(Yicai Global) Nov. 21 -- The provincial government of Sichuan province in China's southwest called together a 3,000 person conference yesterday, half made up of entrepreneurs, amid plans to see private spending make up half of fixed asset investment by 2022.

Authorities published a document at the meeting, dubbed the Sichuan Private Economy Health Development Conference, which put forward 20 measures it plans to roll out in order to get private spenders to invest more. These include reducing operating costs at private firms, making finance more accessible and enhancing their competitiveness.

Sichuan's private economy accounted for more than half of its gross domestic product in 2007, but it now lags behind in comparison to its eastern counterparts. Its added value in the private economy rose 0.2 percent to CNY2.1 trillion (USD300 billion) last year, making up 56 percent of overall GDP -- the province hopes to boost that figure to 60 percent by 2022, it was said at the conference. The added value was just 43 percent of the figure in Guangdong, China's manufacturing powerhouse.

More than 75 percent of Sichuan's private firms are either individual or family-owned businesses and it has only eight of the top 500 private manufacturers in the country.

The new document proposes to implement a negative list for market access -- essentially draft up a list of sectors private investors may not touch -- and reduce restrictions that hinder private investment into pensions, medical care and other sectors.

It also puts forward forbidding special provisions made for private companies bidding on government projects and urban infrastructure construction and operations contracts; encourages mixed-ownership reforms at state enterprises and Sichuan military units of the central government; and hopes to create several mixed-ownership firms controlled by private capital.

The provincial government will offer funding to firms listing on major stock exchanges and offer subsidies to help them raise money via corporate bonds and other means. It will also push lower-level authorities to set up a mechanism for sharing information on bond defaulters and encourage certain cities to set up bailout funds for private companies.

The proposal also recommends accelerating the improvement systems for protecting intellectual property rights and the wealth and assets of private enterprises and entrepreneurs.

Editor: James Boynton