The Huzhou Citizen Service Center in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province [Photo/WeChat account:huzhoufabu]

Huzhou recently ranked second in the annual provincial assessment for cities' work in optimizing government affairs services.

Over 85 percent of government service items in the city in East China's Zhejiang province now can be dealt with online.

Efforts have been made by authorities to simplify the examination and approval process for business-related services, including business registration, cancellation, and the availability of resources like water, electricity, gas, and financing tools.

The city has even set up a team of more than 1,500 people to help local residents and companies apply for government affairs services.

To make services more accessible, the city has also launched 142 self-service machines in all its 88 towns or sub-districts.

Via the machines, more than 100 items related to people's livelihoods in the Yangtze River Delta region can be dealt with, reducing time needed by 50 percent and economic costs by nearly 75 percent.

In the past year, the machines reduced paper usage by about 40 percent.

To date, Huzhou has reached agreements with 128 cities nationwide on the cross-provincial handling of government affairs services.