Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, was included in the list of 2022 Top Cities in Urban Business Environment Innovation on April 3 due to its public service optimization and regional business barrier breakdown. 

According to the 2022 urban business environment innovation report released by China Media Group, the business environment innovation practices of municipalities, capitals of provinces and autonomous regions, cities with independent planning status under the national social and economic development, and economically active cities with GDPs over 1 trillion yuan ($145.40 billion) were observed and analyzed.

In 2022, Taiyuan made efforts to create a better business environment, comprehensively expanded smart government affairs services, and implemented agency services for project construction and registration.

The entire approval process for investment projects was reduced to less than 30 working days, a total of 49.48 billion yuan in tax refunds, exemptions and deferrals were made throughout the past year, and the city set up a special fund of 1.3 billion yuan for investment promotion. 

Also, 169,300 new market entities were established in the city last year, an increase of 38.49 percent.