10,000 startups a day being set up in China to boost economy

BEIJING: More than 10,000 startup firms are being set up everyday in China as part of new reforms initiated by the Chinese government to halt the slide of the economy.

China sees more than 10,000 firms born every day amid government support for entrepreneurship and so far about six million new startups have been setup, Xin Guobin, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology said.

Most of the firms are small enterprises. Data was collected last March through the end of August this year and about six million firms were registered during the period, he said.

The government has been cutting taxes and fees, helping small firms save about 48.6 billion yuan ($7.93 billion) in the first half of the year, Xin said.

Lending to small firms stood at 16.2 trillion yuan ($2.7 billion) at the end of June, up 14.5 per cent from last year, Xin said.

However, he admitted small firms are facing challenges amid economic slowdown, slumping product prices, rising costs and production overcapacity.

The new startup campaign has been initiated by the government as the economic slowdown is causing big job losses all over China.

The startups, were expected to revitalise the economy taking advantage of the booming e-commerce.

The campaign was also expected to boost government's drive to boost the domestic consumption changing the orientation of the economy from export dependent to that of the one based on domestic consumption.

Chinese economy is currently hovering around seven per cent.

According to IMF, China's growth is expected to slow from 7.3 per cent in 2014 to 6.8 per cent this year and 6.3 per cent in 2016 as the country struggles with its shift from export to consumption-driven economy.