China’s business registration reform has stimulated people’s enthusiasm for investment and entrepreneurship and promoted rapid growth of market players, said Yu Changfa, spokesman for the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), at a news conference on Jan 18.

China began its business registration reform in March 2014 to simplify administrative procedures and lower requirements for business registration. Before the reform, an average of 6,900 new enterprises were registered daily in China, but in 2016 that number increased to 15,100, according to Yu.

By the end of 2016, China had 25.96 million enterprises and 87.05 million market entities. Commercial system reform unleashed real dividends and encouraged mass entrepreneurship and innovation, Yu said.

According to statistics from SAIC, there were 18.89 enterprises per 1,000 people by the end of 2016 in China, representing an 18.8 percent increase from 2015. By the end of 2016, the number of people working in the private sector had reached 310 million, 27.82 million more than the same period of 2015.

The momentum of micro and small enterprises’ development is good according to a survey conducted by SAIC, Yu said. Newly registered micro and small enterprises are playing a prominent role in increasing employment.

Concerning market access, Yu said that government work should be open to public supervision. As for the market environment, SAIC has built a credit-centered supervision system to oversee the market and to optimize the competitive environment.