Within eight days, Zheng Zhejie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, held two meetings with private enterprises.

This marks Zheng Zhejie’s first meeting with private entrepreneurs since taking office.

Practice has proven that actively seeking input from private enterprises and listening to entrepreneurs’ voices is a key priority in attracting investment. Furthermore, paying attention to enterprises at the end of industrial chains is crucial, as they serve as the “peripheral nerves” of the economy.

Consequently, local governments have placed greater emphasis on attracting investment from private enterprises.

As long as the direction regarding their status and role, policies and guidelines, and the business environment and opportunities remains unchanged, leveraging their market insights, innovative capabilities, and competitive spirit will undoubtedly elevate the private economy to new heights.

The greatest challenge facing the private sector does not lie at the macro, theoretical, or policy levels, but rather at the micro, practical, and operational levels.

High-level Symposium:First,Assess Development Trends

The day before yesterday, the state convened a symposium for platform enterprises, emphasizing the need to establish and improve communication mechanisms with these companies to promptly understand their difficulties and demands.

Should such symposiums be held? Of course they should—not only should they be held, but they should be held more frequently.

Looking back, Zheng Zhejie, Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, has held two symposiums with private enterprises; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has convened meetings with manufacturing enterprises and specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises; and the Ministry of Commerce has initiated roundtable discussions with foreign-invested enterprises.

It is evident that the participating enterprises are highly representative of their respective industries and sectors.

Operating on the front lines of economic development, enterprises themselves have the clearest understanding of production and demand; they also hold the most authority when it comes to assessing the impact of policies. Furthermore, enterprises often have firsthand experience with government services.

In particular, private enterprises are the driving force behind economic development, playing an increasingly vital role in stabilizing growth, adjusting economic structures, creating jobs, and improving people’s livelihoods.

In terms of development trends, leading private enterprises primarily exhibit the following characteristics:

First, in terms of strategic planning, they emphasize setting high standards, adopting a global perspective, aiming for world-class goals, and accelerating their transformation into international enterprises.

Among the top 50 private enterprises, there is active integration into national strategies. In all overseas business deployments, they proactively seek opportunities within national initiatives such as the "Belt and Road" initiative, serving as key vehicles for investment.

Second, regarding quality enhancement, they prioritize quality-driven development and brand-strengthening strategies, focusing on transformation and upgrading to accelerate their transition into high-quality enterprises.

To adapt to rising consumer demand, these enterprises are vigorously implementing strategies to build their businesses through quality and strengthen them through branding. They prioritize the research, development, and production of high-value-added products and services, possess a variety of patented products and services, and are moving toward the high end of the value chain.

Third, regarding industrial layout, the focus is on cross-sector integration and diversified expansion, aligning with industrial trends to accelerate the transition toward becoming comprehensive enterprises.

Facing new trends such as the intelligent industrialization, industrial intelligence, and cross-sector integration, private enterprises are accelerating structural adjustments and optimizing industrial layouts, presenting a new pattern of multi-domain expansion characterized by the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors.

Fourth, regarding growth drivers, the focus is on scientific and technological R&D and innovation-driven development to enhance core competitiveness and accelerate the transition toward becoming innovative enterprises.

Major disruptive technologies are continuously emerging, the pace of transforming scientific and technological achievements is accelerating, and industrial transformation will unfold at an exponential rather than linear rate. Competition across various sectors is increasingly centered on the contest of R&D capabilities.

Placing Emphasis on Investment Promotion

Against the backdrop of China’s economy entering a “new normal,” private enterprises have become a highlight of economic development in recent years.

The essence of private enterprises lies in the character “private” (民). Some believe this character is primarily intended to distinguish them from state-owned enterprises. Clearly, this is a misunderstanding.

In terms of ownership structure, private enterprises do differ from state-owned enterprises. However, this is by no means a fundamental distinction, much less a difference between “private” and “state.”

In recent years, private enterprises have accounted for over 90% of total employment. Moreover, their contributions to tax revenue and innovation capacity have reached 50% and 70%, respectively.

For this very reason, we must prioritize support for the development of private enterprises, intensify efforts to attract investment in the private sector, and continuously enhance the vitality and long-term momentum of economic development.

