China's legal entities in secondary and tertiary industries double in five years

2019-11-20
CGTN

China's legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries have increased by 100.7 percent compared to the last national economic census in 2013, according to the State Council Information Office.

The office introduced the Fourth National Economic Census on Nov 20, drawing a full picture of China's economic and social development with voluminous data.

At the end of 2018, total legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries stood at 21.8 million, double the number in 2013. The top three sectors in terms of the number of legal entities were wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, leasing and business services.

In terms of institutional types, corporate enterprises took 85.2 percent of the total, while government agencies accounted for 4.9 percent and social organizations 1.4 percent. Among the corporate enterprises, 98.8 percent are domestically funded, while 0.6 percent are foreign funded.

In terms of assets, at the end of 2018, the total assets of legal entities engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries were 914.2 trillion yuan ($130.07 trillion). These two industries employed 383.236 million people in the legal entities, an increase of 7.6 percent compared with that of the end of 2013. The secondary industry saw a drop of 10.4 percent in employment while the tertiary industry saw a jump of 28.9 percent in employment. About 149.3 million people work in self-employed units.

At the end of 2018, there were 33,573 high technology manufacturing corporate enterprises above the designated size, an increase of 24.8 percent compared with 2013. These companies also increased their investment in research and development by 75 percent in five years.