Workers are busy at a factory of Harbin Electric Machinery Company Ltd. of Harbin Electric Corporation in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Aug. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

China's top 500 private companies continued to see strong growth last year despite challenges posed by COVID-19 and others, contributing more to various crucial aspects of the country's development, including exports, investment, employment and tax revenue, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The stronger performance of the biggest 500 companies also reflected sound development in the country's vast private sector, buoyed by the huge Chinese market and policy supports, experts noted.

The All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) on Wednesday released the list of China's top 500 private companies for 2022, with the threshold for entry reaching 26.4 billion yuan ($3.78 billion) in operating revenue in fiscal year 2021, an increase of 2.9 billion yuan. 

Total revenue of the top 500 private companies in 2021 hit 38.32 trillion yuan, up 9.13 percent year-on-year, and their tax payments reached 1.37 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.91 percent of China's total tax revenue.

As revealed by the list, a total of 19 private companies achieved revenue over 300 billion yuan. Internet and service company JD.com ranked first with 951.59 billion yuan in 2021, followed by Alibaba and energy enterprise Hengli Group. 

Huawei ranked fifth with 636.807 billion yuan. Tech giant Tencent ranked sixth and property developer Country Garden ranked seventh. 

A total of 28 Chinese private enterprises were among the world's top 500 in 2022.

China's private enterprises have injected strong growth momentum into foreign trade.

According to the report, the export value of the top 500 companies reached $245.4 billion, up 85.48 percent on a yearly basis and accounting for 7.3 percent of China's total exports, up 2.19 percentage points from the previous year.

Data from the General Administration of Customs on Wednesday showed that in the first eight months, total trade value of Chinese private enterprises reached 13.68 trillion yuan, up 14.9 percent, accounting for 50.1 percent of the country's total foreign trade. Their exports totaled 9.3 trillion yuan, up 20.2 percent.

Among the top 500 private firms, 288 have research and development (R&D) staffers who account for more than 3 percent of the total workforce. 

In terms of value, Huawei Investment & Holding retained first place with 142.7 billion yuan in R&D investment.

According to the report, the top 500 private enterprises provided over 10.9 million jobs, accounting for 1.47 percent of the nation's workers. Among them, JD.com employed the most people for a second consecutive year, amounting to 385,400.

Global Times