On 22 December, the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council released theOpinions on Creating a more Favourable Development Environment to Support Reforms and Development of Private Enterprises. The document outlines a list of 28 opinions that relevant government bodies will need to follow in the next months to further stimulate the vitality and innovativeness of private enterprises, thus leveraging on their role to push forward supply-side reforms and high-quality development. These include, for instance:
- Optimisation of the market environment for fair competition, including:
- Relaxing market entry restrictions for private enterprises in key sectors such as electricity, telecommunications, railway, oil and natural gas, as well as in infrastructures, social services, and financial services;
- Supporting private enterprises to launch basic telecom operations services (through equity participation) and power generation and distribution (through equity control or participation);
- Supporting private enterprises to engage in oil and gas exploration and development, refining and sales, and infrastructure building e.g. storage and transportation pipeline for crude oil and natural gas;
- Supporting qualified private enterprises to engage in importation of crude oil and exploitation of oil products;
- Other opinions cover: elimination of non-business barriers for private enterprises to participate in bidding and tendering; as well as further normalisation of standards and procedures for punitive actions towards enterprises losing their credit.
- Optimisation of an effective regulatory environment, including:
- Reducing the taxation burden of private enterprises, covering e.g. expansion of tax super deduction and amortisation for R&D expenses, lowering of VAT rate, expansion of preferential tax policies for micro and small enterprises, etc.;
- Encouraging financial institutions to expand their credit and financial support to private enterprises, also through innovative schemes e.g. on chattel mortgages based on movable assets such as industrial orders;
- Accelerating legislative process and norms to ensure that government bodies and large state-owned enterprises pay their debts to private enterprises within the agreed terms.
- Encourage and guide innovation reforms of private enterprises, including:
- Encouraging private enterprises to lead or participate in any type of government-funded projects, in major R&D and technology transfer activities; ensuring that government administrations at all levels will grant equal treatment to private enterprises at any stage of the project;
- Increasing the degree of openness and accessibility of private enterprises to key state S&T equipment and research infrastructures; encouraging private enterprises to recruit and introduce senior foreign talents;
- Supporting private enterprises to participate in the reform of state-owned enterprises, and to take part in major national strategies e.g. the Belt and Road, the integrated development of the Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta and Greater Bay areas.
Other opinions address the need of government administrations to cultivate and maintain positive and win-win relationships with private enterprises, e.g. by getting involved in various contracts and deals such as through public-private partnerships.
Unlike most opinions published by the Chinese central government, in this document there is no reference to foreign-invested enterprises.
External links:
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2019-12/22/content_5463137.htm
Useful links:
Several Policies and Measures on Supporting Tech-based SMEs to Boost Innovation Development in the New Era (Guo Ke Fa Qu [2019] No. 268)