In 2005 private Chinese enterprises generated half the country's wealth and they're now in a position to play an even more significant part in the country's future economy, said a key government think-tank in Beijing yesterday.

"The non-state-owned sector is projected to contribute three-quarters of China's GDP in five years, when at least 70 percent of the country's firms will be privately owned," the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences stated in its annual report.

While the private sector lurked in the shadows only 25 years ago its current high profile was a testament to the country's support policies for such enterprises but more equitable treatment was needed for them, industry representatives suggested at a seminar to release the report's findings.

Based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics the Blue Book of the Non-State-Owned Economy revised earlier estimates that domestic private businesses had contributed one-third to China's GDP in recent years. The latest findings raised their contribution to 50 percent last year. They also provided eight out of 10 new jobs in non-agricultural sectors.

If the contribution made by overseas-funded ventures was added these private enterprises accounted for approximately 65 percent of the national economy in 2005 and the ratio was expected to jump to 75 percent by 2010, the report says.

Private enterprises had boomed in recent years when the government set out constitutional guarantees and policy incentives to buoy the healthy development of the sector and protect the property of entrepreneurs. As a result they've galloped into industries once dominated by state-owned enterprises.

For example private firms generated sales of 797.3 billion yuan (US$101 billion) last year--an annual growth of 55 percent since 2000 -- in smelting and processing of ferrous and non-ferrous metals alone. They've also invested in sectors such as postal services and communications, power and coal gas, according to the report.

Along with this the growth rate of taxes paid by the private sector has by far surpassed that of state companies and these businesses have become major contributors to state coffers.

Over the past five years taxes paid by private firms grew by at least 40 percent a year compared with an annual increase of less than 7 percent by state businesses. "In many a local region in China, tax revenue generated by the private sector accounts for over 80 percent of local government revenue," the report observes.

Despite their stellar performance said Gu Shengzu, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, private companies still faced barriers in securing finance which was curtailing their development. Less than 10 percent of total bank lending was accessed by domestic private firms while overseas-invested businesses enjoyed preferential treatment in taxation and financing, he pointed out.

Chen Yongjie, one of the main authors of the report, said private companies must be given the level playing field promised to them in terms of market access, financing and tax policies. He believed that a group of conglomerates competitive in both local and global markets would emerge in the private sector by 2010. "Some of them will join the ranks of the Global 500," he forecast.

(China Daily September 22, 2006)