Five companies in Qingdao, Shandong province have been included in the list of China's top 500 private firms for 2021, which was released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) on Sept 25.

Employees work on the washing machine production line of Haier Group in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, on Feb 27. [Photo by Wang Peike/For China Daily]

The five companies are Haier Smart Home, a multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company, Qingjian Group, a construction and engineering firm, Hiking Group, a foreign trade company, Liqun Group, a retail chain enterprise, and Century Luck.

The total revenue of the five enterprises in 2020 was 363.97 billion yuan ($56.37 billion), up 90.85 percent from the previous year.

Haier Smart Home was ranked 28th on the list with a revenue of 209.73 billion yuan. Qingjian Group was ranked 132nd with a revenue of 66.63 billion yuan, while Hiking Group took 286th place with a revenue of 36.16 billion yuan.

Liqun Group, which was ranked 409th, had a revenue of 27.13 billion yuan, while Century Luck was ranked 473rd with a revenue of 24.32 billion yuan.

The data shows the vitality of China's private sector, said the ACFIC. In 2020, the total revenue of the top 500 private enterprises was 35.12 trillion yuan, up 16.39 percent from a year ago. These companies paid a combined 1.36 trillion yuan in taxes, accounting for 8.84 percent of the national total.

This is the 23rd consecutive survey of large-scale private enterprises organized by the ACFIC. A total of 5,785 enterprises each with an annual revenue of more than 500 million yuan took part in the survey this year.