China saw explosive growth in micro-credit companies in recent years, according to a blue paper issued Thursday.

The number of micro-credit companies increased by 4.7 fold to 2,348 by the end of October 2010, from less than 500 in 2008, the China Micro-Credit Institution Joint Council, a self-regulatory organization, said in the paper.

At present, micro-credit companies employ more than 24,700 people nationwide, with total funding of 190 billion yuan (28.79 billion U.S. dollars), according to the paper.

Micro-lending companies have become an important component and supplementary power of China's credit market. They have also been important routes for private capital to enter the financial market, the paper said.