As of Sept 30, there were 503,240 enterprises in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, accounting for 26.8 percent of Guangzhou's total and increasing 10.3 percent year-on-year.

The amount of newly established enterprises in Tianhe from January to August was 59,616, ranking first in the city and making up for 27.1 percent of the city's total.

The growing number of market entities is a direct reflection of the high-quality business environment in the district. It launched 38 reform tasks and 146 reform measures in August to promote the standardization and facilitation of government services, as well as the construction of a "digital government," hence building a more internationally competitive business environment.

Dynamic Tianhe district at night. [Photo/WeChat account: gztzth]

Tianhe has integrated 30 cross-department licensing for one-form application and one-time handling services, increasing the efficiency of approval services.

"The time to start a business is shortened, and the process is reduced. It has become faster and more convenient," said Ms Zeng, who is engaged in corporate finance and taxation work in Tianhe. "We can now submit materials online. The paper certificates can be delivered to the company, and the electronic certificates can also be downloaded through online platforms."

The district also carried out reform in its simple cancellation and deregistration of commitment system, cutting the publicity time of simple cancellation to 20 days. The first batch of 24 high-frequency business licenses, such as food business licenses and food production licenses, were included in the list of joint cancellation items, bringing convenience for their cancellation.

Centered on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and areas that Tianhe is paired with to support their development, the district has launched cross-regional government services. A total of 334 high-frequency items like enterprise registration and social insurance matters can be handled cross-regionally.

Mr Jiang in Shenzhen's Longhua district applied for establishing a branch through Tianhe's special zone on the Guangdong Government Service Network on June 18 last year. He received the electronic business license and the electronic seal online the same day, as well as received a paper business license by mail the next day.

The Tianhe 5G + VR "government affairs online window". [Photo/WeChat account: gztzth]

Tianhe also integrated its online and offline service platforms through the "government affairs online window", which now has launched 1,772 high-frequency government services in 16 departments and 19 sub-districts, covering social insurance, engineering construction, business registration, as well as housing registration.

On April 29, Mr Zhang got his construction land use permit through the "government affairs online window". Through screen sharing, the staff sent Mr Zhang the handling website, the application form, and other electronic materials, guiding him on how to fill in the form and submit the application.

"It was inconvenient to go out during the epidemic, and I got the permit with no need of visiting the department. It's really convenient," said Mr Zhang.

The Tianhe policy service platform, which displays the district's preferential policies and conducts online applications, has launched 130 items from 11 departments as of Sept 30. It has handled 4,580 business items, with an online processing rate of 100 percent.