THE city’s fiscal revenue reached 910.2 billion yuan (US$131.88 billion) in 2018, an increase of 5.5 percent over the previous year, according to a report by the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, quoting an official at the city’s year-end financial data meeting.

Specifically, State-level fiscal revenue reached 556.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent, and local fiscal revenue reached 353.5 billion yuan, a rise of 6.2 percent year on year. Tax revenue makes up 80 percent of local fiscal revenue.

The data means the per square kilometer fiscal revenue generated in the city had reached 460 million yuan in 2018, ranking it first among Chinese cities.

In 2018, the city’s finance and taxation departments substantially reduced the business costs of different sectors in Shenzhen by 150 billion yuan.

Between January and November, the city reduced and exempted taxes on private enterprises by 163.8 billion yuan, 10 percent more than during the same period of the previous year. Among them, high-tech private enterprises enjoyed reductions and exemptions totaling 51.6 billion yuan, an increase of 57.4 percent.

In the first three quarters of the year, private enterprise realized 736.7 billion yuan in added value, an increase of 10 percent over the same period in 2017, accounting for 42 percent of the city’s GDP between January and September.

Statistics from the city’s economic, trade and information commission showed that private business entities accounted for 97.65 percent of business entities in the city by the end of September 2018.

The density of private startups in Shenzhen ranked first among Chinese cities. Around 73 percent of inventions and patents were held by private enterprises. In Shenzhen, 80 percent of State-level high-tech enterprises, 91 percent of well-known brands in China and 96 percent of Guangdong’s well-known brands were privately owned. Of the seven enterprises from Shenzhen that were among the world’s top 500, six were private enterprises.

(Han Ximin)