Hai'an is making concerted efforts to streamline its administrative approval procedures and introduce business-friendly policies. As a result, it recently ranked 24th among China's top 100 counties and county-level cities in terms of its business environment. [Photo/WeChat account: hafbwx]

The list of China's top 100 counties and county-level cities, rated for their top business environments, was released on Dec 7 by the National Academy of Economic Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Nantong city – located in East China's Jiangsu province – had all of its four county-level regions make it onto the list. Hai'an, a county-level city administered by Nantong, ranked 24th, second only to Qidong city, among the areas under Nantong's jurisdiction.

Hai'an has continued to optimize its administrative approval procedures in the current year. It is said to have given full play to the functions of its integrated government services platform, reducing the intermediate procedures for starting up a business.

The municipal government is understood to have created a supervision system for the transaction of public resources and issued a negative list of government procurements.

What's more, it has strengthened its compliance reviews of procurement documents to boost the healthy development of micro, small and medium-sized companies.

Efforts were also made to improve the functions of government service websites, promote the development of "access more government services via a single website" and to enhance the levels of both on-site and online services.

The Hai'an government also undertook measures such as improving the government-enterprise communications mechanism, introducing more support facilities and implementing the nation's inclusive policies for cutting taxes and administrative fees.

It also provided more opportunities for businessmen to participate in the formulation of enterprise-related policies, to create a better environment for the development of its resident firms.