Ningbo rolls out new measures to boost private sector

The government of Ningbo recently rolled out 25 new measures to boost its private economy, with the hope of strengthening the innovative capacity and global competitiveness of its private sector over the three year period from 2019 to 2021.

The measures include preferential policies for private companies in taxation, land use, public utility charges, financing, innovation, foreign trade, and legal protection. 

Tax upon private companies is expected to be reduced by 60 billion yuan ($8.64 billion) within the three years, and special funds of 2 billion yuan will be devoted to the city's major technology innovation projects, in which private companies will be encouraged to take the leading role.

Besides this, there will be subsidies of up to 300 billion yuan for private companies to conduct technological innovation and establish research institutes.

In terms of foreign trade, in particular, there are measures to boost exports from private companies by increasing the short-term credit insurance for exports, and encourage cooperation between insurers and banks to guarantee funds for export companies. 

Private companies are also encouraged to further go global. According to the measures, six transnational corporations with revenue of over 10 billion yuan, and one with revenue of over 100 billion yuan are planned to be established by 2021. 

Efforts to cultivate leading local import companies of consumer goods will be sped up, and the support for agents and distributors will also be strengthened to help private companies develop a national import and distributing network. 

In addition, the government will deepen the reform of port trade by further streamlining customs clearance and applying electronic documents in every aspect of shipping to facilitate its foreign trade.