China's private firms rising to prominence in past 70 years

China's private enterprises have been growing fast in the past seven decades, achieving a prominent role in the economy, official data showed Monday.

Morning view of the Lujiazui area in Pudong of Shanghai, east China, June 21, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

The country only had 443,000 private enterprises in 1996, and the number soared to 14.369 million in 2017, registering an average annual growth of 18%, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a report.

Private enterprises now take the lion's share of the country's companies, accounting for nearly 80% in 2017, up from only 16.9% in 1996.

China was home to about 4.40 million legal entities in 1996, and the number surged to about 22 million in 2017, expanding about 8% each year on average.

The growth pace accelerated during the 2012-2017 period to reach 15.7% on average annually, the report showed.