More than 5.5 million private enterprises were operating in China at the end of June, accounting for about 80 percent of the country's corporations, according to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC).

In addition, the country had 26.21 million individual industrial and commercial entities, the ACFIC said.

The statistics revealed that more than 70 percent of urban employees were now working in private enterprises or in individual industrial and commercial entities, the main employment channel.

During this year's January-September period, private enterprises paid a total of 348.73 billion yuan (US$46.97 billion) in taxes, about 9.4 percent of the country's corporate tax revenue.

According to the ACFIC, private enterprises also accounted for 80 percent of new products to the country and provided 70 percent of technology innovation and 65 percent of invention patents.

With the rapid development of private enterprise, a number of private companies had gained fame both at home and abroad and occupied the leading positions in certain industries and played a significant role in China's economic rise, it added.