China issues guidelines to promote sharing economy

BEIJING — China issued guidelines Monday on the sharing economy.

The government will encourage innovation in sharing while regulating the sector in a tolerant and prudent manner, according to the National Development and Reform Commission and other seven government departments.

More sophisticated regulations will govern different sharing sectors, reduce barriers to market entry and guard against risk.

There will be well-defined rights and responsibilities for stakeholders and third-party platforms will address consumer complaints.

The government expects orderly competition and will regulate monopolies. Competitive firms will receive support in expanding overseas.

China will open more government and public data to the market to improve efficiency. Specific employment and taxation policies will be developed to assure the sharing economy's growth.

The trading volume of China's sharing economy rose to 3.45 trillion yuan (about $508 billion) last year, according to a report released by the State Information Center.

The sharing economy is expected grow at an average annual rate of 40 percent and account for more than 10 percent of the country's GDP by 2020.