China cannot rest on its laurels, it must continue to make doing business easier

ON THURSDAY, the World Bank released a report Doing Business 2019: Training for Reform, which ranks China 46th worldwide on its “ease of doing business” list. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

A comparison with the past will give a clearer picture: China ranked 78th in last year’s report, and 96th in 2013; Now it is among the top 50, marking a giant step forward. It had an Ease of Doing Business (EODB) score of 73.64 this year, 8.64 higher than that of last year, which is among the biggest improvements an economy has achieved within the year.

China was listed among the world’s top 10 countries for its improvement.

Just as Ma Jiantang, then-vice-dean of the National Academy of Governance, said in an earlier interview, China has been improving its business environment in two main aspects, namely simplifying the administrative procedures and tax cuts, in the past five years.

For foreign investors, China’s business environment is also becoming increasingly easier. Over the past five years, the negative list for foreign ventures has been cut by 65 percent. A total of 11 free trade

zones have been piloting China’s efforts to further open up to the world. And the time it takes foreign investors to gain approval to invest in China has been significantly reduced.

A previous World Bank report shows that a good business environment can raise the investment rate by 0.3 percent and increase the GDP growth rate by 0.36 percentage.

China’s efforts to improve its business environment will continue. As Xu Hongcai, an economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said, some of the official documents on simplifying administrative procedures can be better implemented, while some favorable policies must be made better known, so that they will more effectively benefit businesses.

“An environment friendly to businesses is friendly to all, because all will benefit from the prosperous economy,” Xu said. “There will be no end to improving the business environment.”