China will upgrade its mass entrepreneurship and innovation campaign to boost employment, promote technological innovation and stimulate industrial growth, the meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Sept 6.

Innovation is the primary driving force on development and a strategic pillar of the modern economic system. The Chinese government places high importance on innovation and entrepreneurship. President Xi Jinping stressed that it is crucial to nurture new business models such as the sharing economy and digital economy, and encourage more non-governmental entities to engage in entrepreneurship and innovation. Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that the mass entrepreneurship and innovation campaign needs to be upgraded to improve services for business startups and innovation across the board, and create more opportunities for entrepreneurship-driven employment.

Since 2015, the Chinese government has introduced a host of incentives to push the mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative to a higher level and wider scope. Those efforts have delivered tangible results. 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 achieved fast growth. The first half of 2018 has seen an average of 18,100 new businesses registered on a daily basis.

The meeting on Sept 6 decided that further steps will be taken to create a more enabling environment for entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives. Such steps include: further streamlining administration and delegating powers, making it easier to start new businesses, advancing the reform for simplified enterprise de-registration, formulating detailed policy incentives to encourage scientific researchers to start their own businesses, and improving 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.”

Financial support and tax incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation will be enhanced. Innovative enterprises with good potential but are not yet profitable will also be encouraged to be listed and apply for financing. Pilot programs will be carried out to grant long-term use rights or even ownership to researchers for their job-related scientific or technological achievements, and to provide compensation to cover loan risks in the commercial application of such achievements.

Premier Li said 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 in recent years, but also to expand the campaign into wider fields.

“The role of market forces should be given better play to speed up the development of the industrial internet, and foster greater synergy with the development of smart manufacturing and e-commerce,” Premier Li said. “We should promote ‘internet + public services’ to deliver more quality resources to the people.”

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