THE booming private-sector economy has helped to create jobs for nearly one million unemployed workers each year and saved more than 20 billion yuan (HK$26.8 billion) from government funds by cutting down unemployment subsidies, official reports said yesterday.
Xinhua (the New China News Agency) reported that the privately-run economy, whose hands had been tied in the past, was flourishing in various parts of the country.
Shanghai economist Liu Xili said: ''China's private economy has entered the most active period of growth.'' Incomplete statistics put the total number of privately-run enterprises at 210,000 as of September - up by more than 70 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Following the 14th Communist Party Congress in October last year, Xinhua said the private economy had grown by leaps and bounds.
Various local authorities had adopted measures to unleash the economic potential of the private sector, it said.
For instance, the central province of Anhui had lifted restrictions on the size of businesses in the private sector.
Hainan province had allowed privately-run firms to form conglomerates and to contract out and purchase small state-owned enterprises, it said.
