Shanghai released 10 key measures to optimize its business environment in 2026 at a news conference on May 7.

Here are the highlights：

1. Improve policy services for businesses

Shanghai will simplify policy application, enhance coordination between municipal and district-level policies, and expand services that allow eligible companies to access policy benefits more directly.

2. Reduce unnecessary inspections

The city will implement inspection codes, joint inspections, risk-based supervision, and off-site checks to avoid repeated or excessive inspections.

3. Improve SME financing services

Shanghai will develop Suishenrong, a unified financing service platform, to better connect small and medium-sized enterprises with banks to improve financing support.

4. Promote fair bidding and procurement

The city will strengthen oversight of government procurement and bidding, address abnormally low bids, and pilot AI-assisted bid evaluation and intelligent regulation.

5. Protect businesses online

Shanghai will enhance services for handling online infringement targeting companies, and urge online platforms to improve information review, rapid response, and coordinated enforcement mechanisms.

6. Facilitate bankruptcy and restructuring

The city will coordinate administrative affairs related to corporate bankruptcy, streamline corporate liquidation, make bankruptcy restructuring more efficient and effective, improve the handling of cross-border bankruptcy affairs, and explore a bankruptcy early-warning mechanism.

7. Strengthen intellectual property protection

Shanghai will improve fast patent pre-examination mechanisms for key industries and strengthen intellectual property protection in emerging fields.

8. Improve services in industrial parks and office buildings

The city will issue guidelines and a practical handbook on improving the business environment in industrial parks and commercial buildings, and guide them in improving integrated service capabilities and business ecosystem development capacity.

9. Respond better to business requests

Shanghai will enhance channels for addressing business concerns, strengthen closed-loop management, improve analysis of business requests and recurring issues, and expand the policy interpretation functions of the 12345 platform knowledge base.

10. Support emerging business models

The city will strengthen mechanisms for identifying new business models, promptly clarify regulatory responsibilities, and improve regulatory approval procedures and efficiency in emerging sectors.

Support for foreign-invested companies and foreign nationals

Shanghai will also take measures to improve the development environment for foreign-invested enterprises and make work and life more convenient for foreign nationals.

For foreign-invested companies, the city will increase transparency in policy application and delivery, reduce on-site inspections for low-risk and high-credit companies, strengthen intellectual property protection, and support the implementation of foreign-invested projects.

For foreign nationals, Shanghai will expand multilingual information services through the International Services Shanghai portal and the Easy Go platform. It will also improve entrepreneurship support for domestic and international talent, encourage local communities to provide one-stop entrepreneurship guidance, and offer community-based professional services for one-person companies, including cross-border payment services, tax compliance consulting, and guidance on visas and residence permits.

Source: Shanghai Observer