China's "new social stratum", with an estimated population of 75 million, owns or manages about 10 trillion yuan of capital (US$1.4 trillion), according to a bulletin by the country's top political advisory body on Saturday.

The "new social stratum", a term used to label businessmen from the private sector and free-lance intellectuals, is expanding rapidly in China, said the bulletin offered on the sidelines of the First session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Private entrepreneurs, technicians and managerial staff in private or foreign-funded companies and the self-employed and employees in intermediate organizations are all included in the stratum.

People from the stratum contribute nearly one third of the country's total tax revenues, 40 percent of the total import and export volumes and 69 percent of the publications directly or indirectly, it said.

The proportion of private economy against GDP has exceeded more than 33 percent in China and even reached 80 percent in some areas. It is estimated that businesses of non-public ownership will contribute a half of the total tax incomes by 2010, the bulletin said.

The "new social stratum" is also a major driving force of innovation. Since China started to carry out the reform and opening-up policy, about 70 percent of the technical innovations, 65 percent of the patent inventions and 80 percent of the new products come from small and medium-sized enterprises, 95 percent of which are not public-owned, it said.

The private sector also offers jobs to more than 90 percent of the country's 760 million employed and help 7.87 million people shake off poverty, it added.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2008)