A stall owner arranges vegetables at a market in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 9, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Monday held a meeting in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province with self-employed business owners, in a bid to further accelerate development of the sector and consolidate the consumption recovery.

It comes after a series of recent meetings with the country's private enterprises, as well as foreign firms and state-owned enterprises, with the aim of further activating consumption and building confidence, Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

A total of 12 self-employed business owners from seven provinces and municipalities attended the meeting, covering fields including catering, accommodation, agricultural breeding and traditional craftsmanship, and operating both online and offline.

The business owners exchanged their point of view about the business environment and issues such as license registration, employment, market regulation, loans and financing, and intellectual property protection.

Luo Wen, head of the SAMR, noted that the self-employed business sector has shown strong recovery momentum since the beginning of the year, but is still facing challenges due to various factors.

"The SAMR will hold regular discussion meetings, build a normalized communication mechanism, and optimize the reporting of issues and procedures for solving problems in order to upgrade the general market climate," said Luo.

At present, China's self-employed businesses account for two thirds of the nation's market entities and over 70 percent of the private business sector, said the SAMR. Dong also said self-employed businesses play an important role in addressing employment issues and building market confidence.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's retail sales from January to July stood at 26.43 trillion yuan ($3.63 billion), up 7.3 percent year-on-year. In July, retail sales hit 3.68 trillion yuan, up 2.5 percent year-on-year.

"The sound operation of the self-employed business sector will consolidate the achievements made in the consumption sector and ensure the general economic recovery stays on track," said Dong.

Global Times