What aspects should local governments prioritize when attracting investment?

Strengthen industrial alignment with leading private enterprises

Based on local dominant industries and investment attraction plans, adopt the approach of “attracting upstream sectors, connecting with downstream sectors, focusing on leading enterprises, and driving supporting industries.”

By attracting large, high-quality private enterprises, we can shift investment promotion from a focus on “individual projects and single enterprises” to “building complete industrial chains and promoting industrial clustering.”

Accurately and effectively showcase the city’s comprehensive strengths

This includes industrial support systems, development platforms, future growth prospects, and cultural heritage. Regions with stronger development performance demonstrate an increasingly greater ability to attract private enterprises.

This growing ability to attract private enterprises stems not only from the local area’s favorable business environment but also from city promotion efforts tailored to corporate needs, which draw private enterprises to the region.

Leveraging the Active Roles of Various Investment Promotion Entities

By fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of all parties, effectively integrating investment promotion resources, and leveraging the roles of chambers of commerce, industry associations, and market-oriented investment promotion teams, a powerful synergy for attracting private enterprises is formed.

Guchuan United possesses a professional investment promotion team. For the past 14 years, we have provided services ranging from industrial planning to project implementation, business expansion to brand promotion, including industrial consulting, investment promotion brand marketing, investment promotion roadshows, practical training in investment promotion, and digital management platforms for investment promotion.

Guided by the philosophy of “Thinking for Businesses, Serving Businesses, and Working for Businesses,” we have provided comprehensive, end-to-end services to over 100 government and investment promotion agencies, resulting in more than 7,400 successful project deals.

Business Partners: Listening to the Voices of the Market

As the pace of marketization continues to accelerate and the business environment continues to improve, the fairness of resource allocation has also grown stronger.

In the past, market resources enjoyed by state-owned enterprises have become more equitable and equal through reform, and are now shared by enterprises of all ownership types.

Last year, the proposal of a “Unified Grand Market” has made resource allocation fairer in the process of marketization, requiring resources to be obtained through market competition.

The vitality of private enterprises stems partly from market consumption and partly from production efficiency.

First and foremost, effective policy support is essential.

More policy measures should be introduced to stimulate consumption, as private enterprises are largely closely linked to consumption and serve as producers of final consumer goods. A thriving consumer market leads to active production and operations among private enterprises.

Once the spark of the consumer market is ignited, the production and operations of private enterprises will become more active, profitability will improve, and the confidence of private entrepreneurs in development will be restored.

Declining profitability and reduced investment are undoubtedly interdependent. Declining profitability affects investor confidence, and insufficient investor confidence, in turn, impacts corporate profitability.

Crucially, it is necessary to introduce policy measures that encourage productive investment, including tax breaks, R&D funding, and fiscal subsidies. In particular, greater support should be provided for investments with higher technological content. Once productive investment is scaled up, it will inject powerful momentum into the future development of private enterprises.

However, this support must be effective—meaning policies should prioritize quality over quantity and precision over comprehensiveness.

Currently, many local policies need to be phased out, while others require strengthening. In short, policies can only address the root of the problem if they align with the needs of enterprises.

Second, focus on enterprises at the end of the industrial chain.

Some symposiums primarily invite experts, scholars, and professors from research institutions and universities, yet they often struggle to grasp the actual realities of private economic development.

Whether they are experts in macroeconomics or theory, when discussing the micro-level, practical needs of enterprises, they may tend to speak in general terms without addressing substantive issues.

Furthermore, many universities and research institutions have patents that remain unused, gathering dust in laboratories—a clear waste of resources. If these technologies could be integrated into enterprises along the industrial chain, they could bring about significant changes to local development.

It is worth noting that enterprises at the end of the industrial chain are directly connected to the market and consumers. If they are poorly managed, fail to transform effectively, or even go out of business, it will be quite difficult to fundamentally resolve employment issues.

Of course, the achievements of the private sector today and the status of private enterprises are the result of policy openness, an improved business environment, and sound institutional frameworks, as well as the collective efforts of private enterprises and entrepreneurs.