China's Ministry of Transportation said in a press conference that the government supports the devleopment of car-hailling apps, quoting the recent reform in east China's Yiwu city as a good example.
On Wednesday, Yiwu announced it would gradually give up quotas for taxi numbers, vowing to support Uber-like taxi-hailing apps.
Such apps have been a topic of controversy in the city, with local authorities fighting to keep the market as it is.
But Yiwu's reform is deemed by many as a progressive step toward opening the taxi market, which is essentially a monopoly entrenched with vested interests and lacks transparency.