Shanghai’s Pudong is striving to streamline administrative processes for business registration to allow more market players to open business there more quickly.

In July, Pudong announced that the opening of new businesses will only require a comprehensive license instead of several permits from different government departments, marking a major pilot reform on business registration in China.

To date, Pudong has issued 54 comprehensive licenses in 15 industries. On average, the industries achieved 76 percent reduction in administrative approval items, 88 percent reduction in approval time, 67 percent reduction in the number of application materials, and 60 percent reduction in form filling.

The reform measure was lauded by Wang Kun, deputy general manager of the public affairs department of Suning Holdings Group, one of China’s leading commercial enterprises.

Wang said Suning was preparing to open three Suning shops (a representative in the convenience store industry) in Pudong and each shop would have had to obtain five permits for selling food, drink, drugs, medical devices and cigarettes.

To obtain the permits, Suning would have needed to prepare 53 items, fill out nine forms and submit five applications to different government departments. Now, only 10 items, one form and one application are needed.

Thanks to the reforms, Wang said the company spent only three days submitting relevant items to the government to obtain a comprehensive license, which greatly improved the operating efficiency of the Suning shops.

The new measures also enabled 12 caterers at the food garden at the Shanghai World Financial Center to open simultaneously Oct 1.

Under the previous rules, each caterer would have needed two or three licenses to open their businesses and the 12 caterers would have spent at least two months obtaining the licenses.

The operator of the Shanghai World Financial Center knew about the reform measure when asking about necessary administrative procedures for business registration at Pudong’s service center for enterprises.

With the support of Pudong’s market supervision bureau, the 12 caterers got business licenses in two working days after submitting simplified application materials under the bureau’s guidance.

The reform measure also helps to promote the development of emerging industries. Chen Wenjun, director for government affairs at Hema, Alibaba's online-to-offline fresh food supermarket chain and a representative of the new retail industry, said the registration time is important to Hema Fresh supermarkets.

Chen explained that to ensure the freshness of vegetables and fruits at Hema Fresh supermarkets, the registration time should not be delayed. Hema also promises that consumers who placed an order on its app will receive fresh food in 30 minutes if the destination is within three kilometers of the supermarket, so a delayed registration would increase logistics and labor costs.

“Previously, we needed to spend a lot of time to obtain five permits to open businesses, but with the support of the Pudong government, we learned how to apply for the comprehensive license,” said Chen.

Chen explained that the company finished online application first in the convenience store section listed on the official website and then submitted the materials to the service center for enterprises. They obtained the comprehensive license in about a week.

Pudong has been a pioneer in implementing pilot reform measures. In December 2015, the State Council approved 116 reforms and Pudong became the first pilot area to decouple business licenses and administrative permits.

Moving forward, more industries are expected to enjoy the comprehensive license measure as more government departments are exploring how to integrate the administrative permits.

To regulate the businesses, Pudong is also developing an innovative regulation system coordinating self-discipline of market entities, autonomy of industry associations, social supervision and government supervision.