Draft law to promote private economy

A draft law on promoting the private economy will be submitted to Chinese legislators for further review as the nation accelerates its pace of high-quality development and advances its path to modernization, a legislative commission said on Friday.

The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, is scheduled to hold its latest session in Beijing next week, during which a second review of the draft private sector promotion law will be on the agenda.

The draft, which was first deliberated at the end of last year, has once again garnered widespread public attention, especially from private enterprises and entrepreneurs, after an important meeting recently convened by the central leadership, according to the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission.

President Xi Jinping reiterated China's commitment to boosting the private sector through concrete efforts to implement supportive policies and measures while attending a symposium on private enterprises on Monday in Beijing.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said that the government's basic principles and policies concerning the development of the private economy have been incorporated into the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and will consistently be upheld and fulfilled.

"They cannot and will not be changed," he said to senior officials and private entrepreneurs.

The Legislative Affairs Commission said on Friday that continuing the review of the draft is meant to carry out the requirement put forward by the central leadership through legislation, and also to ensure the healthy development of the private sector by rule of law.

"The private sector is a driving force for advancing Chinese-style modernization, and also a key foundation for high-quality development. The market economy is a rule-of-law economy. The sustainable growth of the private sector must fully leverage the stabilizing and long-term role of the rule of law," the commission said.

As the formulation of the law is a top priority, the commission said that it sought opinions from academies, enterprises, industry associations, research centers and government departments after the draft was first reviewed in late December.

Between Dec 25 and Jan 23, during the period when the draft was disclosed on the NPC website, it also received 574 comments and 30 letters from 249 contributors, with 87 suggestions raised by 22 NPC deputies, according to the commission.