Larger concentration in eastern China and higher growth in western China

In eastern China, there were 11.62 million individual industrial and commercial proprietors, 47.4 per cent of the national total. They employ 22.62 million workers, 47.5 per cent of the total employment by individual industrial and commercial proprietors. Their registered capital accounted for 56.5 per cent of the total or 194.14 billion renminbi. There were 1.39 million privately-run enterprises in eastern China, representing 68.4 per cent of the total number of privately-run enterprises countrywide. There were six provinces or municipalities where the number of privately-run enterprises exceeded 100,000.

Table 1.6.1: Provinces/municipalities with more than 100,000 privately-run enterprises
Province /municipalities	Number of privately-run enterprises (thousands)
Jiangsu	226
Guangdong	211
Zhejiang	209
Shanghai	176
Shandong	145
Beijing	124
Total	1,091

These six locations are all in the eastern part of China and are the home of 53.8 per cent of China's total number of privately-run enterprises.

In the central part of China there were 8.04 million individual industrial and commercial proprietors, accounting for 33 per cent of the country's total. They employed 17.1 million workers, representing 35.9 per cent of the total employment offered by such proprietors nationwide . Their total registered capital amounted to 101.39 billion renminbi, 29.5 per cent of the total registered capital of individual industrial and commercial proprietors. There were 360,000 privately-run enterprises in the region in 2001, accounting for 17.8 per cent of the total number in the country.

In the western part of China the number of individual industrial and commercial proprietors reached 4.68 million, or 19.5 per cent of the national total. They provided 7.88 million jobs, 16.6 per cent of the total job opportunities offered by such businesses countrywide. Their share of total registered capital was 14 per cent, amounting to 48.05 billion renminbi. The number of privately-run enterprises totalled 281,000, 13.8 per cent of the country's total. The rate of increase in the number of privately-run enterprises in the region was 18.8 per cent in 2001, higher than the average rate of growth.