Shanghai benchmarks against World Bank standards for construction projects

Shanghai is striving to improve its business environment for major construction projects, benchmarking against the standards of the World Bank Group, the city's officials announced on Wednesday.

The WBG's evaluation over business environment is an important indicator for international investment, which mainly concentrates on regulatory framework and public service provisions at the microeconomic level.

The city released its sixth edition of measures on business environment improvement for construction projects on Wednesday, which stressed that Shanghai is adopting the WBG's concept to facilitate three dimensions of the city's business climate, including regulation, services and efficiency.

Having 20 measures, the sixth edition focuses more on stimulating the vitality of the market.

It works on improving approval of services for engineering construction projects, and assisting on project commencement and implementation.

The city's relevant departments, including water authority, electric power supply, gas and transportation, will cooperate closely to offer services and conveniences for the construction projects.

Construction enterprises will be able to enjoy services from water, power and gas authorities within an integrated system within the year, the officials said.

Also, more services will be available online.

Acceptance criteria on green buildings will also be released in the near future.