Shenyang creating better business environment

Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning province and a long-time important industrial base of the country, has been striving for constant improvement of its business environment over the past few years to attract more investment.

A file photo of Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning province. [Photo/China.org.cn]

Many foreign investors have settled in the city, such as the German BMW Group. It has recently increased its investment by 3 billion euros (US$3.4 billion), a significant figure drawing nationwide and even worldwide attention.

Sound implementation of all measures

A senior leader from the Shenyang Yuanda Enterprise Group said: "We are deeply impressed by Shenyang's better business environment in recent years, especially in terms of the work efficiency of the government, which has established a strong sense of service to the people."

Since November 2016, Shenyang has taken a series of measures designed to create a sound environment for both foreign investment and innovative development. A working group has been established headed by the secretary of the municipal committee of the Communist Party of China to coordinate the joint responsibilities of all sides.

Che Dongyu, vice office director of the working group in charge of Shenyang's business environment improvement, said the work was not limited to examination and approval of documents, but included improvement of the overall environment encompassing government affairs, markets, openness, facilities, society at large and the rule of law.

A series of special programs have been undertaken by the city to address issues that have been raised by the people, such as collection of arbitrary and unwarranted fees from enterprises and acceleration of the reform of monopoly industries.

The municipal government set up a comprehensive service platform through which more than 200,000 appeals from enterprises and individuals have been dealt with since 2017.

By the end of August this year, there were 119,674 newly-registered market entities in Shenyang, a year-on-year increase of 14.36 percent. Meanwhile, the number of projects valued at more than 100 million yuan (US$14.41 million) increased from 600 at the beginning of this year to 976, up 54.7 percent over the same period of last year, with the investment totaling 1.14 trillion yuan.

An environment for win-win cooperation

The cooperation between Shenyang's Brilliance China Automotive Holdings and Germany's BMW group has lasted 15 years, with the BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. (BBA) becoming one of the most outstanding enterprises in both Shenyang and the whole country.

Speaking of this cooperation, Johann Wieland, president of the BBA, said the Shenyang municipal government had offered an all-round support.

Mayor Jiang Youwei, who is in charge of the project's negotiations, led a delegation to visit Germany to promote the project being obtained by Shenyang.

The city also set up a working group headed by the mayor to promote BMW's new project, including land planning, infrastructure, public services, policy support, and spare parts investment.

Since 2009, BBA has invested more than 52 billion yuan in the Shenyang production base, and has developed more than 350 parts suppliers across China, of which more than 80 are based in Liaoning province. In 2017, it contributed more than 24 billion yuan in taxes, as well as creating more than 18,000 jobs for local people.

The free trade area (FTA) is another important means for Shenyang to promote itself as an international city. By the end of July, a total of 16,032 newly-registered enterprises had established themselves in the Shenyang area of the pilot free trade zone in Liaoning.

Most were import and export companies, with registered capital amounting to 175.6 billion yuan, including 173 foreign-funded enterprises with registered capital of US$1.71 billion.

Favorable policies attracting talented people

In 2017, the Shenyang municipal government issued a number of policies and measures aimed at building a talent pool for innovation and entrepreneurship. In April this year, a series of supplementary measures were issued to provide even stronger support to attract more talented people and professionals to the city.

The policies and measures cover housing, children's schooling, healthcare, public service, and tax subsidy, which are matters of utmost importance to the people. A typical example: Shenyang Yuanda Enterprise Group has adopted an approach of "welcoming in and going global" to promote personnel exchanges.

Statistics show that, in 2017, Shenyang brought in 14 academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering and nine experts under a national-level scheme aiming to attract successful scientists of Chinese origin to lead key laboratories and projects.

In 2017, Shenyang also received more than 70,000 university and college graduates and a total of 3,758 foreign professionals, with the numbers expected to continue to grow in future years.