Policy digest

Cutting of red tape to boost businesses

China will keep streamlining administration approvals and reducing red tape to improve its business environment, the State Council's executive meeting decided on Sept 6.

The government will expand a pilot reform introduced in 2015 in Shanghai's Pudong New Area to simplify procedures of obtaining a business license by separating the process from administrative approvals involving 116 approval items. This reform will be expanded to 10 free trade zones nationwide, while provincial governments will have the mandate to extend the measures to eligible national-level new areas.