Beijing has implemented over 1,500 business environment reform measures for seven consecutive years. As a result, the favorable environment has strengthened the confidence of businesses in their development. Each day, 337 new technology-driven enterprises are established in Beijing, equivalent to a new tech enterprise coming into being every five minutes.

The time required to establish a foreign-funded enterprise reduced from 2–3 months to minimum a single day

Beijing continues to deepen the reform in the business sector by actively implementing combined, commitment-based, and online processing procedures. Comprehensive online procedures for enterprise registration have steadily gained in popularity, covering over 90 percent of new enterprises. Meanwhile, Beijing is at the forefront of offering such services for foreign-funded enterprises. The time required to set up a new business has been reduced from 2–3 months to minimum one day. The “one integrated license” practice has been promoted across 40 sectors. The materials needed have been reduced by an average of 50.6 percent, and processing times are down by 71.5 percent.

Over 320 certificates removed from application requirements in the past five years

Beijing vigorously promotes the development of its digital government and strives to build an international first-class government service system in an all-round way. All government services from 60 municipal departments can now be accessed at government service halls, with 25,000 comprehensive service windows established and a 100 percent application acceptance rate. With the exception of certain special cases, such as those involving classified information, 100 percent of government services at both municipal and district levels are now available online. Applicants can benefit from one-time application and collaborative processing to complete their applications in a single visit for 62 “Single Item” matters, such as the registration of a birth, enrollment in compulsory education, and establishment of a catering facility. On average, more than 480,000 of these “Single Item” cases have been processed per month since the beginning of 2024. According to statistics for the last five years, Beijing has streamlined over 60 percent of services, reduced processing time by 71 percent, cut down on required materials by 74 percent, and made it possible to remove over 320 certificates from application requirements. These have effectively reduced the number of visits and ensured faster application processing time for businesses and the public.

A total of 122 overseas professional qualifications recognized

In recent years, Beijing has been working to build a sound multi-level regular service mechanism for foreign-funded enterprises by introducing a series of measures to stabilize foreign investment, streamline investment procedures, and promote the development of foreign-funded R&D centers. As of the end of 2023, 245 regional headquarters of multinationals had been established in Beijing, and 149 foreign-funded R&D centers set up operations here.

In terms of cross-border trade facilitation, Beijing has led the way by implementing and sustaining five national reform measures related to the direct collection of goods from the port, direct loading upon arrival, advance declarations, and other fault tolerance mechanisms. A pilot project has also been conducted for the direct collection of goods at airports' aprons. The number of inbound and outbound handover steps for domestic exports has been reduced from four to one. Beijing has established a dual-hub e-freight platform that connects Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport with one-stop waybill declaration and cargo tracking services among others, cutting average vehicle checkpoint entrance and exit times by 50 percent.

Furthermore, 122 overseas professional qualifications have been recognized and joint processing has been implemented for the application of both foreign national work permits and work-type residence permit certificates, reducing processing times from 17 working days to just five. The payment service demonstration zones for international visitors set up at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport have handled 450,000 foreign bank card transactions among others.

Nearly 100,000 claims resolved in five years.

In recent years, Beijing has developed a comprehensive enterprise service system  designed to address issues, took concrete measures to help a wide range of enterprises resolve difficulties, and established inclusive service channels for them. By constantly refining the 12345 enterprise service hotline, Beijing has handed over 420,000 cases such as information inquiries, policy explanations, problem solving, and complaint handling in the past five years. A total of 78,000 enterprise visits have been conducted to address 99,000 specific needs in person.

(Source: Beijing Daily)