In recent years, the development of private enterprises has skyrocketed in the city of Ruzhou, Henan province.

Data showed that by December 2008, the total number of registered private enterprises in Ruzhou reached 949 with a registered capital of 1.4 billion yuan ($262 million). The figures have gone up sharply since then. By the end of September 2013, in less than five years, the registered private enterprises number has soared to 1,952, an increase of 105.8 percent. The registered capital now totals 13.2 billion yuan, an increase of 939.5 percent.

A couple of factors contributed to the growth. The timely support and preferential policies provided by the local and provincial government and related departments greatly fueled the development of private enterprises. The government also encouraged surplus rural workers to find nonagricultural employment, providing employment or start-up business opportunities for them.

Statistics also showed that in the past five years, more than 420 individual businesspeople had upgraded their business scale to the private enterprise level. In 2013, 151 private enterprises applied for registration by the end of October this year.

By Huang Pei

Edited by Michael Thai