China's innovation and entrepreneurship strategy has resulted in more companies, more jobs and a shift toward industrial restructuring, a senior official said Thursday.
During the first half of the year, 2.62 million companies were established, up 28.6 percent year on year, Lin Nianxiu, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference.
"China is in a golden era of mass innovation and entrepreneurship," Lin said.
The increase in startups has created more jobs. Startups provided 1.46 million jobs during the first six months, with 230,000 created in June alone. Grappling with a slowing economy, China has been counting on innovation and entrepreneurship to maintain its growth and contribute to an economic overhaul.
The strategy has led to a boom in the country's emerging industries, with revenues rising 11.6 percent year on year during H1. Profits in emerging industries jumped 18.9 percent year on year, compared with 15.4 percent growth a year earlier.
Applications for patents rose to 1.45 million over the same period, an increase of 37.8 percent year on year.
Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship has brought vitality to society and given new impetus to the economy, Lin added.
A national venture fund for emerging industry startups, which is estimated at more than 40 billion yuan (around 6 billion U.S. dollars), will start operation soon, Lin said.
The fund is part of a larger government effort to wean the economy off its dependence on fixed asset investment in infrastructure and property and also to foster new opportunities for private sector companies.
Although the country's venture capital industry's growth has slowed since the second half of last year, Lin said the scale of the fund was considerable Venture capitalists prefer startups with stable earnings, a modest valuation and a clear business model.
Those related to artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology were more favored, Lin said. "The venture capital industry is returning to sanity after years of explosive growth," Lin said, adding that a sensible and prudent venture capital market was conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship in the long run.
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