In Jiangsu province, businesses thrive

Jiangsu became the first province in China on Thursday to exceed 10 million registered individual businesses, which have become a crucial part of the local economy. They account for about 70 percent of all market entities, according to the provincial market regulation bureau.

Currently, the province has more than 16.8 million people working for these businesses — mainly in the service industry.

From Jan 1 to March 28, a total of 275,000 individual businesses were newly registered, an increase of 46 percent over the same period last year.