A wave of startups raises tide of entrepreneurship

BEIJING - Guo Xin, 23, an undergraduate at Nankai University, feels no pressure from China's economic slowdown. Instead, he sees positive changes encouraging startups.

"The economy is facing great downward pressure, but for entrepreneurs, the business environment has never been better," Guo told Xinhua.

Guo is CEO of a an Internet finance company and has established a start-up each year for the past three years.

Like Guo, hundreds of thousands of young Chinese have started their own companies or projects in the past year or two as a startup frenzy grips the nation. Partly thanks to serious reforms, especially business registration reform, it is easier than ever to start a business.

China is entering a new stage of slower but more resilient growth, which President Xi Jinping has called the "new normal." The essence of the "new normal" is an improved economic structure that relies on services, consumption and innovation.

Startups shoot up

China's GDP growth held steady at 7 percent in the first half this year, but another figure -- the number of newly registered enterprises -- is even more impressive. New registrations jumped 19.4 percent from a year ago to 2.1 million in H1.

"Creative, entrepreneurial spirit has been stoked by business reform," said Yu Fachang with the state administration for industry and commerce (SAIC).

By the end of June, there were around 74.2 million businesses in China, including agricultural concerns and individual traders, up 7 percent from the end of 2014, SAIC data showed.

The number of new firms registered in the service sector accounted for 80.3 percent of the increase, or 1.6 million during the first six months, 22.6 percent more than in the same period last year.

This, Yu said, reflects a better economic structure, with the service sector playing its prescribed "bigger role" in growth and job creation. The sector has become the biggest driver of growth, expanding 8.4 percent in H1 and accounting for 49.5 percent of GDP.

Wang Bao'an, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, believes that a new wave of mass entrepreneurship and innovation is in the offing, given the huge success of many startups. The drive for mass entrepreneurship and innovation along with repeated cuts to red tape are feeding creativity and market vitality, Wang told the People's Daily last week.