Bird's-eye view of the Western International Convention and Exhibition Center (Design sketch).

Chengdu Taikoo Li business district.

Deepening reform in the Pilot Free Trade Zone

The business environment of a city is its green card to the outside world, and its core competitiveness to participate in global cooperation. In 2019, Chengdu identified the “Annual Mission for City” as the “International Year of Business Environment Construction”. It is committed to building an international city with advanced business environment and striving to foster business environments and markets that are commensurate with the scale of a city’s economy and its international rankings.

Taking the pilot reforms in the Pilot Free Trade Zone as the “first attempt”, Chengdu has moved forward in a more stable and fast pace and with a highly recognizable urban characteristic to create a more promising development land that presents an amicable, sound and prosperous environment for merchants.

Jinzhou (Image provided by Chengdu Bureau of Commerce)

Making bold attempts and trials and conducting independent reform

Deepening the construction of Pilot Free Trade Zone to improve urban competitiveness

At a government hall in the Chengdu area of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, Mr. Han, who made a special trip to Chengdu from Beijing to verify his qualification for online car-hailing, did not expect that all these procedures would have been completed in just one day.

According to the regular process, the enterprise needs to apply for a business license at the Provincial Department of Industry and Commerce, and then apply for an operation permit with the received business license. It would generally take one or two months. However, Mr. Han benefited from the pilot reform of “all-purpose first certificate” in Chengdu.

In March last year, Chengdu took the initiative to launch the “all-purpose first certificate” reform for administrative examination and approval in the country. The department responsible for issuing the “following certificates” will award these “certificates” directly after seeing the “first certificate” (that is, the first approval permit applied from the department for environmental protection, industry and commerce, food and drug supervision, urban management, etc.), and repeated submission of materials are reduced in the part of the market entities. For any subsequent application, the following departments will only conduct a compliance review.

"By breaking departmental barriers, market entities can cut redundant material submissions, and save the trouble running back and forth across multiple departments, which is efficient and convenient. Such reforms further promote the transformation of government functions from 'regulation-reliant' to 'service-oriented'." The person in charge of the relevant departments of Chengdu introduced that Sichuan has lived up to its promise of “reducing certificates after getting the business license through the pre-judgment of government department toward the business qualifications of market participants, simplification of the examination and approval process, and the implementation of the notification commitment system. At present, the reform has been promoted in a nationwide scale.

Taking the pilot reforms of the “all-purpose first certificate”, and “the integration of multi-regulations, multi-evaluations, multi-assessments” for administrative examination and approval as well as industrial project as the advancing momentum, the Chengdu Municipality has been promoting the reform of system integration and striving to make the pilot reform more systematic and integrated, thus effectively transforming institutional innovation into a powerful driving force for the development of service industry and growth of various enterprises.

"We must make bold attempts and trials and conduct independent reforms. Through continuous trial reforms, we have further facilitated the construction of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, deepened the reform of Pilot Free Trade Zone in response to the pain points and barriers that have halted the development of enterprises, and focused on promoting the international business environment with institutional innovation.” The main person in charge of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Commerce said.

The pilot reforms conducted must generate empirical experiences and demonstrate their unique features. Since the listing of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, we have been focusing on pilot reform projects with local characteristics. Chengdu has explored the "one bill-of-lading system" for multimodal transportation, the establishment of statutory bodies, and the regional assessment of engineering construction projects, etc., which have brought about tangible benefits in facilitating the construction of an international and legal development environment for corporates. According to the plan, this year Chengdu will strive to form 10 reform and innovation cases that can be emulated and promoted throughout the country, and enable enterprises to share the benefits brought about by the reform and innovation of the Pilot Free Trade Zone.

At the same time, Chengdu is still striving for more trials in other nations that bear a pioneering spirit and show support for the construction of Chengdu as a national central city. During its exploration, Chengdu will endeavor to provide better services for enterprises and urban development.

The rise and rise of international consumption city has enhanced the market appeal

Since the beginning of this year, the Chengdu business district has maintained its bustling prosperity. On January 30th, in the 2019 (17th) "Promotion Conference for Consumption in Chengdu" held by the Chengdu Merryshop for Spring Festival, a set of data has once again refreshed the views of the outside world toward Chengdu's consumption power: in about a month, more than 4,000 stores of more than 200 enterprises in Chengdu have launched promotion throughout the city, resulting in a total consumption of 29.6 billion yuan by 81.57 million people. More than 80% of the participating businesses have doubled their sales and consumers. Under the new trend of consumption demand and situation, this consumer shopping spree in the city has helped Chengdu to accelerate its construction as an international consumer city.

