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Shanghai Zone Cuts Red Tape to Attract More Investment
Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone of Pudong has cut 59 items from the former 128 administrative examinations or approval procedures required for fledgling businesses or planned construction projects.
The move paves the way for the overall reform of the systems for approving projects in Shanghai.
The final 69 examination and approval items will also be simplified further. Warehousing and logistics companies will no longer need approval before being established in the zone, bringing them into line with trading companies in Waigaoqiao.
The policies, announced yesterday by the Pudong New Area government, will come into effect today.
"By simplifying the approval system in this way, we are expecting a more efficient administration and fewer instances of corruption," said Hu Wei, chief of the Pudong New Area government.
Shanghai currently has 2,027 criteria that must be fulfilled in the process of administrative examination and approval, even more than other big cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.
To set up an enterprise, up to 194 key criteria must be met in the first stage.
Even in Pudong New Area which is Shanghai's most efficient district, it takes 282 working days to approve an investment project. Small enterprises such as bars and restaurants find it even more difficult to deal with the examination and approval procedures.
The long and complicated procedures also generate bureaucracy and corruption, greatly damaging the image of the city.
The city, though enjoying high fame worldwide, is losing its attraction to neighbouring cities, such as the smaller Kunshan, in East China's Jiangsu province.
Therefore, with China's pending entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Shanghai is determined to polish its image by reforming its approval system completely.
"Up to 50 per cent of the bureaucracy involving administrative examinations and approvals will be cut," Mayor Xu Kuangdi said at a reform conference in May.
Under the principle of legitimacy and rationality, the city government demands all the administrative departments check up and cut unnecessary criteria and report to the city government.
Then it will begin trial implementation in the four districts of Pudong, Changning, Minhang, Songjiang and the four zones of Zhangjiang High-tech Park, Caohejing High-tech Park, Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, and Songjiang Exporting and Processing Zone.
Government departments of the whole city will begin its reform of approval procedures in October, according to Xu.
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