A view of Binjiang central business district in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province in September 2025. LIU JILI/FOR CHINA DAILY
On the shores of the East China Sea, Wenzhou in Zhejiang province — a cradle of China's private economy — is experiencing a profound transformation that is permeating the day-today operations of the city's 1.57 million business entities.
Since 2025, the Wenzhou city government has rolled out a plan to coordinate 41 departments across the city. It has introduced measures covering seven areas, which include improving government service models, fostering robust business entities and empowering credit-based business.
The city is building a new system of regulation and service featuring "omnipresent support and non-intrusive oversight", cultivating a business environment conducive to the free development of the private economy.
"I never imagined opening a shop could be this easy," said a visually impaired Wenzhou resident surnamed Jin. Hoping to launch a massage parlor, Jin turned to government service counters for assistance due to limited mobility.
Thanks to the one-stop service mechanism, the dedicated service zone for individual industrial and commercial households helped him complete all registration procedures within a short period.
Jin's experience epitomizes Wenzhou's considerate business environment. Rather than resolving isolated cases, the city strives to upgrade solutions for institutional frameworks and address diverse categories of matters.
Integrating value-added services from multiple government departments, industry associations and social organizations, Wenzhou has set up service zones for individual industrial and commercial households to foster a new ecosystem.
Additionally, Wenzhou has established a closed-loop system to resolve corporate demands that integrates online and offline channels. Via the online platform, enterprises can submit requests with a single click. Offline, monthly government-business forums are held to tackle challenges, while a dedicated service counter for unresolved matters takes on the most intractable problems.
As local enterprises develop, Wenzhou's market regulation administration provides tiered cultivation support, encouraging large-scale enterprises and individual industrial and commercial entities to support one another and share supply chain and channel resources.
As one of the birthplaces of China's private economy, Wenzhou was approved in 2018 to build the country's first national pilot zone for the "dual health" initiative — a national reform pilot for the sound development of the private economy and the sound growth of private entrepreneurs. It stands as a benchmark in Zhejiang's efforts to advance economic structural reform driven by the private economy.
To advance this initiative, Wenzhou set up a working group led by the city's Party committee and established a coordinated mechanism linking authorities at all levels.
A citywide channel was opened for direct feedback on issues arising in the pilot program to support timely, full-process guidance. Meanwhile, a provincial-city joint promotion mechanism for the initiatives was put in place, offering an upward channel for reform initiatives that encounter bottlenecks at the city level.
In parallel, Wenzhou has enshrined the "dual health" initiative in laws and regulations. The city government enacted China's first local ordinance dedicated to the initiative, rolled out an evaluation index system for the sound development of the private economy and an evaluation index system for the sound growth of private entrepreneurs, and also released the Wenzhou Private Economy Financial Service Index.
To boost entrepreneurs' sense of happiness and security, the city has also rolled out a suite of policies to respect and support businesses, and has designated Nov 1 every year as the private entrepreneurs' festival.
In October 2025, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce released the 2025 lists of the top 500 private enterprises by research and development investment and the top 500 private enterprises by invention patents. Eight and 10 Wenzhou enterprises were named on the two lists, respectively, up by one and five from 2024.
