China's policy support boosts private sector's healthy development
The sector, constituting more than 90 per cent of enterprises in the world's second-largest economy, has forged ahead with steady expansion as the country reaffirms unswerving support for the sector's growth amid challenges and difficulties. – Xinhua photo
BEIJING (April 24): China's private sector saw robust industrial output growth in the first quarter of 2025, with its investment in manufacturing and innovation-driven development also accelerating.
The sector, constituting more than 90 per cent of enterprises in the world's second-largest economy, has forged ahead with steady expansion as the country reaffirms unswerving support for the sector's growth amid challenges and difficulties.
In the latest episode of the China Economic Roundtable, an all-media talk show hosted by Xinhua News Agency, guest speakers focused on the important messages from a high-level symposium on private enterprises held in February, sharing insights on the private sector's challenges and opportunities. Their discussions also shed light on the sector's broad development prospects and immense potential.
Unswerving support for the private sector
Guest speaker Liu Min, deputy head of the private economy development bureau under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, told Xinhua that China's private sector has supported overall national economic growth with a solid performance in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, the symposium — attended by top Chinese leaders and representatives of private enterprises — has demonstrated the firm determination of the Party and the country to promote the private sector's development.
'A clear message from the meeting is that the importance of the private sector in the Chinese economy cannot and will not be changed,' according to guest speaker Zhu Min, a member of the Senior Expert Advisory Committee of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. He said the meeting has conveyed the message that full support from all levels of government is to be provided to promote the sector's healthy development.
Official data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, the value-added industrial output of private enterprises increased 7.3 per cent year on year, outpacing the growth rate of all industrial enterprises; private investment grew 0.4 per cent year on year, shifting from a decline in 2024. Notably, private investment in the manufacturing sector grew by 9.7 per cent. Meanwhile, the import and export volume of private enterprises rose 5.8 per cent in the first quarter.
As a representative of private entrepreneurs who spoke at the symposium, Liu Yonghao, chairman of New Hope Group, a leading agricultural conglomerate in China, said at the roundtable that he felt deeply encouraged by the support the country has pledged for the private sector, saying that private firms must strive for new achievements by tapping into new quality productive forces and advanced technologies.
Tan Limin, chairman of Westwell, a Chinese tech firm engaged in AI applications and autonomous driving solutions, said the symposium has also shown the importance the government attaches to tech companies in the private sector, which would encourage private firms to continue with more investment in technological innovation.
Private economy expands amid supportive measures
Private enterprises in China continued to expand steadily in the first quarter of 2025 amid government efforts to spur growth in both the private sector and the broader economy. Newly established private firms numbered nearly 2 million during the period, marking an increase of 7.1 per cent year on year, official data showed.
Over 40 per cent of the newly established private firms during the January-March period were related to new technologies, products, business forms and models, the data showed. Currently, private enterprises contribute 70 per cent of technological innovation in the country.
Liu Min said the government has intensified efforts to strengthen and optimise the supervision mechanism related to administrative charges levied on enterprises, address overdue payments owed to private enterprises, and continue efforts to ensure fair private sector access to competitive infrastructure and major national scientific research facilities. The government on Thursday published a new version of the market access negative list, which further reduced the number of items on the list from 117 to 106, a decrease of 11 items.
'Legislative work regarding the private economy promotion law is being accelerated, with the draft law expected to be submitted to lawmakers for a third reading,' she said. The proposed legislation, set to become China's first fundamental law dedicated to the private sector, explicitly defines the private sector as a vital pillar of China's socialist market economy, with observers expecting it to boost entrepreneurial confidence and encourage long-term investment.
Zhu said that Chinese private enterprises are highly competitive. He observed that over the past few years, Chinese private enterprises have sought to reduce costs and improve quality, with their share in the country's total import and export volume having increased to over 56 per cent, demonstrating resilience.
However, in the face of high tariffs, it is important that the country offer multi-pronged support for private enterprises through boosting domestic demand and providing financing support to help them navigate the challenge, said the economist.
