Nanjing businesses see ray of hope for future development

Leading entrepreneurs from Nanjing, capital of East China’s Jiangsu province, said that President Xi Jinping’s emphasis on providing more support to private enterprises has given them more confidence in future development.

Wang Shujing, president of Reforce Intelligent Technology Company, said that he believes that the country’s supportive policies toward private enterprises will not be changed.

“I previously had a gloomy outlook on the future of private enterprises,” said Wang. “But President Xi’s speech gave many entrepreneurs, including me, confidence and hope. I think that the country will pay more attention and provide more favorable policies for private enterprises.”

Reforce, which was established in 2010, is one of the leading building automation companies in Nanjing. It moved to the city’s Jianye district due to its many preferential policies and help provided to private enterprises.

“I always believe that private enterprises will develop more rapidly if governmental departments can understand and actively solve the problems that we’re facing,” Wang said. “The government of Jianye district is one of the local governments that really cares about us.”

Besides preferential policies on taxes and housing prices, officials from governmental departments often ask Reforce about their difficulties and solve those related to the government quickly, he added.

“The local government even publicized our exhibition on its social media when we had difficulties in promoting our company’s new program — an interactive light and shadow exhibition.”

Shan Dandan, CEO of Fuyou E-commerce Co, said that with help from the Jianye government, the company’s sales surged from about 12 million yuan ($1.7 million) in 2014 to 4 billion yuan in 2017.

“Our sales in 2018 are expected to surpass 5 billion yuan,” said Shan. “But when the company was established in October 2013, we just had five employees in an office that was less than 50 square meters.”

She said that the local government helped the company get tax incentives, find talent and get loans from banks.

“The district has 550 financial institutions and 244 industrial fund investment institutions,” Shan said. “The local government also intro- duced venture capital institutions to the company, which has greatly boosted our development.”

Li Fangyi, an official from Jianye district, said the district’s willingness and effectiveness in helping private enterprises has attracted many private enterprises and important events, including Alibaba’s Jiangsu headquarters, tech firm Xiaomi’s East China headquarters and Tencent’s global partner conference.

“In Jianye, we have established a good relationship between the government and private enterprises,” said Li. “Our staff members provide help voluntarily and actively to the enterprises and the private economy plays a very important role in the district’s economy.”

He said that the district has made special plans to help private enterprises in different development stages, and that it has established a financial platform, a talent database and law service center to serve its private enterprises.

“Some said that our government staff members look like employees from startup companies due to our diligence and effectiveness,” said Li.

Jianye district, which is located in downtown Nanjing, had a GDP of 42.3 billion yuan in 2017. It is also one of the financial service centers, trade centers in East China and one of the exhibition centers of the Yangtze River Delta.