China's Private Enterprises Increase Over 80% in 2004-2008 Period

China has seen an 81.4 percent rise in the number of private enterprises from 2004 to 2008, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said today.

By the end of 2008, China had 3.596 million privately-owned enterprises, 1.614 million more than four years ago, NBS director Ma Jiantang told a press conference. China has just completed its second national economic census.

China had over 4.959 million business entities in 2008, 1.709 million or 52.6 percent larger than in 2004 when the first economic census was conducted, according to the census result.

The number of state-owned enterprises dropped 36,000, or 20 percent to 143,000 from 2004, said Ma.

A total of 355.07 million people were employed in the country's industrial and service sectors at the end of 2008, up 31.9 percent from 2004, the census showed.

The second national economic census started in October last year to gather basic information of all industrial and service-sector entities active in 2008.

The census is conducted every five years and the latest one aimed to help form the basis of the social and economic development blueprint for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).