Beijing has implemented over 1,500 business environment reform measures for seven consecutive years. The favorable development environment has strengthened the confidence of enterprises in their development, and 337 new technology-driven enterprises are established in Beijing every day, equivalent to a new tech enterprise coming into being every five minutes.

The time required to establish a foreign-funded enterprise reduced from two to three months to a single day, the fastest processing time possible

"Beijing continues to enhance its commercial system reform, actively implementing combined, commitment-based, and online processing procedures." According to the report, comprehensive online procedures for enterprise establishment have steadily gained in popularity, with over 90 percent of new enterprises choosing to register and be processed online. Beijing is at the forefront of offering comprehensive online procedures for enterprise establishment, which has succeeded in reducing the time required to set up a new business from two to three months to one day, the fastest processing time possible. 40 sectors of the economy have fully promoted 'one permit for one industry', and the materials required have been reduced by an average of 50.6 percent, and processing times are down by 71.5 percent.

Exemptions for 320 plus certificates in application in the past five years

"Beijing vigorously promotes the development of its digital government and builds an international first-class government service system in an all-round way." All government services from 60 municipal departments can now be accessed at government service halls, with 25,000 comprehensive service windows established and a 100 percent application acceptance rate. With the exception of certain special cases, such as those involving classified information, 100 percent of government services at both municipal and district levels can now be processed online. Applicants can now benefit from one-time application and collaborative processing to complete their applications in a single visit for 62 'Single Item' matters, such as the registration of a birth, enrollment in compulsory education, and establishment of a catering facility. On average, more than 480,000 of these 'Single Item' cases have been processed per month since the beginning of 2024. According to statistics for the last five years, Beijing has streamlined over 60 percent of services, reduced processing time by 71 percent, cut down on required materials by 74 percent, and made it possible to exempt some 320 certificates from applications, simplifying procedures for enterprises and residents alike and ensuring faster application processing times.

A total of 122 overseas professional qualifications recognized

Beijing has implemented a series of measures in recent years to stabilize foreign investment, streamlined investment procedures, and promoted the development of foreign-funded R&D centers, adopting a multi-level regular service mechanism for foreign-funded enterprises. 245 regional headquarters had been established for multinationals in Beijing, with 149 foreign-funded R&D centers also taking root as of the end of 2023.

As regards cross-border trade facilitation, Beijing has led the way by introducing five national reform policies related to the direct collection of goods from the port, direct loading upon arrival, advance declarations, and other fault tolerance mechanisms, continuing to promote them. It introduced a pilot project for the direct collection of goods at airports' aprons. Beijing has reduced the number of inbound and outbound handover steps for domestic exports from four to one and has established a dual-hub e-freight platform that connects Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport with one-stop waybill declaration and cargo tracking services among others, cutting average vehicle checkpoint entrance and exit times by 50 percent.

Furthermore, 122 overseas professional qualifications have been recognized and joint processing has been implemented for two types of foreign national work permit and work-type residence permit certificates, reducing processing times from 17 working days to just five. The payment service demonstration zones for international visitors set up at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport have handled 450,000 foreign bank card transactions among others.

Helping businesses resolve 100,000 claims in five years

In recent years, Beijing has developed a comprehensive enterprise service system  designed to address issues, fulfilled demands for a wide range of enterprises and established inclusive service channels for them. By constantly refining the 12345 enterprise service hotline, Beijing has handed over 420,000 cases such as information inquiries, interpreting policies, resolving issues, and reporting complaints in the past five years. 78,000 enterprise visits have been conducted to address 99,000 specific needs in person.

(Source: Beijing Daily)