Employees assemble cars at a vehicle manufacturer in Bozhou, East China's Anhui Province on July 12, 2022. Assembly lines at the manufacturer are busy stamping, welding, painting and putting together new cars despite hot weather. Photo: cnsphoto

The All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce released a list of Top 500 Chinese private enterprises for 2023 on Tuesday, with JD.com, Alibaba and Hengli Group ranking at the very top. 

This year, the threshold for entering the list rose by 1.2 billion yuan ($165 million) to reach 27.6 billion yuan, indicating the expansion momentum of China's private sector.

With a total revenue of about 1.05 trillion yuan, JD.com has retained the first position among the top 500 private enterprises for two consecutive years and the Top 500 service private enterprises for three consecutive years. JD.com also bagged the first spot among the top 100 private enterprises in the manufacturing industry, according to a press release on the federation's website.

In 2022, the total revenue of the Top 500 private enterprises was 39.83 trillion yuan, up 3.94 percent from a year ago. These companies paid combined tax of 1.25 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.51 percent of the national total.

The total number of workers employed by the Top 500 private enterprises came in at 10.97 million, accounting for 1.5 percent of the total number of employed people in China.

And, 86 private enterprises on the list saw their investment in research and development (R&D) accounted for more than 3 percent of their annual revenues, with Tencent top the list with total R&D investment of 61.4 billion yuan. 

As for internationalization, the export volume of the 500 companies reached $276.4 billion yuan, up 12.6 percent year-on-year, accounting for 7.69 percent of the country's total exports.

China has long attached importance to the private economy, encouraging private firms to play a bigger role in stabilizing growth and employment, and promoting structural adjustment and tech innovation.

The private sector contributes more than 50 percent of the country's tax revenue, over 60 percent of the GDP, 70 percent of the technological innovation and more than 80 percent of urban jobs.

Following an important meeting of the policymakers in July which stressed the importance of supporting the development of the non-public sector, while improving the core competitiveness of state-owned enterprises, Chinese policymakers have released a host of targeted policies to shore up the growth of the private economy.

In late July, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and multiple departments jointly released 28 measures to boost the growth of private enterprises in market access, government support, legal support, service, and the business environment.

In the latest move to support the private economy, the NDRC has set up a bureau specializing in propelling business expansion of the private sector.

Global Times