Broad development prospects
Guest speakers have voiced optimism in the Chinese private sector's development prospects, believing that the huge Chinese market with over 1.4 billion people represents ample business opportunities for private enterprises.
Liu Min said that Chinese private enterprises are stepping up technological and industrial innovation efforts, as traditional industries are steadily evolving to high-end, intelligent and green, and strategic emerging industries such as AI, embodied robotics, commercial aerospace, and biomedicine, as well as the cultural sector, are thriving.
Liu Yonghao said there is great potential for traditional industries to upgrade by developing new quality productive forces. He gave an example of his firm's investment in digitisation and smart technologies applied in cold chain logistics, which have greatly helped protect the quality of perishable food products and mitigate waste. He made the company a leader in this business segment in the country.
Tan of Westwell said that by sticking to technological innovation for a decade, his company's AI and autonomous driving technologies and solutions have entered the markets in 28 countries and regions, helping revolutionise container logistics with its AI-empowered digital and intelligent services.
According to Zhu, over the past 40-plus years, China's private enterprises have grown rapidly, and there will be great opportunities in areas such as AI software development, new manufacturing, green development, and the service industry going forward. 'I am very optimistic about the prospects of Chinese private enterprises.' – Xinhua China economy private sector Xinhua
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
25 minutes ago
- The Star
Official predicts 100 AI breakthroughs
Beijing: China's advantages in developing artificial intelligence (AI) are about to unleash a wave of innovation that will generate more than 100 DeepSeek-like breakthroughs in the coming 18 months, according to a former top official. The new software products 'will fundamentally change the nature and the tech nature of the whole Chinese economy,' Zhu Min, who was previously a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said during the World Economic Forum in Tianjin yesterday. Zhu, who also served as the deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund, sees a transformation made possible by harnessing China's pool of engineers, massive consumer base and supportive government policies. The bullish take on China's AI future promises no letup in the competition for dominance in cutting-edge technologies with the United States, just as the world's two biggest economies are also locked in a trade war. The United States sees China as a key rival in the field of AI, especially after DeepSeek shocked the global tech industry in January with its low-cost but powerful model. In addition to efforts to prevent China from securing advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, Washington is blocking Chinese companies from acquiring Nvidia Corp's high-end AI chips for training, citing national security concerns. Beijing is now pinning its hopes on domestic tech giants like Huawei Technologies Co when it comes to advanced chipmaking. The emergence of DeepSeek triggered a rally in China's tech stocks, fuelling optimism over Chinese competitiveness despite tensions over trade with the Trump administration and economic challenges at home. Bloomberg Economics estimates the contribution of high-tech to China's gross domestic product (GDP) climbed to about 15% last year – from near 14% a year earlier – and could exceed 18% in 2026. Despite a tariff truce negotiated a month ago with the United States, American levies are still at high levels, with a more lasting deal still in question. Zhu said the United States will likely see inflation pick up starting in August, as it takes some time for tariffs to feed through to the economy and for companies to use up stockpiles they accumulated before Trump hiked duties. 'The uncertainty brought by US tariff policy is an important factor that may lead to negative growth in global trade this year,' Zhu told reporters on the sidelines of the forum. 'The entire trade industrial chain has begun to slow, investments has begun to stop, so the impact is greater than the actual tariff rate.' The World Economic Forum meeting in Tianjin, also known as 'Summer Davos', has attracted global business executives and world leaders. Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh are scheduled to speak at the three-day event. Chinese Premier Li Qiang is expected to address the conference during the opening plenary today and meet with participants. Despite a tariff truce negotiated a month ago with the United States, American levies are still at high levels, with a more lasting deal still in question. Analysts polled by Bloomberg forecast GDP will slip to 4.5% this year, significantly below the official target of around 5%. It expanded 5.4% in the first quarter. 