More favorable policies will be granted to small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises by the government to encourage startups and innovation.

The initiative was announced during a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

Measures to identify high-tech and new technology enterprises will be improved to provide better policy support for small and medium-sized startups and to stimulate economic upgrading.

This includes relaxing the requirement for the percentage of workers who have received higher education from no less than 30 percent to no less than 10 percent. The new figure covers staff members performing research-related work.

The measures also lower the requirement for small and medium-sized high-tech companies' entry level for research funding from 6 percent to 5 percent of a company's entire funding, and relax the accreditation requirements for high-tech enterprises.

The government will also grant support to high-tech companies in a wider range of industries.

The meeting also discussed further steps to streamline lower-level administrative and delegation power, especially relaxing administrative pressure for enterprises.

Efforts will be made to end the procedures required to provide technological services for industries, and to simplify administrative licensing that previously restricted startups. Sixty-one types of professional qualifications will be eliminated.

The measures form part of government incentives to further strengthen economic structural reform of the supply side to increase the quality and efficiency of the supply system and provide growth impetus for sustainable economic development.

Xu Hongcai, head of the Economic Research Department at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said such measures aim to allow the market to play a bigger role in China's economic reform, and will also have a positive effect on employment.

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