Guangzhou's business environment continues to be favored by investors, driven by the city's efforts to reduce enterprise costs and optimize the industrial ecosystem, officials said.

In March, the Development and Reform Commission of Guangdong Province released a business environment assessment of the province's cities. Guangzhou is recognized among one of the two top-tier cities.

The assessment focused on the actual effect of policy and feedback of business entities. It pointed out that as one of the first batch of national pilot cities for an innovative business environment, Guangzhou has achieved positive results.

The evaluation team drew eight innovative measures from practices in Guangzhou.

On Feb 27, the American Chamber of Commerce in South China released the Special Report on the State of Business in South China, in which a total of 183 companies participated. The report showed that Guangzhou has been listed as the most popular investment city for the seventh consecutive year.

In 2023, Guangzhou launched the version 6.0 of its action plan to optimize the local business environment. The theme relates to "being favored by business and industry" and the plan is aligned with the 10 indicators of the World Bank's Business-Ready Assessment Rules. The plan also commits to reducing enterprise costs and optimizing the industrial system.

A smartphone app is launched by the Huangpu district government to assist government services to enterprises. [Photo/China Daily]

At the beginning of 2024, Guangzhou issued several measures to optimize the foreign investment environment and attract more foreign investment, which proposed 12 measures regarding better use of foreign investment, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors, increasing support for foreign investment and innovating the mechanism of foreign investment.

The Guangzhou government work report for this year pointed out that it will encourage more entrepreneurs and professionals to participate in the perfection of business environment policies. The city will also have its economic and trade rules aligned with international practices, promote the construction of the Nansha international business environment pilot zone, and the innovation and reform pilot zone for business environment in Huangpu.

In addition, Guangzhou will improve the mechanism for the exit of market entities, continue to carry out inspections of business competition and improve the work for online market supervision and service.

Eric S. Musser, president and chief operating officer of the United States-based Corning Incorporated, said that Guangzhou has a top-rate industrial foundation and an excellent business environment.

Corning's business in Guangzhou has developed rapidly and is seeking more cooperation. The company will continue to hold a positive outlook on Guangzhou in automotive applications, biomedicine and mobile consumer electronics.

Experts have summarized the achievements of Guangzhou's business environment. They said the city is no longer reliant on the traditional subsidies policy. Instead, it is attracting and gathering enterprises with a more fair and just market environment and a convenient and efficient administrative environment. Such efforts have allowed foreign investors to feel assured and relaxed in their investment and operation in Guangzhou.

Moreover, the city is constructing a better mechanism to identify bottlenecks and difficulties in the process of policy implementation. By starting from the most specific and realistic needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, it has improved supply in aspects such as land use, government data and infrastructure. The city has made management more warmhearted, they said.