Most recently, during a keynote speech at a symposium for private enterprises, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that promoting the private sector is crucial for the country’s healthy and high-quality development, highlighting its strategic role in shaping the macro-economy in the future.
Additionally, while interacting and listening to representatives of private entrepreneurs, President Xi motivated private enterprises and entrepreneurs to give full play to their capabilities, enjoying broad prospects and great potential on the new journey in the new era.
The rigorous participation of Jack Ma clearly demonstrates more economic liberalization, favourable business friendly environment, meaningful incentives and last but not the least policy push from the policy makers to make the economy more diversified, dynamic and qualitative during 2025 and beyond.
Moreover, he urged reaching a consensus and firming up confidence to promote the healthy and high-quality development of the private sector. Li Qiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese Premier and Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese Vice Premier, also attended the symposium. It was interactive strategic dialogue during which Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei, BYD’s Wang Chuanfu, New Hope’s Liu Yonghao, Will Semiconductor’s Yu Renrong, Unitree Robotics’ Wang Xingxing, and Xiaomi’s Lei Jun put forward their opinions and advice on the development of the private sector.
Xi rightly ensured CPC and his government support for unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector and unswervingly encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of the non-public sector projecting a timely, balanced, positive and productive policy push for achieving the desired goals of socio-economic prosperity, qualitative industrialization, further development of digitalization, modernization, Artificial Intelligence, hybrid agriculture and human capital development in the days to come. Xi’s commitment to provide equal access to factors of production, and completion in market along with lawful ownership to all the economic entities has numerous socio-economic effects gearing the economy, community, industries, economic entities and private entrepreneurship towards a more productive society, industrial supply chains, high volumes of exports, further development of modernizing of manufacturing units and their capacities in the future.
Xi ensured that the new journey in the new era has provided abundant new opportunities and greater space for the development of the private sector stressing that the current difficulties and challenges facing the private sector can be overcome and called for confidence in the future. It is a good omen that Xi urged resolutely dismantling obstacles preventing enterprises from accessing production factors equally and competing in the market fairly, further opening the competitive areas of infrastructure to various business entities in a fair manner, and continuously making solid efforts to address the difficulties faced by private enterprises in obtaining affordable financing showing his vision for the development of private sector which is innovative, integrated, transparent, open, modern and investment, business and people’s friendly providing all possible inputs and policy support for it role, scope, utility and importance in the national economy.
He also stressed the effective protection of the lawful rights and interests of private enterprises and entrepreneurs in accordance with the law. Moreover, Xi’s hope embracing entrepreneurship and patriotism, focusing on further strengthening, optimizing, and expanding their businesses, and firmly contributing to building socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing Chinese modernization is the recipe of further development of the private sector and strategic road map for their expansion and productivity in the future. Evidently, the Chinese private sector enjoys broad prospects and great potential on the new journey in the new era. It is a prime time for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to give full play to their capabilities.
In summary, the CONCEPT of “56789” vividly reflects strategic importance of the private sector referring the private firms’ contribution of more than 50 percent to national tax revenue, more than 60 percent to the national GDP, more than 70 percent to technological innovation achievements, more than 80 percent to urban employment, and 90 percent to the total number of enterprises in China. Furthermore, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation, by the end of September 2024, the number of registered private enterprises nationwide exceeded 55 million, with private enterprises accounting for 92.3 percent of the total number of enterprises. It is high time that the Chinese policy makers should remove all obstacles preventing the private sector from accessing production factors equally and competing in the market fairly, further opening the competitive areas of infrastructure to various business entities in a fair manner, and continuously making solid efforts to address the difficulties faced by private enterprises in obtaining affordable financing.
On its part the private enterprises and entrepreneurs should follow holistic and comprehensive people and environment friendly policies through combining productivity and patriotism, strengthening, optimizing, and expanding their businesses with socialist economy with Chinese characteristics and advancing Chinese modernization which should be the way forward. It is suggested that the private sector should lead the technological advancement, particularly in the fields of digital economy, digitalization, and artificial intelligence making it a crucial force in enhancing China’s international competitiveness in the tech sector. It is proposed that since private sector has positive role in areas such as job creation and driving technological innovation to spur economic growth the policy makers should jointly work for a more prosperous China further consolidating its industrial modernization, innovation, green transformation and last but not least export resilience catering the onslaught of Trump’s thundering high tariffs.
—The writer is President, Pak-China Corridor of Knowledge, Executive Director, CSAIS, regional expert: China, CPEC & BRI.
(mehmoodulhassankhan@yahoo.com)
