High-tech zone puts focus on making life easier for businesses

By redesigning a new government service model to bring more convenience to businesses, Weifang Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in East China's Shandong province has improved its economic agility, according to local officials and entrepreneurs.

Zhang Chao, who planned to open a fruit and vegetable distribution center in the high-tech zone, applied for a business license at the zone's government service center in August. He was recommended to make the application online via a WeChat app, allowing him to significantly shorten the waiting time. With support from staff members at the service center, he obtained the business license within half an hour.

The zone, which launched online business registration services in 2018, is working to provide mobile services to more companies this year.

Home to such renowned manufacturers as Weichai and Goertek, Weifang high-tech zone is an important industrial base in Shandong province. Provided to China Daily

The official WeChat service platform used by Zhang is the result of the zone's continuous efforts, allowing businesses to choose express delivery services and have documents sent to designated addresses to further save time.

Many locals have benefited from the zone's new service model this year, according to the zone's officials.

Similar mobile services are also available for companies who want to make declarations to write off their businesses. A total of 45 days after making declarations online, companies can visit government service offices to write off their registration.

Local officials said they hope "everyone who can use WeChat can use the platform".

Apart from improving business registration processes, the zone's government also introduced a new mechanism in April to strengthen interaction among government staff members and companies.

By the end of August, 902 government staff members in the high-tech zone established contacts with more than 3,000 companies. They were required to find out about companies' demands through various channels including businesses' official websites, face-to-face talks, questionnaire-based surveys and online information collections. For matters needing support from different government departments, the zone promised to give solutions or feedback in three to five working days.

To date, a total of 251 requests were put forward by 185 companies. Among those, 216 were solved.

The high-tech zone also introduced a comprehensive online service platform this year, aiming to better serve companies. One of its functions is allowing companies to make requests online and choose a government department to seek solutions. Departments which receive a request have to review it and give a response or solution within three working days, if the matter is under their administration. If the matter is out of a department's service range, notices on how to further the procedure have to be given to companies in six hours.

Departments which cannot give feedback on time will receive warnings, according to the zone's economic and development bureau.

Looking ahead, the high-tech zone will continue to introduce new mechanisms to promote regional economic growth, local officials said.

Yin Tingting contributed to this story.