Press Release for Media Briefing of the Shanghai Municipal Government on May 8, 2025

2025.05.08

On the morning of today (May 8), the Information Office of Shanghai Municipality held a press briefing. Gu Jun, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Government and director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, introduced the details of Shanghai’s Intensifying Efforts to Accelerate the Implementation of the “10 Priority Breakthrough Tasks” for Optimizing the Business Environment in 2025. Chen Yanfeng, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Peng Wenhao, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, Zhang Yonggang, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and director of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau, Qian Xiao, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Data Administration, and Ji Zengling, chief of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Public Security’s Cyber Security Division, attended the briefing and answered questions from reporters.On February 5 this year, Shanghai held its eighth consecutive conference on optimizing the business environment and released the Action Plan to Focus on Enhancing Enterprises’ Experience and Continuously Building a World-Class Business Environment in Shanghai, also known as the Plan 8.0. This plan centers on enhancing the enterprise experience and outlines 58 tasks and measures. Since then, relevant departments and districts across the city have launched specialized plans to optimize the business environment, aligning their efforts and fostering a positive momentum of coordinated progress, achieving initial results. For instance, in the area of administrative inspections involving enterprises, the “inspection code” system has been implemented citywide since January 1, making it essentially mandatory with the “scan-the-code-to-evaluate” function. In terms of government services, on April 10, the precise service platform “Sui Shen Dui” was launched, offering a new batch of preferential policies for enterprises that can be accessed directly, quickly, and without application. Regarding collaborative efforts, industry associations and chambers of commerce have established communication and dialogue mechanisms with0administrative law enforcement departments to jointly promote a “warm” approach to law enforcement, balancing leniency with severity.Building on these efforts, and in order to fully implement the latest directives from the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, and the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission recently issued the Notice on Intensifying Efforts to Accelerate the Implementation of the “10 Priority Breakthrough Tasks” for Optimizing the Business Environment in 2025. These 10 selected tasks address the most urgent needs of enterprises and the high demands for interdepartmental coordination. The focus is on launching new measures, addressing problems, and embracing social supervision. Through strategic coordination, promotion, oversight, and publicity, these tasks will be executed swiftly, with the aim of delivering significant results within the year. I. Key Considerations for the ‘10 Priority Breakthrough Tasks’The 10 breakthrough tasks are derived from the 8.0 version of the business environment optimization plan, and the overall considerations can be summarized into four key aspects:1. Strengthening Efforts and Introducing New Incremental Measures
Building on the existing tasks and measures outlined in the Plan 8.0, the focus will be on further deepening and refining specific measures. A new batch of incremental measures aimed at benefiting enterprises will be launched, with an emphasis on prompt implementation according to an expedited timeline. For example, in terms of policy services, efforts will be made to refine the process by adding more stringent constraints on government departments during policy formulation. The goal is to comprehensively optimize the application and redemption experience, improve the accessibility and interpretation of policies that benefit enterprises, and promote a greater number of policies that can be accessed directly and quickly, eliminating the need for applications.2. Addressing Challenging Issues and Strengthening Cross-Departmental Coordination
The second priority is to address tough issues by enhancing cross-departmental, cross-regional, and cross-level coordination. This includes strengthening top-level design and establishing organizational mechanisms for continuous collaboration across departments to tackle persistent challenges in the business environment. For instance, in the realm of administrative inspections involving enterprises, after the comprehensive implementation of the “inspection code” system, the focus will shift to improving inspections in a way that minimizes disruption to businesses. Efforts will include exploring and innovating more off-site inspection methods to improve the overall experience for businesses.3. Embracing and Actively Accepting Social Supervision
Adhere to the principle of “open-door governance” to improve the business environment. Position the 10 tasks as the city’s commitment to optimizing the business environment and actively welcome media and social oversight throughout the implementation process. Leverage platforms like “media observers” and third-party evaluations to gather widespread feedback, listen to suggestions, and continuously drive improvements.4. Focusing on Results and Enhancing the Enterprise Experience
Integrate both macro and micro perspectives to guide departments in delivering training, ensuring that the top-level design of the reform measures for the 10 tasks is effectively implemented at the “last-mile” level, without distortion and with tangible outcomes. Strengthen tracking and accountability throughout the process, foster improved communication between government and enterprises, and establish dynamic feedback loops. Empower “business environment ambassadors” and create a bottom-up mechanism for addressing enterprise demands, promoting joint efforts across the city and districts to form a closed-loop solution.II. Specific Items Under the ‘10 Priority Breakthrough Tasks’1. Advancing World Bank Benchmarking Reforms: We will align with the core logic and value orientation of the World Bank’s Business Ready (BR) assessment methodology, further refine regulatory frameworks, improve the public service system, and enhance policy implementation. A new reform task list will be introduced to guide benchmarking efforts, emphasizing the adoption of world-class practices, leveraging strengths, addressing gaps, and accelerating the development of internationally competitive advantages in the business environment.2. Optimizing Enterprise-Facing Policy Services: To address common concerns from businesses, such as policies being hard to find, hard to understand, hard to access, or difficult to use, we rolled out the “Sui Shen Dui” one-stop platform for policy inquiries and redemption. A new “policy calculator” will be introduced to scientifically define policy