Regulations on Promoting the Development of Self- employed Businesses.

This Regulation is formulated for the purposes of encouraging, supporting, and guiding the sound development of the individual sector of the economy, safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of individual industrial and commercial households, stabilizing and expanding urban and rural employment, and maximizing the important role of individual industrial and commercial households in national economic and social development. The Regulation consists of 39 Articles. Where a citizen with capacity for operations is engaged in industrial and commercial operations in the territory of the People's Republic of China and legally registered as an individual industrial and commercial household, this Regulation shall apply.
For ndividual industrial and commercial households, the State applies the principle of equal market access and fair treatment. Individual industrial and commercial households may operate by themselves or by their families. The property rights, operational autonomy and other legitimate rights and interests of individual businesses shall be protected by law, and no unit or individual may infringe upon or illegally interfere with them. The Regulation further make provisions for: specific responsibilities and requirements of the governments at all levels in promoting the development of individual businesses, improvement of the working mechanism to promote the development of individual businesses, etc.