Nation takes steps to further boost startups

China will continue to promote entrepreneurship and innovation by creating a favorable environment for startups, offering fiscal support and strengthening international cooperation, a government official said.

Zhang Zhihong, head of the Torch High-Tech Industry Development Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said: “Entrepreneurship and innovation can help the upgrade of the real economy and promote supply-side structural reform. Venture investment has become a key foundation for the mass entrepreneurship and innovation.”

According to the center, China owned 4,298 makerspaces — areas where people can gather to create, invent and learn — and more than 3,255 incubators at the end of last year. Some world-renowned incubators and accelerators have also set up shop in China and are providing capital and technical support for startups in the country.

Government funding has also increased. Last year, 324 new government-led funds were set up in China, with a target size of 1.8 trillion yuan ($272 billion).

“In some areas of China, such as Beijing, the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and Chengdu, Sichuan province, there are favorable ecological environments for innovation and entrepreneurship,” Zhang said.

China, in fact, has become the country with the most incubators and makerspaces, according to data from the ministry.

The country aims to increase the total number of domestic incubators, makerspaces and accelerators to more than 10,000 by 2020, with a target of 100 overseas incubators, makerspaces and accelerators for the same period. These programs are expected to create three million jobs and 2,000 listed companies.