Nation to boost entrepreneurship, innovation

Young people seek employment opportunities at a job fair in Chongqing that attracted companies from the technology, internet and finance sectors, among others. [Photo by Zhou Yi/China News Service]

China will upgrade its mass entrepreneurship and innovation campaign to strengthen employment, promote technological innovation and stimulate industrial growth, attendees at the State Council's executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Thursday.

Further steps will be taken to create a more enabling environment for entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives.

Efforts will be made in further streamlining administration and delegation of authority, making it easier to start new businesses. They also will help advance reforms to simplify the deregistration of defunct enterprises and formulate detailed policy incentives to encourage scientific researchers to start their own businesses. Also included will be improvement of policy support and services for migrant workers returning to their hometowns or ex-servicemen who wish to engage in entrepreneurial activities.

"The underlying objective of upgrading mass entrepreneurship and innovation is to make the Chinese economy more innovation-driven and promote higher-quality development through boosting employment, particularly employment for college graduates," Li stressed.

Since 2015, the government has introduced a host of incentives to push entrepreneurship and innovation to a higher level and wider scope.

With an improved environment and diversified entities for innovation and entrepreneurship, a large number of outstanding entrepreneurial teams have come to the fore, and a group of innovation-driven companies have grown quickly. The first half of 2018 saw an average of 18,100 new businesses registered daily.

It was decided on Thursday that financial support for entrepreneurship and innovation will be enhanced. Innovative enterprises with good prospects but that are not yet profitable will be encouraged to become listed on a stock exchange and apply for financing. Pilot programs will grant longterm use rights or ownership to researchers for their job-related scientific or technological achievements and provide compensation to cover loan risks in the commercial application of the achievements.

Li emphasized that in intensifying the mass entrepreneurship and innovation effort, it is important not only to secure the growth momentum of new business models that have emerged but also to expand the campaign to wider fields.

"The role of market forces should be given better play to speed up the development of the industrial use of the internet, and foster synergy with the development of smart manufacturing and e-commerce," Li said. "We should promote 'internet plus public services' to deliver more quality resources to the people."

The meeting also called for efforts to innovate in creditworthiness oversight and urge companies operating on sharing economy platforms to fulfill their responsibilities for ensuring safety and product quality.