Reform galvanizes approval procedures

Administration approval procedures at the Shijingshan district branch of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce have been streamlined and made more efficient after a series of improvements.

The reforms, which feature rolling several government departments into one, mean that procedures such as registering a business or processing tax payments, can all be done at the same place in much less time.

Min Xindi, a senior operations manager at Vstartup, a business incubator, recently completed all the administrative procedures for starting a new business in just five working days.

"It's an amazing experience," Min said. "In the past, it took me more than 20 days to go through all these procedures."

According to Min, in order to register a business previously it took at least five trips to different government departments, including the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce, the Beijing Municipal Office at the State Administration of Taxation and the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau.

After the reforms, Min now needs only to visit one place - the Business Starting Service Hall, no more than two times.

The comprehensive service center, established by the Shijingshan district government, is located in the lobby of the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce's Shijingshan branch.

Liu Xuejun, deputy director of the Shijingshan branch, said that various government agencies have all made a presence at the hall to offer one-stop services. They include the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce, the Beijing Municipal Office at the State Administration of Taxation, the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau and the Public Security Bureau.

According to Liu, the "dramatic changes" come after the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce initiated a campaign to improve its services.

"We are working to streamline the administrative procedures and improve Beijing's business environment," Liu said.

To further simplify the procedures for startups, a professional assistance team has been established to offer advice and guidance.

"The assistance team is made up of versatile and professional officers, who are familiar with all the working processes regarding the administration of industry and commerce, as well as taxation affairs," Liu said.

"Startup business representatives just need to go to one single service window to submit the required documents and their request lists. The subsequent procedures will be handled by the assistance team."

As soon as the assistance team finishes all the procedures, the startups will be able to receive their business licenses, official seals and invoices at the service hall. The whole working process just takes five working days.

Every step in the administrative process has substantially enhanced its work efficiency, Liu said.

Another factor in the increased efficiency at the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce has been its online business registration system, which has sharply reduced processing time.

Feng Weixia, an officer at the service hall, said, "The business registration can be completed in one to three days online, while it took eight days before."

According to the city's industrial and commercial administration, more than 10,000 enterprises in Beijing have been certificated with electronic business licenses online. It is the same case with tax registration.

zhangdandan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/23/2018 page7)