China will upgrade its mass entrepreneurship and innovation campaign to boost employment, promote technological innovation and stimulate industrial growth, the State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Thursday.

Innovation is the primary driving force of development and a strategic pillar of the modern economic system. The Chinese government places high importance on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Li has pointed out that the mass entrepreneurship and innovation campaign needs to be upgraded to improve services for business start-ups and innovation across the board, and create more opportunities for entrepreneurship-driven employment.

Since 2015, the government has introduced a host of incentives to push the mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative to a higher level and wider scope.

These efforts have delivered tangible results. With improved environment and diversified entities of innovation and entrepreneurship, a large number of outstanding entrepreneurial teams have come to the fore, and a group of innovation-driven companies have achieved fast growth. The first half of 2018 has seen a daily average of 18,100 new businesses registered.

The Thursday meeting decided that further steps will be taken to create a more enabling environment for entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives.

Such steps include: further streamlining administration and delegating powers, making it easier to start new businesses, advancing the reform for simplified enterprise deregistration, formulating detailed policy incentives to encourage scientific researchers to start their own businesses, and improving policy support and services for migrant workers returning to their hometowns or ex-servicemen who wish to engage in entrepreneurial activities.

"The underlying objective of upgrading mass entrepreneurship and innovation is to make the Chinese economy more innovation-driven and promote higher-quality development through boosting employment, particularly employment for college graduates," Li stressed.

Financial support and tax incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation will be enhanced. Innovative enterprises with prominent potential but are not yet profitable will be also encouraged to be listed and apply for financing.

Pilot programs will be carried out to grant long-term use right or even ownership to researchers for their job-related scientific or technological achievements and to provide compensation to cover loan risks in the commercial application of such achievements.

Li emphasized that in intensifying the mass entrepreneurship and innovation effort, it is important not only to secure the growth momentum of the new business models that have emerged in recent years, but also to expand the campaign into wider fields.

The role of market forces should be given better play to speed up the development of industrial internet, and foster greater synergy with the development of smart manufacturing and e-commerce, Li said.

The meeting also called for efforts in seeking innovation creditworthiness oversight and urge companies operating on sharing economy platforms to fulfill their responsibilities for ensuring safety and product quality.

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