Measures to Strengthen the Private Sector
On July 19, the Communist Party Central Committee and State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Private Sector (关于促进民营经济发展壮大的意见), a policy guidance document for bolstering private sector economic activity.
On August 1, eight central government agencies jointly published the Near-term Measures to Strengthen the Private Sector (关于实施促进民营经济发展近期若干举措) as part of the implementation. These agencies include the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the People’s Bank of China.
The Measures contain 28 policy measures across five areas: market access, factors of production, legal protection, government services and the business environment.
Below is the outline of the document, followed by a summary:
I. Facilitate Fair Market Access (促进公平准入)
II. Strengthen Production Factors Support (强化要素支持)
III. Strengthen Legal Protection (加强法治保障)
IV. Improve Enterprise-related Services (优化涉企服)
V. Create a Positive Environment (营造良好氛围)
Policy Measures
I. Facilitate Fair Market Access
1. Encourage private capital participation in select major national projects and projects that address gaps and deficiencies.
2. Expand the scale of real estate investment trusts in infrastructure and promote issuance for eligible private investment projects.
3. Support private enterprises participating in major technological breakthroughs in industrial software, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, new energy storage, etc.
4. Improve the supply capability of private enterprises in critical areas of the industrial supply chain.
5. Promote the healthy development of the platform economy, and continue to issue “green light” investment model cases for platform enterprises.
6. Accelerate the intellectual rights protection process at national intellectual protection centres for “Little Giant” and high-tech enterprises.
7. Boost private enterprises' quality management and technical innovation through upgraded certification systems, and support the creation of international industry and standard organisations.
8. Extend the 40 per cent SME reserved quota in government procurement until the end of 2023. Provide credit guarantees to help SMEs participate in procurement and speed up contract payments.