This Day, That Year: June 12

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On June 12, 1987, the Economic Daily published a story featuring Guan Guangmei, a former meat counter clerk, who leased eight food stores employing 1,000 workers in Benxi, Liaoning province.

She had pioneered the leasing of State-owned enterprises and running them as private business, which became known as the "Guan Guangmei phenomenon".

An item on Nov 5 that year from China Daily showed Guan, a deputy to the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, being interviewed by reporters from home and abroad. She was presented as an example of social progress thanks to the country's reform and opening-up policy.

Since then, private companies have grown into the country's main engine of economic growth. Entrepreneurship in China has grown at an exponential rate.

Premier Li Keqiang called for "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" and made it the leading agenda of the national economic strategy.

As of the end of 2017, there were 65.8 million solely owned businesses and 27.3 million private enterprises, which employed 341 million people, Xinhua News Agency reported. In 1978, there were 140,000 private businesses registered.

Among the private enterprises, the most representative ones include Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, who have seen unprecedented growth at home and are expanding their influence globally.

The sector contributes more than 60 percent of GDP growth, and the government is supporting it by improving the business environment, maintaining stable policy expectations and protecting the rights and interests of private companies. The measures include reductions in taxes and fees, the development of inclusive finance, the reduction of business charges and red tape, and the removal of obstacles to market access for private and foreign enterprises.

Meanwhile, the country has been gradually opening up more industries, including the banking, oil drilling and defense technology sectors, to private investors, to boost investment and encourage entrepreneurship.