, annual revenue of his company is about 500,000 yuan and Liu owns four apartments in Beijing and Shanghai besides a car.

Liu Daqing is only one of the 4 million private entrepreneurs in China.

According to a survey jointly conducted by the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, the All-China Association for Private Business Studies and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), the private sector accounts for 65 percent of China's GDP and contributes more than 80 percent of its economic growth. China's private companies have been keeping a great growth momentum, and are playing an important role in the country's economic and social development.

Rapidly growing private economy

The survey on private enterprises, the seventh of its kind since 1993, received almost 4,000 responses. According to the survey, there were more than 3 million private enterprises in China in the first half of last year. The annual output value of these private firms reached 2 trillion yuan.

Compared with the results of the previous survey in 2004, the latest survey found that the number of private enterprises was increasing rapidly following the release of 36 measures by the State Council in 2005 to support development of the private economy. In 18 months, the number of private enterprises increased by 1 million.

The number of self-employed individuals also reversed the dipping trend since 1999, reaching 25 million in 2006. Nearly 90 percent of private entrepreneurs are aged between 33 and 57.

China's registered private enterprises grew by 15 percent to 4.947 million last year. Their total registered capital rocketed 7.5 trillion yuan, up 22 percent.

The survey also reveals that though China's private firms are mainly concentrated in the manufacturing and commercial sectors, their shares in new emerging industries like services and technology has doubled year by year.

Huang Mengfu, Chairman of the ACFIC, holds the private economy is now a significant component of China's national economy and a new booster of economic growth.

"China's private economy played an important role in meeting people's material demands, creating job opportunities, promoting reform of the economic structure, maintaining social stability and ensuring the country's economic safety," Huang said.

To promote the private economy, the Chinese Government has clarified the legitimacy of the private economy in its Constitution and stated that private property of its citizens is being protected.

To help these private industries, special funds have been set up and consultancy services are being offered to entrepreneurs. Requirements for their market access have also been eased.

Meanwhile, private firms are paying more attention to the quality of their products and trying to build their own brands by developing their own technology know-how, improving their management skills and exploring both domestic and overseas markets.

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