China continues to improve business environment for stronger economic vitality

U.S. biotechnology company Moderna recently set up a company in Minhang district, Shanghai. Moderna's agent lawyer obtained the business license just an hour after relevant authorities received the final document required for business registration.

"Minhang's efficiency has secured crucial development time for the company," the lawyer said.

From coastal to inland regions, continuously optimizing services and improving efficiency are building powerful momentums for China to further enhance its business environment.

Customs officers in Huaibei, east China's Anhui province visit a local electronics company to offer guidance on customs affairs. (People's Daily Online/Xiao Benxiang)

Business environment is an important factor in stabilizing market confidence, stimulating economic development, and promoting high-quality development. Just like sunlight, water, and air are essential for human survival, a good business environment is indispensable for businesses.

Various regions and departments in China have been continuously optimizing the business environment based on the actual needs of enterprises, helping them overcome obstacles and thrive.

In the first three quarters of 2023, the number of newly established private enterprises in China exceeded 7.06 million, a year-on-year increase of 15.3 percent. In the first 11 months of 2023, the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises in China reached 48,078, growing 36.2 percent from a year ago.

According to a report on China's business environment for foreign investors in the third quarter of 2023, more than 80 percent of surveyed foreign-invested enterprises expressed satisfaction with China's business environment.

The continuously optimized business environment provides strong support for fostering and stimulating the vitality of business entities and promoting high-quality development.

Enterprises are in the best position to judge whether a business environment is good. East China's Anhui province has launched a platform that enables streamlined approvals for companies. As long as they provide accurate information, they can receive funds swiftly.

In Dongying, east China's Shandong province, a 2.5-billion-yuan ($352.39 million) wind power project received personalized and proactive services from relevant departments, from planning to construction. Businesses are expected to experience a greater sense of fulfillment and confidence when they operate in a favorable business environment.

Workers manufacture lithium batteries in a workshop of a company in Hai'an, east China's Jiangsu province. (People's Daily Online/Zhai Huiyong)

In a sense, the optimization of business environment is also a process of deepening reforms and overcoming entrenched interests. China has been focusing on removing market barriers, transforming government functions, improving service quality and efficiency, and promoting institutional innovation, with an aim to break bottlenecks, establish long-term mechanisms, and strengthen institutional foundations, so as to ensure continuous improvement of business environment and effectively stimulate market vitality and social creativity.

The rule of law is the best business environment. From optimizing legislation to strengthening the removal of unfair provisions in administrative regulations, and to canceling and adjusting 33 penalty items in areas such as industry and informatization, housing and urban-rural development, China has taken solid steps in building a business-friendly environment through the rule of law.

China protects the legitimate rights and interests of various types of ownership enterprises, including state-owned, private, and foreign-funded enterprises, equally under the law. It promotes the improvement of institutional norms in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, and social credit.

China not only creates a stable, transparent, standardized, and predictable legal environment for all types of business entities but also injects strong impetus into building a new highland for opening-up and promoting high-quality economic development.

It was stressed at the recently held Central Economic Work Conference that China will continue its efforts to foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized.

Optimizing business environment is an essential component of consolidating and enhancing the positive momentum of economic recovery, and continuously promoting qualitative and quantitative economic growth.

By stimulating vitality through the optimization of business environment and accumulating momentum through institutional innovation, the Chinese economy is steadily moving toward high-quality development.