China to further promote innovation, entrepreneurship

China will go further on innovation-driven development and entrepreneurship, with more policy incentives to entrepreneurship from overseas.

Premier Li Keqiang

A guideline is approved at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday to further enhance the support for innovation and entrepreneurship.

China will establish an integrated digital business license registry, and enable one-stop registration for foreign enterprises and their domestic counterparts within a given timeframe for due procedures.

The government will simplify procedures of work and residential permit application for high-calibre foreign talents, and pilot integrated service in housing, schooling and medical care. Overseas students in China who start new businesses can also apply for residential permit with their diplomas.

"Mass entrepreneurship and innovation has been an effective driver for both economic growth and the consistent transition between traditional and new growth engines. It has also significantly contributed to creation of new jobs and increase in income," Li said.

The push for mass entrepreneurship and innovation was first put forward by the premier during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2014 in Tianjin.

Statistics by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce shows that the country saw the registration of more than 13 million new enterprises between March 2014 and February 2017, 94.6 percent of which are in the private sector, adding an average of 15,600 new enterprises on a daily basis in the first five months of this year, giving employment a major boost.

The country will also put in place programs to support Chinese students overseas to return for business startups and innovation, and enable overseas Chinese entrepreneurs, including those from Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, enjoy the same public services as local residents, according to the guideline.

More efforts will go to the protection of intellectual property rights, while invigorating technology markets and explore a mechanism that can ensure timely commercialization of research findings with fiscal support in some areas.

The country will also expand the funding channels for enterprises, including measures to enhance the credit support and relevant services and reform on rules for state capital to take part in venture capital investment, according to the guideline.

The upgrading of the real economy will get a boost from enhancing the development of innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, the sharing economy and the development of digital economy.

The development of industrial Internet and advanced manufacturing and the land use for innovation and entrepreneurship purposes will be given priorities.

"We should keep promoting entrepreneurship and innovation, and give full play to the initiative and creativity of the public. The R&D outcomes should be put to full use so that we can better draw on the wisdom of the public," Li said.

"The internal strength of the new growth drivers should be fully converged into new growth engines of the Chinese economy," he added.

The State Council executive meeting on June 7 decided to set up more high-level demonstration bases for mass entrepreneurship and innovation covering all provincial-level areas.

The country established 28 such zones last year, playing a pivotal role in helping the transformation and upgrading of local economy, the China Association for Science and Technology said in a report.

The government will also innovate its ways of administration to further promote fair competition, step up prudent and tolerating oversight, widen market access, improve tax services and create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Li said the country need to ensure that different policies can be fully implemented.

Entrepreneurship and innovation within major enterprises is of great significance as it gives rise to customized production and a change in production organization, he said.

It also enables them to better adapt to the personalized demand in the information age, the premier added.

Editor: Eric Wang