'The uncertainty brought by US tariff policy is an important factor that may lead to negative growth in global trade this year,' Zhu told reporters on the sidelines of the forum. 'The entire trade industrial chain has begun to slow, investments has begun to stop, so the impact is greater than the actual tariff rate.' Zhu said the United States will likely see inflation pick up starting in August, as it takes some time for tariffs to feed through to the economy and for companies to use up stockpiles they accumulated before Trump hiked duties. Despite shocks from abroad, China's GDP likely grew faster than 5% in the second quarter, according to Huang Yiping, a member of the Chinese central bank's monetary policy committee. Speaking on another panel at the Tianjin forum, he pointed to the economy's solid performance in April and May. But despite strong retail sales in May, when they grew at the fastest pace since December 2023, Huang said China still needs to address the issue of insufficient consumption. — Bloomberg
The Star
26 minutes ago
- The Star
Chinese port activity surges to record high after trade truce with US
Some 6.7 million standard containers were shipped domestically and internationally last week, the Transport Ministry said. — Bloomberg Beijing: Chinese ports just had their busiest week on record, likely due to exporters racing to get goods into the United States as quickly as possible ahead of tariffs that may be imposed early next month. Some 6.7 million standard containers were shipped domestically and internationally last week, the Transport Ministry said yesterday. The almost 6% jump in traffic from the previous week came after a trade truce agreed with Washington earlier in June. In May, Chinese exports to the United States fell the most since the early days of the pandemic. The surge in port activity may be driven by Chinese exporters who are trying to get goods to South-East Asia and then onto the United States before the tariff deadline for those nations expires in early July. It could also be partially due to Chinese companies trying to ship directly to the United States after an agreement reached on May 12 gave them a 90-day window before negotiations end in the middle of August. May and June look like they may be stronger months for trade from Asia to the United States. South Korean exports to the country rose in the first 20 days of June from a year earlier, after jumping to near a record in May, while Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand all reported record shipments to the world's biggest economy last month. The number of international flights also stayed at a high level despite the United States ending the tariff exemption for small parcels from China, which had been one of the main drivers of international cargo, the Chinese data showed. Demand from consumers in other countries for those small parcels is growing rapidly, making up for the drop off in US purchases in May. Chinese domestic rail cargo also surged last week to a record for this period of the year, while local air cargo flights hit an all-time high last week. There were more than 2,100 such flights in the week through last Sunday, taking total cargo flights to the second-highest week on record. Meanwhile, China's coal glut is resulting in an increasing number of unwanted cargoes being offered abroad. About 2.5 million tonnes were exported in the first five months of 2025, according to the latest customs data, which is 13% more than the same period last year. Japan, Indonesia and South Korea were the top destinations. — Bloomberg
The Star
42 minutes ago
- The Star
Robotaxi service by Waymo, Uber expands to U.S. Atlanta
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Waymo and Uber said on Tuesday that their commercial robotaxi service will expand to Atlanta in the U.S. state of Georgia. The service will initially cover about 65 square miles in Atlanta. Waymo's fleet in Atlanta is in the "dozens" and will eventually be expanded over time, the company said. Uber said it has an annual run rate of 1.5 million mobility and delivery trips by autonomous vehicles in partnerships with 18 autonomous vehicle companies on its network. Waymo said it provides 250,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Robotaxi rides will cost the same as an UberX, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric driven by a human, the companies said. The "Waymo on Uber" service splits the responsibilities of owning and operating a fleet of driverless vehicles. Uber handles the charging, maintenance, and cleaning of the autonomous vehicles, and manages access to the robotaxis via its app. Meanwhile, Waymo monitors the tech and the autonomous operations, including roadside assistance and certain aspects of rider support, according to a report by TechCrunch. Last September, Uber and Waymo announced plans to offer robotaxi service in Austin and Atlanta in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership. In March, the companies started offering the "Waymo on Uber" robotaxi service in Austin. Waymo has more than 100 robotaxis in its commercial fleet in Austin, according to the company.
