Company boom invigorates China market

BEIJING - A spurt of growth in new Chinese enterprises is the direct result of recent pro-business measures, an official said on Tuesday.

Zhang Mao, head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said over 5.5 million new market entities, including private businesses and farming cooperatives, were registered from March to July.

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Among them, about 1.6 million were commercial enterprises, up 64.5 percent from the same period of 2013, Zhang told a press conference. Nearly 95 percent of them are private companies.

"More than 10,000 enterprises were set up each day in the past five months," he said.

Changes to business registration went into place on March 1, lifting restrictions on minimum registered capital, payment deadlines, down payment ratio and cash ratio of registered capital. Theoretically, a business can be started with just one yuan.

"The reform has helped entrepreneurs and increased the momentum of economic development," Zhang said.

Along with a lower market threshold, new disclosure rules for corporate information will take effect on October 1 to prevent unqualified companies from flooding the market. Companies will be obliged to release public annual reports on their finances and activities under the supervision of local industrial and commercial authorities.

"Easy access accompanied by strict regulation will help create a fair market for competition," said Zhang.