New measures target business environment

A RAFT of measures deepening the registration management reform of business entities was released by Shanghai’s market regulators yesterday to further improve the city’s business environment.

Among the 21 measures, one exempts notarization procedures of foreign nationals who establish companies in the city if they have obtained China’s foreign permanent resident ID cards, according to the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation.

Also, expat holders of the ID card can register companies wholly online.

In the past, it took more than one month for foreign nationals to obtain notarization materials at Chinese embassies and consulates overseas, according to officials.

Moreover, permanent representative offices of foreign enterprises in China are exempted from the submission of qualification documents of foreign enterprises certified by Chinese embassies and consulates overseas when they submit annual reports based on regulations.

“The city’s market regulators are breaking bottlenecks in areas such as operation venues and scope in business registrations, aimed at creating a world-class business environment,” said Peng Wenhao, the administration’s deputy director.

“These measures are based on the voices and real demands of enterprises, and the target is to lift the service quality and management efficiency of authorities with an accurate and intelligent approach,” she added.

Authorities will apply new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to simplify the procedures of information filling and promote the application of e-version business licenses, files, annual reports, and seals.

“Our company has a large number of outlets, and we needed to obtain the paperversion business licenses of outlets for relevant affairs handling,” said Zhang Yanjun, head of more than 30 outlets of Burger King (Shanghai). “Now, we use an e-version business license for tax reporting and social security affairs, and a smartphone can handle all these.

“Also, we needed to visit our company for the seal and signature of legal representatives when a new outlet was opened in the past, which was really troublesome. It has been replaced by an esignature on the e-version business license, which is both efficient and safe.”