Private Economy Expands Quickly in ChinaThe private economy has been expanding rapidly since China began its reform and open-up drive in 1978.Sources from a recent summit of listed non-governmental businesses in China, held in Shenzhen City of Guangdong Province, said there are 1.5 million private businesses in China and another 31 million self-employed industrial and commercial households across the country. The private sector, with 130 million employees, contributed more than half to China's gross domestic product (GDP) last year, but in east China's coastal provinces such as Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong provinces, where private economy is highly developed, the private sector contributes more than 60 percent to GDP. Though the private economy has become one of the major powerhouses to ensure a fast growth of the national economy, said summit participants, greater efforts should be made to remove three major obstacles in order to guarantee a continuous development in the country's private sector. According to the participants, the three obstacles are an imperfect system for protection of private property, bias toward private businesses in market access and private businesses' difficulties in raising funds for further development. |
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