Business reforms in new area foster greater development opportunities

As the first place to pioneer the new development concept of a park city, Sichuan Tianfu New Area in western China, also a key part of the layout of Chengdu-Chongqing dual-city economic circle, is accelerating its pace to build itself into a model park city with high-quality development and a favorable business environment.

In order to stimulate market vitality and promote high-quality development, the area recently launched a plan for the comprehensive reform of its business environment in 2022, kicking off the 4.0 era to optimize its business environment.

Focusing on six dimensions-government service, key projects' construction, market resources, the legal system, market equity and innovation and entrepreneurship-the plan introduces 63 specific measures across 20 fields.

The plan clarifies that the year of 2022 should be a significant period for the area to promote the integrated reform of the business environment. The main target is to improve the service experience and sense of gain among market entities.

"The service provided by the tax bureau is really considerate, convenient and efficient," said a Tibetan woman named Drolma, a tax officer of Chengdu Xiangshang Aesthetic Education Technology who just finished the linking procedure of social security with business through the payment platform at the tax hall in the new area.

Drolma said that she thought she had to go to the hall and spend half a day to finish the procedure, which would be a time-consuming and annoying job especially during the pandemic. However, the reality was that she could submit the information online within one minute.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a surging demand for the remote handling of such tax services.

The tax bureau of Tianfu New Area then took the chance to construct a one-stop service platform and build the tax collection platform into an "online tax service hall "integrating consultation and handling functions.

The tax bureau has also established a hierarchical, accurate and efficient consultation modes to achieve rapid responses to simple and commonly asked questions.

There are 28 services that can be handled remotely, including password resetting and tripartite agreement revocation.

At present, the number of average daily consultation services exceeds 800, and the satisfaction rate has hit 99 percent.

In the future, taxpayers will enjoy even more convenient and intelligent tax services in the area. According to the plan, the tax bureau will continue to optimize the tax service modes in a bid to realize a one-stop service of 140 businesses.

The optimization and improvement of tax services are the epitome of the continuous business environment reform in Tianfu New Area, officials said.

Tianfu New Area will also continue to optimize the service capacity for enterprises in the whole life cycle and create a "one-stop" service mode, promoting services such as the online cancellation of enterprises and the application of electronic licenses.

Panda Lesson is a startup enterprise in the Tianfu Jingrong Building established three years ago. At present, the company has developed into a first-class online Chinese learning platform in Japan and is expanding business in South Korea, Southeast Asia and other global markets.

Yang Yunuo, general manager of the company, said that the rapid development of the company could not have been achieved without the supportive policies of Tianfu New Area.

"At the beginning, we felt the pressure of expenses such as premises, rent and labor.

"But all these issues were solved after we settled in the Jingrong Building, which is an important reason why we developed so stably and successfully in the early stages," Yang said.

Yang noted that Tianfu New Area has also organized policy training courses. They facilitated small and medium-sized enterprises to do tax declarations, explained the supporting policies of high-tech enterprises and provided a financial knowledge training class, which played a significant role in the development of the newly-launched company.

Tianfu New Area said it provides one-time subsidies to businesses that have been recognized as national high-tech enterprises for the first time since 2019. From 2020 to 2021, a total of 93 enterprises were awarded and supplemented with a total of 15 million yuan ($2.3 million).

With the implementation of the business environment 4.0 version policy, Tianfu New Area will continue to unleash the momentum of innovation and entrepreneurship by enhancing their vitality and introducing more talent.

By comprehensively optimizing public services and improving the quality of the ecological environment, the enterprises and employees in the new area will usher in greater development opportunities.

According to the plan, in 2022, Tianfu New Area will focus on the layout of six major science and technology infrastructure projects, four interdisciplinary research platforms and six science and education infrastructure projects.

Under the guidance of the Chengdu-Chongqing Comprehensive Science Center, it will continue to accelerate the construction of high-level innovation platforms such as Tianfu Xinglong Lake Laboratory and Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory.

Sichuan Tianfu New Area, a national-level development zone in western China, creates a favorable business environment through reforms. CHINA DAILY

An aerial view of the new area, which aims to develop itself into a model park city with high-quality development. CHINA DAILY

A staff member at the Tianfu New Area tax bureau serves a client remotely. CHINA DAILY