Optimized business environment supports innovation and entrepreneurship in Hangzhou

Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province and hotbed of entrepreneurship, will soon be attracting more professionals from home and abroad to start businesses with its innovation-friendly environment and policy incentives.

In 2018, Hangzhou saw the largest influx of overseas high-level talents and internet engineers of any city in the country. The city has also been listed as the most attractive Chinese city for foreigners for eight consecutive years.

Lyu Ming, a biomedical expert, established Sumgen Biotech, a healthcare startup specializing in the development of innovative tumor-fighting drugs, in Hangzhou two years ago.

"To start a business in Hangzhou, all we needed to do was focus on our work," said the entrepreneur, adding that the city has advantages in terms of biomedical resources and policy support.

In 2015, Hangzhou laid out 27 talent support policies. Last year, the city mapped out a blueprint to accelerate the introduction of overseas talents, marking another step forward for Hangzhou in its effort to build itself into an internationally influential innovation and entrepreneurship hub.

The city government also launched a special fund, technology bank and innovative and entrepreneurial platform to provide support for startups still in their infancy.

Today, there are an average 10.23 innovation and entrepreneurship activities in Hangzhou per day. Thirty-two national-level incubators set up operations in the city, ranking first in the provincial capital cities and sub-provincial cities for five consecutive years.

In a wider drive to optimize its business climate, Hangzhou has beefed up efforts to streamline administrative procedures by reducing approval time for business registration and projects.

The "At Most One Visit" reform, initiated by Zhejiang province in 2017, is a pilot system aiming to streamline administrative procedures for people and businesses by integrating several government departments and placing them all under one roof or launching online service platforms.

The Hangzhou-based Zhejiang ShengDa Biological Pharmaceutical Co Ltd received approval for its environmental projects within half a month, which normally would take 45 working days before the reform.

As the capital of Zhejiang province, Hangzhou is continuing to develop its commercial registration system and reform the approval process for investment projects in order to reduce the transaction cost for enterprises and lay a solid foundation for innovation and entrepreneurship in the city.

This year, Hangzhou will continue to optimize its business climate by improving working efficiency, cutting down on red tape and reducing approval times.