An action plan themed around further improving the business environment was issued on March 2 in Shanghai. Five aspects including optimizing government services, upgrading enterprise life-cycle management services, and creating a fairer market competition environment will be focused on. More than 200 measures have been put forward to reach these goals.

Specifically, for example, more than 95% of government affairs will be dealt with online. Online identity confirmation and electronic stamping will cover all enterprises’ high-frequency matters. Enterprise registration will be paperless in the whole process. Based on the previous policies, the “running one-time errands at most” principle will expand to cover all real estate transfer registration affairs.

The action plan is part of Shanghai’s continuous efforts in boosting high-quality development for foreign-funded enterprises. Data reveals that foreign investment in Shanghai last year grew by 6.2% while global foreign direct investment fell by 42%. The total number of regional headquarters of multinational companies and foreign-funded R&D centers reached 771 and 481 respectively, and overseas talent in Shanghai reached about 200,000.