Chinese authorities on Friday launched this year’s promotional campaign for new-energy vehicles (NEVs) in rural areas in three locations — east China’s Wuxi, south China’s Qionghai, and central China’s Jingmen. The activity will last from June to December, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), one of five government departments that launched the activity. A total of 69 NEV models will be featured, said the MIIT. It called on NEV manufacturers and distributors to finalize sales policies and improve customer service systems. Operators of charging facilities should also offer discounts on charging services, while e-commerce platforms should sell the cars online, the ministry added. China has released a guideline to help people living in rural areas to purchase and use NEVs, with a focus on boosting the construction of charging infrastructure. The country’s NEV sales expanded 60.2 percent year on year to 717,000 units in May, and its NEV output totaled 713,000 units last month, up 53 percent year on year. China witnessed a spike in the number of new taxpaying market entities in May as the country’s economy continues to recover. A total of 1.52 million new market entities handling tax-related business were registered in May, an increase of 24.9 percent from the same period last year, data from the State Taxation Administration showed. In May, newly registered companies numbered about 691,000, representing a rise of 27.1 percent year on year, while the number of new individual businesses stood at about 817,000, up 33.7 percent from a year ago. In the first five months, the total number of new taxpaying market entities totaled nearly 6.44 million, up 15.5 percent year on year. By the end of May, the number of taxpaying market entities stood at 86.92 million, up 7.5 percent year on year.