Since its official launch last September, the Harbin area of the China Heilongjiang Pilot Free Trade Zone – located in Harbin city, capital of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province – has made considerable progress in attracting companies to establish themselves there, according to local officials.

Recently released statistics showed that to date more than 2,875 companies have registered in the Harbin free trade zone or FTZ, a year-on-year increase of 67.9 percent compared with the period when Harbin had not establish its own FTZ in Harbin New Zone.

Officials said that on average more than 300 companies are registering in the Harbin FTZ per month.

They said that even during the COVID-19 outbreak, the growth of companies in the Harbin FTZ remained strong, with a year-on-year growth of 28.52 percent.

Among them, 18 are foreign-funded, a year-on-year increase of 225 percent; and 2,857 are domestic-funded enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 67.6 percent.

Officials said that simplified business registration procedures and innovative business services have contributed to Harbin FTZ’s investment and business registration growth.

In June, Harbin FTZ rolled out initiatives to simplify registration and starting up companies, shortening the entire process to within around one hour.

An executive of Heilongjiang Shulan Construction Engineering Co, the first company to benefit from the new services, said it took the company about an hour to complete the paperwork.

“In the past, it took three or four days to go through the whole process of registering an enterprise,” he said.