China pledges further efforts to support self-employed businesses

BEIJING - Chinese officials on Tuesday pledged more efforts to support self-employed businesses amid difficulties as the country unveiled a new regulation on advancing the development of self-employed businesses.

Guo Qimin, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said more will be done to enhance macro policy implementation, improve the business environment, and promote employment and entrepreneurship.

Efforts will also be made to lower burdens on small firms and self-employed businesses, help them with financing, and stimulate consumer demand, Guo told a news conference on the new regulation.

The regulation, which came into effect Tuesday, has set out specific preferential policies in areas including optimizing the business environment and protecting the lawful rights and interests of self-employed businesses.

Pu Chun, deputy head of the State Administration for Market Regulation, said the regulation has given full consideration to the concerns of self-employed businesses and put forward practical and effective measures.

For instance, he said, local governments should, according to the new regulation, provide more business sites while reducing the cost of using such sites. They should fully consider the needs and difficulties of self-employed businesses in decision-making.

"To advance the development of self-employed businesses is to support the real economy," said Pu.

To cushion the epidemic impact and other difficulties, China has made constant efforts to reduce burdens on self-employed businesses. From 2020 to the end of September this year, tax and fee cuts for self-employed businesses reached nearly 1.03 trillion yuan ($142.9 billion).

Currently, over 80 percent of China's self-employed businesses are free from taxes, according to Dai Shiyou, an official with the State Taxation Administration.

By the end of September, China had 111 million registered self-employed businesses, accounting for two-thirds of the country's market entities, official data showed. Nearly 90 percent of these are in the service sector, while over 30 percent have engaged in new businesses like online streaming and e-commerce.