Shanghai: Adhering closely to the "enterprise perception" and continuously optimizing the business environment
Shanghai, an international metropolis, has always regarded optimizing the business environment as a key strategy to promote high-quality development and enhance the core functions of the city.
On August 7th, during the "Government Open Month" event in Shanghai, it was learned that in the first half of this year, Shanghai's investment attraction has been steadily increasing and improving. From January to June, 1944 projects were implemented with a total investment of 679.1 billion yuan, achieving 58% of the annual investment target; There are 1539 private investment projects with a total investment of 356 billion yuan, accounting for half of the investment in investment projects... This series of data is a powerful witness to the continuous optimization of Shanghai's business environment.
Starting from 2018, Shanghai has listed optimizing the business environment as the core topic of the "first meeting of the Chinese New Year" for eight consecutive years. In February of this year, Shanghai released the Action Plan for Optimizing the Business Environment 8.0, with 58 tasks targeting the pain points of enterprises; In May, the "Ten Major Breakthrough Tasks" for optimizing the business environment were proposed, with the spirit of turning the blade inward, allowing key problems to emerge and pointing out the coordinates for the next step of work.
Whether the government works well or not, enterprises and the public have the most say.
As a company, the most important thing is the business environment. After Shanghai Yigong settled in the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone in 2000, it invested in four production bases and established China's first global research and development center. Wang Xunbao, President of Shanghai Yigong Automobile Group, summarized the cooperation between government and enterprises with the phrase "If you are the one, please respond to every request". Since moving into Minhang District, the sales, production scale, and tax contribution of the enterprise have steadily increased year by year. In 2024, the sales revenue exceeded 4 billion yuan, and the total tax payment exceeded 400 million yuan. This year, our output value is expected to further increase by 500 million yuan, "Wang Xunbao said confidently.
Similarly, Boreton, established in the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone in 2016, was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May 2025. Yang Hui, Executive Director and Vice President, stated that the park has established a full chain ecosystem of "research and development manufacturing service" and launched a "one enterprise, one specialist" service mechanism, all of which help enterprises quickly gain recognition from the market and capital.
Adhering closely to the "enterprise perception", various departments at the municipal level in Shanghai have taken frequent measures: the Municipal Public Security Bureau has launched 24 measures to protect and benefit enterprises; The Municipal Commission of Commerce has released several measures to optimize the development environment of Shanghai's catering enterprises; The Municipal Greening and Urban Appearance Bureau has introduced 10 measures to optimize the management of stalls; The Municipal Fire Department has issued 12 measures to facilitate the public and benefit enterprises.
Shanghai's various districts are also constantly innovating, allowing "data running" to replace "enterprise running errands". The corridor "online shopping style" platform created by Minhang District benefits enterprises, making policy inquiries as convenient as "online shopping"; Optimize the approval process and regulatory services in Miaoxing Town, Luodian Town, and Luojing Town in Baoshan District, create internet famous markets, and stimulate urban vitality.
In addition, Shanghai has also established a closed-loop mechanism of "finding clues, understanding needs, and promoting cooperation", injecting new vitality into optimizing the business environment. For example, by leveraging exhibition platforms to attract traffic, the city participated in 125 key exhibition events such as the Shanghai International Auto Show in the first half of the year, connecting with over 2000 project leads; At the Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference, the "District Mayor Face to Face" event was held, allowing entrepreneurs to have direct dialogue with district mayors and directly facilitating the landing of multiple key projects... The three stages were closely linked, forming a complete chain from resource aggregation to demand matching to landing guarantee, allowing high-quality projects to be "attracted, landed quickly, and developed well" in Shanghai.
Invest in Shanghai with peace of mind, "said Zhang Wei, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Investment Promotion Service Center." Attracting projects to Shanghai is not the end point, but a new starting point. We need to make full use of Shanghai's various resources and empower enterprises to achieve greater development.
Taking the Toyota Lexus project as an example, Shanghai has formulated a package of support measures to solve the development problems of enterprises. In terms of building the industrial chain ecosystem, we will continue to attract upstream and downstream supporting enterprises in the fields of new energy vehicles and other industries through exhibition investment attraction, special negotiations, etc., to create a "one hour supply chain radius" for Toyota, and achieve "near ground" procurement in the core production process. It is expected that the localization rate will reach more than 95%, thus realizing the two-way empowerment of "single enterprise development" and "industrial ecological prosperity".
In October 2024, Shanghai issued the first intelligent connected vehicle on road license plate to Xiantu Intelligent, which is also the first public road license certification for unmanned environmental sanitation equipment in China. The person in charge of the enterprise sighed and said, "This is a manifestation of the Shanghai Municipal Government overcoming all difficulties and serving the enterprise wholeheartedly. It not only boosts our confidence, but also makes us more firmly rooted in Shanghai." In June of this year, the enterprise once again obtained 7 autonomous driving road license plates and operated normally in 7 areas of Pudong New Area.
Has the series of preferential policies and services for enterprises achieved practical results? The answer is affirmative. On April 10th this year, Shanghai launched the "Suishen Dui" platform, which provides one-stop services for enterprises to find policies, inquire about policies, exchange policies, and evaluate policies. As of June 30th, a total of 158 "no application, enjoy" services have been launched, serving enterprises over 2.7 million times. Recently, preliminary results have been achieved in optimizing the "Ten Major Breakthrough Tasks" for business operations: the "Intelligent Assistance" system for enterprise names launched by the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau has been selected more than 800 times since its launch in February; The "One Map" system of the Municipal Planning and Resources Bureau realizes the "Five in One" completion acceptance; 38 administrative law enforcement departments have fully implemented the "inspection code" system, among which 33 departments have basically established inspection item and object databases.
Optimizing the business environment is not only the government's "one-man show", but also requires the formation of a "choir" of the whole society. Shanghai is using institutional innovation to make enterprises, associations, media, and the public builders of the business environment: releasing a series of short videos called "Foreign Enterprise Talks about Business" to enhance the credibility and persuasiveness of the business environment through "other evaluations"; Launch a series of forums on "New Driving Forces in Business Industry" to discuss the demand and institutional supply of the business environment in the industry; Strengthen the "Business Experience Officer" mechanism and invite representatives of experience officers to have discussions and workshops.
This year, the World Bank's official website released the 2025 China Enterprise Survey Report. Among the 59 evaluation points related to the business environment in the report, 22 in Shanghai reached the world's best level. This means that Shanghai is taking on the role of a "vanguard" and writing a new model for optimizing the business environment.
There is no best business environment, only better. Shanghai will continue to optimize its business environment with a more open attitude, more pragmatic measures, and better services, attracting more enterprises to invest and develop in Shanghai.