"The history of Wenzhou's development can be seen as a history of innovation of its private economy and a growth history of its private entrepreneurs," said Yao Gaoyuan, mayor of Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Yao was talking at a recent press conference held by the provincial government, focusing on the city's development.

According to the local authorities, Wenzhou started to develop itself into a pilot zone for the sound growth of private entrepreneurs and the sound development of its private economy last August. To achieve this goal, it subsequently launched 80 policies and 146 concrete measures, of which 113 have been implemented and many innovative measures have been promoted to other parts of the country.

Notably, some policies even allow entrepreneurs to participate in business policy making, and entrepreneurs have the chance to join in training government officials.

The city has also mitigated punishment for company violations, exempting companies from penalties in 3,290 enterprise-related cases to date. Companies are, in addition, exempt from a penalty for first minor violations.

Thanks to the sound environment for private economy, the city's regional GDP grew from 1.3 billion yuan ($185.19 million) in 1978 to 600.6 billion yuan in 2018, ranking it 35th among all the cities in China, statistics show.

Private investment saw a year-on-year increase of 29.2 percent last year, 12.5 percent higher than the average provincial level. The number of market entities surpassed 1 million and the city ranked first in the province for satisfaction of small and micro-sized enterprises in the business climate, according to local officials.