Market entities are an important force in economic and social development, and people are the real heroes, Premier Li Keqiang said at a national teleconference held to discuss such issues as deepening reforms to streamline administrative approval, delegate power to lower levels, and improve regulations and services on June 2.

Premier Li said hundreds of millions of market entities in China showed great resilience in the face of multiple severe shocks last year, while the government also innovated macro policies and deepened the reform on streamlining administration and bolstering compliance oversight and services.

Despite difficulties, he said, the number of new market entities exceeded 25 million last year, and maintained robust growth in the first four months of this year.

According to official statistics, the number of registered market entities totaled more than 140 million by April, up from 54.95 million in 2012, and around 70 percent of them are in active operation, Premier Li noted.

Safeguarding market entities helped stabilize employment, the Premier said, citing an increase of 11.86 million urban jobs last year, and a drop in surveyed urban unemployment rate from a peak of 6.2 percent in February to 5.2 percent at the end of last year.

Jobs also boosted residents’ incomes, with per capita disposable income rising 2.1 percent in real terms last year, basically in line with GDP growth, he said.

The Premier also stressed the contribution of new market players to tax revenues, adding that nearly 80 million market entities newly registered in the tax system between 2013 and 2020 paid 3.82 trillion yuan in 2020 alone, and more than 6.2 million market entities in 2013 paid 160 billion yuan that year.