After the city of Qingdao, Shandong province, began revising its business registration rules, on March 1, it began seeing a rise in the number of businesses thanks to the streamlined procedures and fewer restrictions on registration.

The reforms, which cover amount of registered capital needed, annual exams, residence permits, and licenses, to name a few, resulted in a monthly increase of registrations from 8,000 to 32,000, and a rapid increase in the number of micro-to-small businesses, giving a the city's private economy a real boost, according to its Industry and Commerce Administration.

From March to October, the number of private enterprises increased by 33,500, up 51.58 percent year-on-year, and individual businesses increased by 226,900, up just over 300 percent year-on-year, together, creating 489,400 new jobs, up more than 106 percent.

A total of 261,100 new businesses were registered in the city during that period, up more than 225 percent, while registered capital increased by 164.44 billion yuan ($26.5 billion), up almost 50 percent. There were a total of 860,900 businesses in the city by the end of October, up more than 50 percent.

In a provincial review of the first three quarters of 2014, Qingdao ranked No 1 in both the number of market entities and the increase, Qingdao Daily's Chinese version reported.