THE total number of enterprises in Shenzhen reached 3.23 million in May, according to the city’s market supervision authority. A research institute estimated that an average of 55 people start their own businesses every hour in the city, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

Based on the authority’s data, the research institute under the Peking University HSBC Business School calculated that 40,000 new companies are set up in Shenzhen every month on average, according to a report by Ren Ting, deputy dean of the business school, at a forum on the environment for establishing new businesses in the city Saturday.

The report analyzed comments from entrepreneurs on the regional business environment and factors that contribute to starting new businesses.

Based on calculations conducted by the research institute, Shenzhen is transforming into a city of innovation, as it sees an average of 46 new patents generated every day and one in every 63 residents owns a high-technology enterprise.

Also, the research suggests Shenzhen has already become the most dynamic region in China for VC (venture capital) investment with more than 8,000 VC groups and management investment exceeding 400 billion yuan (US$58.52 billion).

Ren said people who chose to set up businesses in Shenzhen gave generally positive comments on the city’s business environment.

He also noted that the Spring Festival holiday, the job-hopping season and dynamic capital markets caused fluctuations in the business environment from February to April this year, and some external uncertainties have also impacted the down season, from May to June.

The responses regarding the environment for starting new businesses in Nanshan, Futian and Longgang districts throughout the first six months of 2018 were relatively equal, while indexes collected in Bao’an District suggested that Bao’an had made better achievements since March and even outperformed the other districts in June.

According to statistics by the market supervision authority, a total of 130,017 new firms had been set up in Shenzhen as of May. New companies established in Nanshan, Longgang, Bao’an and Futian districts accounted for 80.21 percent of the total number citywide.

In particular, more companies in the fields of software/e-commerce, robotics/wearable devices/intelligent manufacturing and education/training were set up in the city.

Chen Wei, a professor at the business school, shared at the forum that the survival rate and further innovation among the startups is still a huge challenge. (Zhang Qian)