Pudong's one license plan goes nationwide
Zhang Wei, vice president of Shanghai Daotong Information Technology Co, shows the company's new license.
With one single license from the Pudong New Area, enterprises are free to do business anywhere in China, local authorities said on Thursday.
Pudong began to simplify licensing approval procedures in its free trade zone in 2015 to improve the business environment.
It launched a “one integrated license” pilot program in July 2019, stitching together multiple licenses into one single permit.
Previously, six licenses from separate departments were required to open a convenience store, for example, but with the pilot in place, only one was needed. The process also took just five working days compared with the previous 95.
Last month, the State Council approved the district’s “one integrated license” reform plan which expands the range of industries to 31 and extends the legal validity of the license nationwide.
“Previously, one integrated license released by Pudong was only effective in Pudong. But now it’s recognized as valid across the country,” said Wu Qiang, a deputy director of Pudong. “It means that businesses just need to get one single license in Pudong, and they can do business all over the country.”
Of the newly added industries, many are Internet-related, such as online retailing and online hospitals.
“More and more businesses are turning to the Internet. They are not brick-and-mortar stores. It’s impossible to restrict them to doing business just in Pudong,” Wu said.
Traditional industries such as construction design and engineering have been included with a total of 25 items under the responsibility of State Council departments allowed to be processed and issued by Pudong.
“These industries are classified as top industries and usually only state-level authorities can grant them approval. But now Pudong takes over the power,” Wu said. “It implies Pudong’s pioneering role in the reform.”
On Thursday, Shanghai Daotong Information Technology Co, Shanghai FamilyMart Co and J Hotel at Shanghai Tower became the first companies to receive their new single licenses.
Scanning a QR code on their licenses enables people to see which industries they are approved to engage in. Their licenses have also been uploaded to the city’s Suishenban app, the one-stop government service portal, and the State Council’s electronic licenses database.
“Like the Suishenma health code, companies can find their electronic licenses with the app. So, they don’t need to carry their licenses everywhere they go. They just need to open the app and show the electronic license, and then they can launch business operations,” Wu said.
Zhang Wei, vice president of Daotong, said the reform had solved a headache for the company.
“We didn’t know about where to apply for licenses, which licenses to apply for and how long to wait for approval. These don’t-knows may have put us in a legal crisis,” he said. “Today, these problems have been solved. We just need to make the application and in a short period we are granted one integrated license.”
He said the reform greatly facilitated Internet businesses.
“We are doing e-commerce. Borderless business is encoded in our DNA. So, it’s great to see that the license is effective all over the country instead of just Pudong,” he said.
