Company registration services in Shanghai to improve

Shanghai aims to make company registration services more convenient, precise and smart so that more investment can be attracted to the city, officials from the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation said at a news briefing on Monday.

The administration released a set of 21 measures on Friday to deepen the registration and supervision for market entities, which is part of its efforts addressing Shanghai's new action plan to further improve the city's business environment, which were released on Feb 18.

During a news briefing held on Monday, Peng Wenhao, deputy head of the administration, explained that the new measures focus on the matters, difficulties and concerns that have been most frequently expressed by companies.

"Companies have the final say while rating the business environment of a city. This is the conclusion that we have come to while advancing various reforms. In other words, companies' feelings matter the most. Therefore, we have conducted in-depth research among different companies before introducing the new measures," she said.

To further facilitate foreign investment comprises one highlight of the administration's latest measures. Foreign natural persons investing in or setting up companies in Shanghai will be exempted from submitting related notifications as long as they hold the new version of expatriates' permanent residence ID or the ID is within the validity period.

For those holding foreigners' permanent residence ID, residence permits for Hong Kong and Macao residents, mainland travel permits for Hong Kong and Macao residents and residence permits for Taiwan residents, company registration can be completed online.

Based on the identity authentication data that the Administration has obtained from multiple sources, qualified overseas natural person investors can complete the registration process for a foreign-invested company online, according to the newly released measures.

Therefore, company registration can be completed one day, while it usually took one month to complete the process due to the various paper work that must be done in offline sites, explained Kang Yan, a company registration specialist at the administration.

Foreign enterprises' permanent representative offices are exempted from submitting the qualification documents of foreign enterprises certified by Chinese embassies and consulates in foreign countries while making their annual reports.

Meanwhile, efforts will be made so that qualification documents for foreign investors can be recognized among all the market administers in the Yangtze River Delta region. In this way, business costs will be efficiently lowered, especially when they are expanding their footprints across the region, said Kang.

Such facilitation across the region is also part of Shanghai's efforts to contribute to the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, which was elevated into a national-level strategy in 2018, according to Peng.

Digitalization marks another highlight of the administration's new measures. The online company registration platform, the first of its kind in China that was launched in Shanghai in May, will be made accessible to self-employed and cooperatives among farmers this year, according to the newly released measures. Artificial intelligence will be used when new businesses are choosing their company names.