eligibility and application scope. We will continue expanding “automatic entitlement to benefit” services, aiming to cover all universal policies. To enhance policy outreach, we will innovate how we communicate with enterprises, including launching a media collaboration series titled “Directors Talk Policies”, with the first short video debuting today.3. Streamlining Administrative Inspections of Enterprises: We will enhance the functionality of the “Inspection Code” system to address issues such as redundant and overlapping administrative inspections of enterprises. Efforts will be made to accelerate the adoption of dual lists across industries, covering “non-intrusive supervision” and “no-disturbance without justification.” We will promote “dual transparency” in inspection matters and achieve “mutual recognition” of inspection standards. Through coordinated efforts at the city and district levels and through better integration of inspection codes, we aim to standardize, unify, and streamline enterprise-related inspections, reducing their frequency while improving quality, all without disrupting enterprise operations.4. Building a ‘Credit + Risk’-Based Regulatory Framework: To tackle the fragmentation and decentralization of credit risk ratings, we will improve the integrated “comprehensive + industry-specific” enterprise public credit evaluation system. This will enable the development of more accurate enterprise credit risk profiles and support the creation of an early warning model within the field of market regulation. We will also complete the credit risk classification for individual businesses under market supervision, expanding the scope of credit risk-based management from enterprises to include self-employed and individual industrial and commercial entities.5. Innovating Financing Services for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): We will focus on creating innovative mechanisms for bank-enterprise connectivity and reducing financing costs for SMEs. The seamless loan renewal and “renewal without repayment” policy will be fully implemented and extended to include medium-sized enterprises. Financial institutions will be encouraged to develop more innovative credit financing products. We will pilot and scale the “Fast-tracked Loans at Industrial Parks Initiative,” promote the expansion of financing service centers to grassroots levels, actively develop supply chain finance, and carry out the “Visiting Thousands of Enterprises” campaign in depth, all aimed at improving financing convenience and accessibility for small and micro enterprises.6. Fostering a Transparent and Healthy Online Environment for Enterprises: We will step up efforts to address enterprise-related online infringement and enhance protection of business rights. The upgraded Version 2.0 of the “Enterprise-Related Infringement Information Response Service Package” will be launched, along with measures to reinforce platform accountability in handling such information. Policies, regulations, and rights protection channels will be widely publicized, and practical training sessions will be organized. A special campaign— Clear Pujiang · e-Enterprise Companion — will be conducted to improve the digital public opinion environment, supported by the establishment of a coordinated governance mechanism. 7. Enhancing Coordination in Intellectual Property Protection and Law Enforcement: To address the key challenges of cross-regional intellectual property (IP) protection, we will strengthen collaborative efforts across the Yangtze River Delta to safeguard overseas IP rights. A dedicated coordination mechanism for overseas IP protection will be established. We will launch special enforcement campaigns to protect IP, issue guidelines for handling minor trademark infringement cases, and improve the government-enterprise cooperation framework for anti-infringement and anti-counterfeiting efforts, substantially increasing enforcement and support for enterprise IP protection.8. Regulating Profit-Driven Professional Claims: We will target the persistent issue of excessive and abnormal complaints that disrupt enterprise operations. Efforts will focus on enhancing legal coordination in managing profit-seeking professional claims. The “Abnormal Complaints and Reports List” used by market regulators will be refined, and we will formulate the Opinions on Legally Regulating Profit-Driven Professional Claims. Actions will be taken in accordance with laws and regulations to crack down on misconduct involving coercive complaints and illegal profit-making, aiming to reduce the prevalence of such claims and foster a fair, trustworthy market environment.9. Improving the Efficiency of Corporate Bankruptcy Procedures: We will strengthen cross-departmental coordination to advance corporate bankruptcy processes in a more unified and efficient manner. Efforts will include enhancing the administrative coordination mechanism for bankruptcy cases and supporting administrators in fulfilling their legal responsibilities. As one of the 10 key indicators in the World Bank’s business environment assessment, this work plays a critical role in improving market exit efficiency, facilitating the restructuring and recovery of distressed enterprises, and optimizing the allocation of market resources.10. Supporting Business Environment Development at the Subdistrict Level: To bridge the “last mile” in service delivery, we will empower subdistricts to enhance corporate services and grassroots law enforcement. The “whistleblowing by subdistricts, response by departments” mechanism will be implemented, and the 12345 dispatch system will be further optimized. Initiatives will include the development of dynamic commercial blocks, themed campaigns such as “Business Walk in Subdistricts,” and reverse evaluations where subdistricts assess the support they receive from higher-level departments. These efforts aim to simultaneously enhance grassroots service capabilities and improve the overall experience for small and medium-sized enterprises.Finally, regarding the World Bank’s business environment assessment, the World Bank officially released the results of enterprise survey for China on April 19. Based on the Shanghai survey data, the overall performance is strong. Out of the 59 evaluation points assessing the business environment, Shanghai achieved the global best level in 22 of them. However, in alignment with global best practices, corporate perceptions, and the demands of high-quality development, the optimization of the business environment requires ongoing effort and sustained work. Moving forward, we will intensify our efforts to accelerate the implementation of the Plan 8.0 for optimizing the business environment and the 10 Breakthrough Tasks. This will ensure that every entrepreneur in Shanghai feels confident, respected, and empowered to innovate, and every company rooted in the city thrives, seizing opportunities for growth. Together, we will ensure that the city and businesses move in tandem, resonating at the same frequency, to write a new chapter in the high-quality development of Shanghai’s economy.