China's Hainan cuts red tape to attract foreign investment

HAIKOU - Denis Koreshkov waited only one night before getting his business license in South China's Hainan province.

The 34-year-old Russian engineer and his business partners were amazed at the administrative efficiency. The office of his company in Hainan Software Park in Chengmai county, which is undergoing fitment and equipment installation, will be put into use after Spring Festival, which falls on Feb 16.

Koreshkov and his partners moved their computer technology company from Russia to Hainan last year and established the Hainan firm with a registered investment of $10 million.

"China is a rising power in the IT industry and has a huge potential market," he said. His company has signed three cooperation projects in Hainan.

The Russian entrepreneur is among foreign investors benefiting from the favorable business environment in China.

The country has been making efforts to remove barriers to market access and requires local governments to create healthy business environment for fair competition.

To attract foreign investors, since October last year the approval of foreign enterprises in Hainan has only taken three days, compared with 18 days previously.

Hainan took the lead on online administrative approval in July 2017, enabling applicants to submit administrative approval affairs at home with a computer.

"A highly efficient government will cut the institutional and time costs for companies' development," said Wang Jing, head of the Hainan provincial government affairs service center.

"Streamlining administrative approval procedures will push the transformation of government functions and create a favorable soft environment for economic development," she said.

Wu Yusheng, founder of Tetranov International, a US pharmaceutical company, also feels the benefits of such policies.

The registration and construction of his health product plant in Haikou, the provincial capital, only took five months.

"We have lots of investment projects around the world. The Hainan project is the fastest," Wu said.

To attract foreign capital, Hainan also identified 12 key industries, including tourism, Internet, medical treatment and bio-pharmaceuticals, and introduced preferential policies.

Due to the policies, the island province has become a hot spot for foreign investment.

In the past five years, 360 foreign-funded enterprises have been set up in the province, with contracted foreign capital reaching $25.4 billion. In 2017, the island signed almost 40 foreign investment projects.