Innovation and entrepreneurship will drive China’s long-term growth, strategic new industries, and ongoing supply-side reform, said Chen Xian, a professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Since 2010, China’s economic growth has been slowing down due to excessive production capacity, overheated real estate industry, high leverage of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), and sluggish exports.

In the slowdown, China needs new power to drive its economy and break institutional and policy barriers with supply-side reform.

Currently, China still lags behind in technology progress, human capital, and entrepreneurial spirit, and that is why innovation and entrepreneurship is the key to the nation’s medium- and long-term growth.

Successful startups might generate new technologies, create new products, foster new services, and even a whole new industry.

The government should make more efforts to build public service platforms, and offer a conducive market and environment to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship.

Results from the reform and opening up also show that innovation and entrepreneurship is a fundamental strategy for the nation to become a full market economy.

As a comprehensive task, innovation and entrepreneurship requires reform of the government in administrative streamlining, SOE reform, as well as tax and fiscal reform, to pave the way for effective public services.