Doing Business with China

Larger share of non-state business in cities and townships and faster growth in numbers

The number of individual industrial and commercial proprietors in urban China (cities and townships) was 11.27 million in 2001, which was 46.4 per cent of the national total. They offered 21.31 million jobs, 44.8 per cent of the total employment provided by such proprietors countrywide. The privately-run enterprises in the urban areas of China totalled 1.29 million in 2001, accounting for 63.6 per cent of the national total and representing an increase of 19.6 per cent year on year. At the same time, the registered capital also increased by 36.8 per cent to 1.26 trillion renminbi. The number of investors in privately-run enterprises grew by 21 per cent to a total of 2.99 million. In 2001 the total employment by privately-run enterprises in urban China was 12.28 million, 20.3 per cent more than in 2000. In rural areas of China, the number of individual industrial and commercial proprietors in 2001 was 13.04 million, or 53.6 per cent of the country's total number of individual industrial and commercial proprietors. They provided jobs for 26.29 million people, which was 55.2 per cent of the total jobs provided by individual industrial and commercial proprietors in the country. Privately-run enterprises, on the other hand, reached a total of 737,000, 36.4 per cent of the country's total. This figure was an increase of 8 per cent over 2000. The registered capital of the privately-run enterprises in rural China saw an increase of 37.1 per cent over 2000, totalling 563.8 billion renminbi. There was an increase of 9.2 per cent in the number of investors (1.62 million) in rural privately-run enterprises in 2001. The number of jobs provided by rural privately- run enterprises increased by a moderate 3.5 per cent to a total of 10.25 million.