Shanghai Issues Action Plan 7.0 to Improve Business Environment

On February 18, 2024, Shanghai Municipal People’s Government released the Action Plan of Shanghai to Adhere to Benchmarking Reform and Continuously Build a World-Class Business Environment (the “Action Plan”) , calling for taking actions and measures in 2024 to benchmark reform, improve enterprise service, enhance regulatory and law enforcement, innovate regional benchmark, and improve business environment collaboratively.

The Action Plan 7.0 specifies that institutional reforms will be carried out in the ten areas of market access, business premises, public facilities, labor employment, finance, international trade, taxation, commercial dispute resolution, market competition, and bankruptcy. Shanghai will fully implement the name declaration commitment system, deepen and expand the enterprise investment project commitment system and other pilot reforms, undertake relevant regulatory policies in such fields as green financing, guaranteed transactions, and electronic payments, and intensify efforts to cultivate and provide services to AEO enterprises. The document proposes to build an integrated business environment demonstration zone in Pudong New Area, continuously expand the categories of imported products that are exempted from mandatory certification and other special administrative measures, and explore customized business environment improvement plans for the development of the biopharmaceutical industry across the entire industrial chain.