BEIJING (Feb 18): China's current political, economic and social environment is "very conducive" to the development of the private economy and policies will be implemented to help ease difficulties faced by private firms, an official from the country's state planner told state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday.

The comments come after Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare meeting on Monday with some of the biggest names in China's technology sector, urging them to "show their talent" and be confident in the power of China's model and market.

Xi said China's private business had "broad prospects and great promise" to create wealth and opportunity, adding China's governance and the scale of its market give it an inherent advantage in developing new industries.

The private sector in China, which competes with state-owned companies, contributes more than half of tax revenue, more than 60% of economic output and 70% of tech innovation, official estimates show.

China will further break down barriers to market access and will revise and introduce a new version of the negative list for market access as soon as possible, Zheng Bei, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told CCTV in a programme aired on Tuesday.

She said measures will be taken to continue promoting more open and fair access to infrastructure in competitive sectors and major national scientific research infrastructure to private enterprises.

At the same time, the NDRC and relevant authorities will work on alleviating some of the urgent challenges such as accessing affordable financing, Zheng said.

New US tariffs threaten more pressure on the world's second-largest economy, which has been reeling from weak domestic consumption and a destabilising debt crisis in the property sector.

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