Residents and tourists enjoy nighttime activities such as shopping and cultural performances at Wanshou Palace commercial street in Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi Province, on February 18, 2023. As the weather warms up, the streets and alleys in Nanchang have become more lively, and the nighttime economy is helping to drive urban consumption. (Photo/ VCG)

China's leadership has vowed to unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector and unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector in China.

"We should, in accordance with the law, protect the property rights of private enterprises and the rights and interests of entrepreneurs," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in his Government Work Report delivered on Sunday, on behalf of the State Council to the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, the top legislature. 

"We should encourage and support the private sector and private businesses in growing and expanding and support micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed individuals in business development," Li said.  

"We should cultivate a cordial and clean relationship between government and business and create an environment in which enterprises under all forms of ownership can compete and grow on a level playing field. Effective measures and policies should be rolled out to boost market expectations and confidence," Li added. 

The remarks fully demonstrate the government's clear attitude in supporting the development of the private economy, Deloitte China Chair Jiang Ying told the Global Times on Sunday.

With the overall recovery of the economy, the private sector will embrace greater opportunities. It is expected that the country will take practical measures to boost private entrepreneurs' confidence, Jiang said, who is also a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

China should promote equalization treatment for production materials' prices for the private and state-owned enterprises, in a bid to promote a further development of the private economy, Yu Miaojie, a delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) said in a motion shared with Global Times. 

Yu, the president of Liaoning University, said the promotions should come in in the form of capital, land, labor force and big data, as the move could help expand the domestic demand and promote the development and growth of the private sector.

In terms of financing, Yu said it should relax the market access of financial services market, which means to develop regional private small and medium-sized banks to make traditional private lending more transparent.  

Expanding the land supply for private enterprises and allocating special land appropriation quotas for private small and medium-sized enterprises is necessary, Yu said. 

Yu also said it should support private enterprises to introduce all kinds of urgently needed talent and innovative teams, and provide convenience for qualified high-level talent in housing security, living allowances, children's education, and settlement services. 

Promoting data sharing is also needed, Yu said, and encouraging state-owned enterprises and Internet platform enterprises to play a leading role in providing public products such as basic industry economic data to serve all sectors of society.

A proposal sent to the Global Times by Wang Yu, a member of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC and board chairman of the Spring Airlines, called for a law to promote a healthy development of private enterprises.

Wang calls for the removal of institutional barriers that restrict private enterprises from participating in market competition fairly and implementing the equal treatment of state-owned and private enterprises under law.

The private sector will embrace new opportunities, and the stage for private enterprises will get bigger as the country's economy is expected to pick up significantly in 2023, Guo Weimin, a spokesperson for the first session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC said on Friday.

Editor: Ye Ke, Lou Shihang (intern)