The continued strong growth of consumption has allowed the lay public to enjoy the exciting shopping spree, and presented the entrepreneurs investing in Chengdu with more business potentials.

On February 28th, 2019 Chengdu TOD Business Development Conference was held in Chengdu. 301 well-known enterprises and institutions from more than 10 countries and regions around the world attended the conference. Many internationally renowned experts shared the experience and cases of global TOD development model cities, and offered their suggestions for Chengdu TOD project construction and development.

The arrival of TOD as a new urban development model has opened up a new "battlefield" for the development of Chengdu's business model. At the conference, Chengdu released the signal—the comprehensive development scope of TOD fall within the 700 sites along the 35 track lines of 1696 km planned by Chengdu Metropolitan Railway Line 2035, and the comprehensive development land can reach more than 200,000 mu. This year, Chengdu will take the lead in launching the first batch of 13 demonstration projects.

Some industry experts said that this one-stop solution to people’s daily necessities, housing and transportation will accelerate the development of Chengdu's new economic formats and consumer industry.

Chengdu continues to accelerate its pace in the construction of international consumer city. On March 1st, a new business-related dialogue about the “Chengdu First Store Economy” was launched between the government department of Chengdu and more than 40 business representatives. In this pragmatic dialogue to decode the new economic momentum of the first store in Chengdu, it reveals the new trend of Chengdu in the future: it will introduce the first stores of various brands, cultivate commercial shops with local characteristics, and create a new consumption model to make the city more international and more local at the same time.

In this regard, at the previous Chengdu Business Work Conference, the development goals of this year have been clearly defined: in 2019, Chengdu plans to attract 100 international first-store and world brands, 30 well-known food brands and 30 companies for the construction of new formats at communities.

Chengdu has come to its present status and prosperity by means of business. Going forward, Chengdu will make full use of the opportunities presented by the country's promotion of consumption upgrading to delimitate large business districts, introduce heavyweight projects with full efforts, attract international brands to open their first stores, and build high-quality commercial buildings and community commercial blocks, etc. It will effectively enhance the expectations and confidence of domestic and foreign companies for Chengdu's development by accelerating the construction of Chengdu as a consumption city, and make it an appealing feature of Chengdu's international business environment.

Open more to the outside world

Building all kinds of service carriers to boost the development of enterprises

Bai Xindi has traveled thousands of miles from Montpellier of France to in Chengdu. While working here, he could still maintain smooth interaction with his European former colleagues, thanks to the “China-Europe Center”, a platform aimed at comprehensive communication with Europe launched in Chengdu in 2017.

Since May 2017, the “China-Europe Center” has attracted some 50 offices from Europe and from countries along the “Belt and Road”, serving as bridges for exchanges and cooperation between the central & western regions of China and Europe. The center has provided conveniences for foreign representatives who are now working away from their foreign homes.

“At the 'China-Europe Center', Europeans can do business with Chinese, and look for European partners.” Bai Xindi said that this 192-meter-high building is equipped with six functions, including the European Commodity Trade Exhibition and Trading Center, the Sino-European Technology Transaction center, the European SME Incubation Center, the Center for the Headquarters of European Enterprises, and the Service Center for European National Economic Development Promotion Agency, and the one-stop service platform, as well as other facilities, including theaters, exhibitions, hotels, etc., enabling enterprises and institutions to settle in without worries.

Making full use of the open platform and contributing to the introduction of foreign capitals, the China-Europe Center is an important carrier for Chengdu to develop an open economy and promote the construction of an international business environment.

It is reported that in order to create a better development environment for all kinds of enterprises, Chengdu will cooperate with relevant districts and counties to build the “China-Europe Center” into a national-level open cooperation platform targeting Europe, further promote the innovation and development of Chengdu Economic and Technological Zone, accelerate the construction of the national-level economic development zone of the China Railway Express, fully support the relevant districts and counties to promote the construction of China-France, China-Germany and other national parks, make full use of the open-door platform to bring in the Global Fortune 500, and spare no efforts to develop the open economy.

"This year, Chengdu will focus on the construction of open platforms, promote foreign trade transformation, and expand international cooperation, so as to better serve all types of enterprises." The relevant person in charge of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Commerce said.

At the same time, Chengdu will participate in international trade promotion activities such as China International Import Expo, China-ASEAN Expo, promote the development of international business through foreign trade and affairs, further improve the service system and incentive policies, and fully support enterprises to expand their overseas footprints, that is how a new pattern of Chengdu-based enterprises with a global view can be formed.