Shanghai has continued to enhance its business environment for global enterprises since the release of the Action Plan to Focus on Enhancing Enterprises' Experience and Continuously Building a World-class Business Environment, known as the Action Plan 8.0, on Feb 5, 2025.

Over the past year, through coordinated citywide efforts, all 58 initiatives under the plan have been fully implemented, while the 10 breakthrough tasks have been advanced in a steady and substantive manner. The following highlights outline some of Shanghai's key achievements across five priority areas identified in the plan.

I. Aligning reforms with World Bank B-READY standards

1. Enhanced the service capabilities of the "Shanghai Online Business Registration" platform, enabling full-process online handling of business changes and cancellations through "smart documentation", with 204,700 change registrations and 73,600 cancellation registrations completed.

2. Ensured the timely commencement and completion of major projects through proactive services, parallel pre-approval mechanisms, and measures like "multiple certifications in one".

3. Launched a power access service package, resulting in the signing of 168 service agreements for contracted electricity access.

4. Advanced the citywide rollout of "15-minute employment service circles", with 506 community-based employment service stations established.

5. Developed an international green finance hub, with 212 green projects securing financing totaling 18.79 billion yuan ($2.68 billion).

6. International trade

• Implemented a risk-based, tiered, categorized inspection and supervision mechanism for the quality and safety of imported medical devices, reducing clearance times by more than half.
• Handled 624 million import and export transactions in goods, with a total value of 118.97 billion yuan, representing year-on-year increases of 25.81 percent and 11.77 percent, respectively.

7. Introduced a list of 26 "simplified and fast-track" tax services to meet the personalized needs of taxpayers.

8. Established the Shanghai International Commercial Court, and added three new arbitration partner institutions, processing a total of 512 cases online.

9. Achieved substantive examination in the pilot program for data product intellectual property registration, issuing more than 800 certificates, with related licensing and transaction values exceeding 19.5 billion yuan.

10. Identified a list of 87 insolvency-related matters involving 18 departments, achieved a resolution rate of 90 percent, and issued detailed guidelines in four areas: market regulation, public security, planning and resources, and financial regulation.

II. Optimizing comprehensive services for enterprises

1. Continued to deepen the "all-in-one business license" program, improved the online application system, and expanded 39 business models from pilot areas to citywide implementation.

2. Launched the "Suishendui" business benefit section across all channels of the "Government Online-Offline Shanghai" platform, combining over 2,140 business-friendly policies from six major categories at both the municipal and district levels.

3. Increased the scale of Shanghai's policy-based financing guarantee fund for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to 19.13 billion yuan, facilitating the issuance of over 150 billion yuan in government-backed financing guarantee loans.

4. International services

• Expanded the reach of the International Services Shanghai portal to 191 million views.
• Provided consultation services to 686,000 international passengers through one-stop service centers for foreign nationals at Pudong and Hongqiao international airports.
• Launched the "Easy Go" one-stop integrated service platform to consolidate high-demand scenarios for international travelers, with 6.71 million registered users and cumulative transactions exceeding 3 billion yuan by the third quarter of 2025.
• Approved more than 1,500 stores for the "tax refund upon departure" service, and increased the number of "refund-upon-purchase" centralized service points to 26, nearly doubling year-on-year.

III. Optimizing enterprise-related regulatory inspections

1. Established 91 standardized, cross-departmental integrated regulatory scenarios, covering 2,673 administrative power items, and incorporated 1.41 million business entities into the integrated regulatory database.

2. Enhancing inspection quality and effectiveness

• Conducted 31,600 joint inspections across departments by applying the "inspection code" system.
• Promoted tiered, categorized supervision of "credit + risk", and included 739 inspection circumstances in the "non-intrusive monitoring" list, and 1.87 million entities in "non-interference unless necessary".

IV. Strengthening basic-level business services

1. Xuhui district has established 20 high-quality district-level incubators, with a total operational area exceeding 125,000 square meters, incubating nearly 500 startups.

2. The Shanghai Hongqiao One-Stop Service Center for Overseas Talent, located in Changning district, has served over 150,000 talent at home and abroad.

3. Hongkou district has established a legal service system that connects with 48 countries or regions worldwide.

4. On Changxing Island, the time required to start a business has been reduced to half a working day, and the approval time for construction projects has been shortened by 40 percent.

V. Fostering a favorable social environment

1. Established a new cohort of over 200 city-level business environment ambassadors to create a regular, systematic channel for soliciting business matters and demands.

2. Addressing enterprise-related requests

• Identified over 7,000 enterprise-related concerns through the 12345 hotline, with key matters receiving special oversight.
• Processed 298,000 business-related requests, with a resolution rate of 98.2 percent.

Source: Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission