Qingdao is a coastal city in China's eastern Shandong province. [Photo/WeChat account: opinionline]

Qingdao, a coastal city in China's eastern Shandong province, has been streamlining procedures to offer more efficient government service as part of efforts to improve the city's business environment.

The city had in 2019 started exploring a one-stop service for high-frequency matters faced by enterprises. In 2020, Qingdao launched the pilot program offering one-stop registration service for enterprises. The pilot program has since laid a solid foundation for the city to expand the service to more high-frequency matters faced by both enterprises and individuals.

The city starts exploring a one-stop service for high-frequency matters faced by enterprises in 2019. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

Take the registration of a pharmacy store for an example. Before the reform, businesses and individuals who opened pharmacies needed to complete eight procedures, including company establishment registration, social security registration, tax registration, pharmaceutical business license application, medical device business license application and fire safety inspection. It took 31 copies of application materials and 25 days to process. After the reform, the one-stop service requires only 10 materials to be submitted online. Processing takes only seven days.

Currently, Qingdao offers one-stop services for 263 high-frequency matters. Over the past year, the city handled about 294,000 such matters through its one-stop government service, reducing the average number of errands by 71 percent, the number of application materials by 60 percent, and the approval time by 75 percent.

Qingdao in Shandong province enhances smart government service. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

This year, Qingdao has carried out standardization construction and preparations of Qingdao local standards for the one-stop government service, which is set for further promotion across Shandong province.