Taiyuan city, capital of North China's Shanxi province, recently drew up a plan for optimizing its local business environment in 2021. 

The plan introduces a series of measures -- including fast-tracking investment and construction, streamlining market access, cross-border trade, property registration, tax and fee reductions, as well as improvements to government administrative services. 

Under the plan, the city will continue to roll out online business registrations. Business applications, acceptances, approvals and license issuances will all be carried out online. 

The current government service administrative windows for registrations, seals, social security and medical insurance affairs will be integrated into one window -- allowing enterprises to make a single submission of materials. 

To further cross-border trade, Taiyuan plans to promote the declaration of import and export goods in advance. It will encourage businesses to go through declaration procedures in advance, so that the customs office can immediately process clearances on the arrival of the goods. 

By the end of the current year, the city is expected to have achieved the move to online handling of real estate mortgage registrations, reducing handling times to less than a working day. 

The city will also roll out tax reduction policies. Among other things, it will increase the value-added tax threshold for small-scale taxpayers from monthly sales of 100,000 to 150,000 yuan ($15,522 to $23,283).