East China’s Jiangsu province will release more measures to support the development of the nonpublic sector that has been an integral part of the provincial economy, according to a top official.

Lou Qinjian, Party secretary of Jiangsu, said the private sector accounts for more than half of the region’s economy, and the province will unswervingly encourage its development.

“Private businesses have developed from ‘negligible’ in the early 1980s to one of the three main economies－the other two being State-owned and foreign economies,” he said.

“It began to account for 50 percent of the province’s overall economy around 2010. Its development in the 40 years of reform and opening-up is impressive and has contributed greatly to overall economic development, pushing forward innovation and improving the employment rate.”

Jiangsu has 8 million registered private enterprises and self-employed people. Private industry contributes 58 percent of industrial economic growth, and the number of private industrial enterprises whose annual sales top 20 million yuan ($2.88 million) each accounts for 77 percent of the province’s total.

Lou highlighted the role private enterprises played in innovation.

“Now more than 90 percent of Jiangsu’s high-tech enterprises are from the private sector and their output value accounts for 90 percent of the province’s total,” he said. “Many of Jiangsu’s 120,000 private technology enterprises have grown into industry winners and leaders. They have undertaken 90 percent of the province’s scientific and technological projects.”

The private enterprises also provide jobs to more than 80 percent of the local population, he added.

Lou stressed that President Xi Jinping’s recent speech on private enterprises has given the province more guidance on how to support the sector. As a province in which the private economy is thriving, Jiangsu will put forward more measures to target core problems the sector is facing.

The Jiangsu government held a meeting with private entrepreneurs in November, seeking their opinion on how to better support the private economy.

“The local government has reduced costs for private enterprises by 330 billion yuan in the last three years,” Lou said. “We will follow the six measures mentioned by President Xi to improve the vitality of the private economy.”

He added that the province will make specific plans regarding tax reduction, technology innovation and talent policies to create a fair, harmonious and effective environment for private enterprises.