CCTV News: According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the results of the fifth national economic census show that my country's high-quality economic development have made significant progress in the past five years, the number of legal entities has continued to rise, and more employees have been absorbed; the production efficiency of enterprises has been effectively improved, and the scale of operations has steadily expanded; the industrial structure has been optimized and upgraded, and emerging industries have developed rapidly; the digital economy has grown, and the R&D investment in enterprises has continued to grow; the coordination and balance of regional development have been significantly enhanced.

1. The number of units has increased significantly, absorbing more employees.

In the past five years, my country's market-oriented reform has continued to deepen, the business environment has been continuously optimized, and various types of business entities have burst out in vitality, driving employment growth. At the end of 2023, there were 120 million legal entities and individual business owners engaged in secondary and tertiary industries in the country, an increase of 43.1% over the end of 2018 (2018 was the year of the fourth national economic census, the same below), with an average annual growth of 7.4%. Among them, there were 33.27 million legal entities, an increase of 52.7%; there were 87.995 million individual business owners, an increase of 39.8%. The legal entity and individual business owners absorbed a total of 610 million employees, an increase of 14.3% over the end of 2018 and an average annual growth of 2.7%. Among them, there were 430 million employees in legal entities, an increase of 11.9%; there were 180 million employees in individual business households, an increase of 20.3%.

2. Labor production efficiency has improved, and the scale of operation has steadily expanded. Over the past five years, supply-side structural reform has continued to be deepened, promoting innovative development of enterprises, improving production efficiency of enterprises, achieving rapid growth in operating income, and further expanding asset scale. In 2023, the legal entities of secondary and tertiary industries across the country achieved operating income of 442.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 50.2% over 2018 and an average annual growth of 8.5%. The per capita operating income was RMB 1.22 million, an increase of 34.6% over 2018 and an average annual growth of 6.1%. At the end of 2023, the total assets of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries nationwide totaled 143.91 trillion yuan, an increase of 57.4% from the end of 2018, with an average annual growth of 9.5%.

3. Optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, and rapid development of emerging industries

In the past five years, the scale of the tertiary industry has continued to expand, becoming an important force to support economic growth and promote high-quality employment. At the end of 2023, the number of legal entities, employees and assets in the tertiary industry nationwide accounted for 79.3%, 61.7% and 82.5% of the national secondary and tertiary industries, respectively, up 0.5, 6.7 and 1.5 percentage points from the end of 2018, respectively. In 2023, the national tertiary industry corporate legal entities achieved operating income of 253.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 68.3% over 2018 and 37.0 percentage points higher than the growth rate of the secondary industry. The manufacturing industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading, and the number of emerging industries is growing rapidly. At the end of 2023, there were 53,000 legal entities of high-tech manufacturing enterprises above designated size nationwide, with operating income of 22.5 trillion yuan for the whole year, an increase of 57.4% and 43.1% respectively over 2018, and the proportion of legal entities of large-scale manufacturing enterprises above designated size increased by 2.0 and 2.4 percentage points respectively.

4. The digital economy has grown and grown, and the pace of enterprise innovation has accelerated significantly

In the past five years, the digital economy has flourished, injecting new impetus into economic and social development. At the end of 2023, there were 2.916 million legal entities in the core industry of the digital economy, 36.159 million employees, and the annual operating income was 48.4 trillion yuan. Enterprise R&D investment has grown rapidly, and innovation capabilities have continued to improve. In 2023, among the legal entities of industrial enterprises above a certain scale, 151,000 carried out research and experimental development (R&D) activities, an increase of 44.3% over 2018; the R&D expenditure of legal entities of industrial enterprises above a certain scale was 2.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 61.9% over 2018; the ratio of R&D expenditure to operating income was 1.54%, an increase of 0.31 percentage points over 2018. The number of patent applications for legal entities continues to rise. In 2023, the annual number of patent applications for legal entities of industrial enterprises above designated size was 1.566 million, of which 614,000 invention patent applications were 63.6% and 65.1% respectively over 2018.

5. The coordination of regional development has been enhanced, and the proportion of legal entities and employees in the central and western regions has increased.

In the past five years, major regional development strategies have been steadily promoted, and the balance of regional development has been further enhanced. At the end of 2023, the eastern region [1] had 17.941 million legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries, absorbing 220 million employees, and the proportion of the country in the country decreased by 2.0 and 1.8 percentage points respectively compared with the end of 2018. There were 13.706 million legal entities in the central and western regions, accounting for 41.2% of the country, an increase of 2.0 percentage points from the end of 2018. Among them, the central region accounted for 22.0% and the western region accounted for 19.2%, an increase of 1.4 and 0.6 percentage points respectively; the proportion of legal entities in the central and western regions accounted for 23.1% and 20.1% of the country, an increase of 1.1 and 0.8 percentage points respectively. The number of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region [2] and the nine provinces (regions) along the Yellow River Basin [3] were 13.872 million and 8.851 million respectively, an increase of 56.6% and 60.8% respectively over the end of 2018. The proportion of legal entities in the two regions in the country increased by 1.0 and 1.3 percentage points respectively; the number of legal entities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region and the nine provinces (regions) along the Yellow River Basin increased by 12.1% and 15.5% respectively, both faster than the national average growth rate.