China to ratchet up support for market entities: official

BEIJING -- China will continue to roll out measures to shore up market entities of all types, an official told Xinhua in a recent interview.

To further ease the burden on firms, China will toughen its crackdown on irregular fee charges by government bodies and industry associations as well as in the fields of transport, public services and financial institutions, said Pu Chun, deputy head of the State Administration for Market Regulation.

By the end of April, China's market entities rose by 10.5 percent from a year earlier to reach 158 million. Nearly 9 million were established in the first four months of this year, according to Pu.

Pu said the steady expansion helped underpin China's macroeconomic fundamentals and signaled the economy's "strong resilience and potential" amid a complex and grim environment.

"Market entities are expected to sustain rapid growth as the current COVID-19 situation comes under control and policies keep injecting momentum," Pu said.

Some market entities are faced with unexpected difficulties, the official said, "but the country is ramping up policy support, and market entities' adaptability keeps growing."

He called for more efforts to anchor market expectations, boost market confidence and create a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment.

To this end, the country has pushed forward multiple reforms to streamline administrative procedures and broaden market access, with special attention paid to nurturing self-employed households, Pu said.

China also strives to provide a level-playing field for all market entities in a bid to unleash market vitality, Pu said, adding that efforts have been made to increase policy transparency, eliminate discriminative policies and hidden market thresholds, and prevent regional protectionism.

On maintaining market stability, Pu said that China is able to overcome challenges such as commodity price hikes and supply chain impediments with its integrated industrial system, a wide range of sectors, and market entities' high productivity.

"All the problems and difficulties that we have met are temporary," he noted, adding that market regulators nationwide will keep an eye on the price fluctuations of commodities, and cooperate with relevant authorities to ensure an adequate supply of raw materials.

Regulators will also monitor the prices of COVID-19-related medical products and necessities, and clamp down on hoarding and price gouging, he added.