Oct 15 marked the fourth Guangzhou Business Environment Day, when Tianhe district of Guangzhou – capital of South China's Guangdong province – maintained its top place in the city by being home to 600,192 enterprises.

This year, Tianhe has focused on the innovation of its services and their digitalization – introducing measures to improve its government affairs services.

Hive of activity: Tianhe district is now full of high-rise buildings. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

According to a recent report on Guangzhou's first-store economy, the Tianhe Road-Zhujiang New Town Business Circle attracted 306 first stores from 2021 to the first eight months of 2024, accounting for 49 percent of the city's total.

The first-store economy encompasses brands that launch their first brick-and-mortar stores and emphasizes new models, formats and technologies.

Miracle coffee settled its first store in the South China region in Tianhe this year.

The store's manager identified Tianhe as the preferred location due to its status as Guangzhou's commercial hub. What's more, the district has offered a fast-track channel to simplify approval processes and the convenience of simultaneous processing for business licenses and catering permits.

Vibrant Tianhe district particularly comes alive at night. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

Tianhe has also advanced a simplified approvals process for businesses, optimizing a "one-stop, one-license" integrated service model.

In addition, it has refined the individual-to-enterprise registration process – allowing for simultaneous tax clearances, deregistration and enterprise establishment applications for individual businesses.

This year, that paved the way for the establishment of 84,675 new enterprises there.

Leveraging technology, Tianhe has facilitated enterprise relocations with its "Tianhe Welcomes You" services. These allow online applications for a required Approval for Relocation letter and help implement a "one-stop, one-time" completion service model for intra-provincial enterprise relocations.

From January to September this year, a total of 12,032 enterprises relocated to Tianhe – representing a whopping 65.1 percent year-on-year increase.