China Focus: China fosters fair business environment

GUANGZHOU, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) — In the past nine months, the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou witnessed an average of 909 new enterprises appear every day, bringing the total number of foreign-invested companies to 2,818 in the city.

“The continuously improving business environment has promoted the rapid growth of foreign-invested projects and the number of enterprises in Guangzhou,” said Wen Guohui, mayor of the city.

Wen made the remarks on Saturday at a forum with the theme of “Building a Business Environment with Fair Competition” attached to the fourth Understanding China Conference, introducing the resilience of the city’s economy and its huge potential to attract foreign investment.

“To optimize the business environment, Guangzhou has built a national service platform of government affairs and launched measures in administrative supervision and other areas,” he said.

The improving business environment has boosted economic growth. The GDP of Guangzhou, capital of China’s economic powerhouse Guangdong Province, gained 6.9 percent in the first nine months of this year to reach more than 1.78 trillion yuan (252 billion U.S. dollars), according to the municipal industry and information technology bureau.

Guangzhou epitomizes China’s efforts in the field, as the country has made the fastest progress in improving its business environment among its developing counterparts, said Marcin Piatkowski, a senior economist at the World Bank.

On Thursday, the World Bank released a report entitled “Doing Business 2020: Comparing Business Regulation in 190 Economies,” saying that China’s ease of doing business ranking climbed to 31 this year from 46 last year, and it is also among the 10 economies that improved the most on the rankings after implementing regulatory reforms.

“To date, China has shown a notable improvement in the areas of dealing with construction permits, getting electricity and resolving insolvency,” the World Bank report said.

According to Marcin Piatkowski, the growth of China’s ranking is mainly due to the special attention paid by the Chinese government, especially in the formulation and implementation of laws and regulations.

The expert said China’s business environment would continue to be improved, which could make the existing companies more competitive with reduced costs.

In the first three quarters of the year, foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland expanded 6.5 percent year on year to 683.21 billion yuan, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

During the period, more than 30,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were set up in the country.

Rosen Asenov Plevneliev, former president of Bulgaria, spoke highly of China’s long-time commitment to fostering a business environment with fair competition, saying that China’s efforts are important for maintaining the current world order.

“The continuous improvement of the business environment in China will also stimulate the internal vitality of its economy and promote high-quality development,” said Fan Hengshan, former deputy secretary-general of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.