Shenyang association cuts red tape for foreign firms

Recently hired by Sino-German joint venture BMW Brilliance in Shenyang, Serbian Nenad Ivkovic is finding life smooth the city in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

But there was one exception - he could not apply for a Chinese driver's license.

He was refused because Serbia was not listed as a nation in the local traffic administration's computer system.

As an R&D engineer at the automaker, he is required to have a driver's license.

On behalf of Ivkovic, his company asked for help from the Shenyang Foreign Enterprises Association, of which BMW Brilliance is a member.

Ivkovic got his license a few days later.

An executive in human resources at BMW Brilliance said that the company appreciates the efforts of the association.

"The association addresses our every concern. They even assigned special people to solve minor problems," he said.

Now with nearly 100 members, the association was founded by the Shenyang Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau in 2012.

"Creating a favorable business environment is our to priority," said Gu Shaoqing, chief of the bureau.

In recent years, investment promotion officials in Shenyang have endeavored to attract investors with their sincerity and then retain companies through the best services they can offer.

The association helps foreign businesses in a range of ways - from business registration, trade cooperation, resolving complaints, staff training and even education of expat children.

"Our aim in the association is to make friends with foreign businesspeople, to solve their problems and to protect their rights. We want to build a reliable 'home' for foreign companies," Gu said.

To keep in closer contact, the association has built a liaison network that covers all member companies' demands or difficulties. It has a consulting panel with officials from different government departments to deal with problems.

The association has also improved its efficiency with door-to-door and online services.

Through the efforts of the association and other investment service organizations, Shenyang has become increasingly attractive to investors.

In the first three quarters of the year, 112 new foreign-funded enterprises settled in Shenyang. Utilized investment reached $4.03 billion in the period and the city signed 25 new contracts with capital investment totaling of $61.05 million.

"In the past three decades, investors mostly made decisions based on factors like infrastructure, preferential policies and operational costs. But today they are also considering things like administrative efficiency and quality of service. The association is the city's latest effort in service improvement," said Shao Jianbing, professor at Liaoning University.

"The association is just the first step. In the future, we will have more initiatives for improving services for foreign-invested enterprises," said Gu.

Contact the writers at wuyong@chinadaily.com.cn and liuce@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 11/29/2013 page23)