China's newly registered firms expand steadily in April

BEIJING - The number of newly registered enterprises in China increased 5.9 percent year on year to 389,000 in April as the government took measures to streamline business administration, official figures showed on Wednesday.

Newly registered individually owned businesses and private enterprises topped 371,000 in April, up 6.7 percent year on year, according to a report released by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

The fast rise in the number of new companies indicated increased vitality in the market, the administration said in the report.

China made efforts to facilitate business registration last year amid the economic slowdown, including removing the minimum capital requirements, replacing annual company inspections with a reporting system, and loosening controls over sites for business operations.

The SAIC report also showed China had 72 million businesses by the end of April, up 16.6 percent year on year. Their registered capital rose 34 percent from a year earlier to 142.5 trillion yuan ($16.03 trillion).