The flourishing business environment in Harbin, capital of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, has seen significant improvements since the launch of measures in recent years that targeted simplifying business license applications and streamlining the efficiency of administrative approvals, according to local officials.
 
Last year, investment in Harbin from outside the metropolis increased 10.2 percent compared with 2018 and the city’s industrial investment increased 24 percent, the highest it’s been in the past five years.
 
In 2020, Harbin plans to promote 750 key projects throughout the year, with a total investment of 580 billion yuan.
 
Officials said that currently the business environment in Harbin is undergoing three major changes towards higher efficiency in business services, innovations in its business service model and rising investment confidence.
 
In recent years, Harbin has launched measures to simplify administration procedures and decentralize decision making.
 
As a result, the level of processing business affairs online has reached 94. 8 percent, officials said.
 
According to the new procedures, the time it takes to register a business has been shorted to less than two days.
 
In 2019, 42,000 new enterprises were registered in Harbin, a year-on-year increase of 12.6 percent.
 
Harbin has been listed by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, as a city that has really done its work well and provided business incentives and support.
 
In addition to improving previous business procedures, Harbin has introduced and replicated successful advanced business service methods from four municipalities and 14 provincial capital cities.
 
As a result, Harbin has launched a three-year battle to improve the quality and efficiency of its industrial project approval.
 
One highlight is a mechanism pioneered by Harbin that requires top officials in government departments to work at frontline service windows and follow day-to-day affairs in person.
 
Over the past two years, they have tried 4,448 administrative procedures and reformed 2,554 measures.
 
Officials said that in the wake of the improvement of its business environment, market confidence in investing in Harbin has continued to increase.
 
Harbin Baogang Can Manufacturing Co, a supplier of the Coca-Cola company and other fast-moving consumer goods giants, has expanded its production capacity since 2017 and increased its investments in Harbin three times.
 
Elsewhere, Baoneng International Economic and Technological City recently settled in Harbin with a total investment of 21 billion yuan.
 
Last year total investment in Harbin increased 7.3 percent and investment from outside the  provincial capital and foreign investment grew by 10.2 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively, compared with 2018.
 
In 2019, 11 projects with over 10 billion yuan were introduced, and contracts at 232.1 billion yuan were signed, 2.5 times than that in 2018.
 
Investment included capital spent by tech giant Huawei and internet giants Alibaba and Tencent.
 
Last year the added value of Harbin's high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries -- and the proportion of the two in sectors above a designated size -- increased by 23 percent and to 33.3 percent, from 19.6 percent and 26.2 percent in 2018, respectively.