Market entities to get regulator's backing

China has made progress in stabilizing the development of market entities and optimizing its business environment. In the future, more efforts will be made for the innovative development of market entities, said the State Administration for Market Regulation on Tuesday.

Yu Jun, spokesman for the SAMR and head of its publicity department, said during a news conference on Tuesday that March 1 marked the first anniversary since the launch of the Administrative Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Registration of Market Entities, which serves as a legal foundation for addressing issues related to market entity registration, protecting market players' legal interests, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation and securing healthy market order.

According to the administration, by the end of last year, there were 169 million registered market entities in China, surging 10.03 percent on a yearly basis.

Among the market entities, there are 52.83 million enterprises, 110 million self-employed businesses and 2.24 million rural cooperatives. Newly established market entities grew 0.71 percent year-on-year to 29.08 million.

This year, the administration will continue to deepen reform, improve market access approval rules, create a better market environment for the innovative development of market entities, further stimulate corporate vitality and competitiveness, and make greater contributions to the building of the new development paradigm and high-quality development, Yu said.

Support to micro and small enterprises has also been increasing, the SAMR said. The administration has launched 545 incentive policies targeting "little giant" companies — those specialized in niche industries with cutting-edge technologies and great growth potential — and guided 352 certification institutions to optimize related processes and reduce certification costs for smaller companies.

In addition, to help enterprises out of difficulties and reduce burdens, the administration guided testing agencies to optimize technical methods, provide more remote solutions and shorten approval times.

So far, a total of 144,000 manufacturing enterprises have received such assistance, saving corporate costs of over 1 billion yuan ($145.3 million), the SAMR said.

To further promote the innovative development of market entities, Ren Duanping, head of the registration department of the SAMR, said, "Next, we will further pay attention to enhancing the quality of market entities, constantly optimize the business environment and strive to create a better situation for the development of individual businesses."