The Information Office of Shanghai Municipality held the second press briefing on the series “Creating First-class Business Environment and Serving to Build a New Development Pattern” on the afternoon of today (April 12). The theme of the briefing is “Promoting Investment, Stable Growth, Protecting People’s Livelihood, and Advancing the Integrated Reform of Business Environment in the Field of Project Construction.” Hu Guangjie, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, introduced the details of the recently issued “Implementation Opinions on Deepening System Integration and Promoting the Integrated Reform of the Business Environment in the Field of Project Construction in Shanghai” (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan 6.0”). Pei Xiao, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Xu Jian, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, Liu Bin, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, Zhao Ming, deputy director of Shanghai Water Authority, and Li Zhen, deputy chief of Jing’an District, attended the press briefing and answered questions from reporters.1. Background on the formulation of the Plan 6.0 Project construction is an important part of the initiative to optimize the business environment. Since 2018, the city has been following on the goal of “three reductions and one improvement” (e.g., reducing procedures, reducing costs, reducing time, and improving quality), prioritizing the optimization of approvals, leveraging reform and innovation to cater to enterprises’ needs, and making every effort to promote the reform of the approval system for construction projects, with positive results.In 2022, optimizing the business environment became a key measure to protect market entities, stimulate market vitality and boost market confidence. During the reform of the approval system for construction projects, the city has launched measures such as separate permits for pile foundation, acceptance in a phased manner, regional assessment, and coordination on six types of resource quotas. These measures have effectively promoted the steady growth in fixed-asset investment and the construction industry in the city, and have been widely recognized by market entities. According to statistics, the city’s construction industry overcame the COVID-19 impact to achieve positive growth in 2022, with a total output value of 927.390 billion yuan. The city’s major project construction tasks have been fully completed, with an annual realized investment of 209.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. In the first quarter of this year, the output value of the city’s construction industry is expected to achieve positive growth, and the realized investment of the city’s major projects was valued at 43.7 billion yuan, accounting for 20.3% of the annual planned value and marking a year-on-year rise of 9.1%.In order to deeply implement the spirits of the citywide conference on optimizing the business environment in 2023 and further optimize the business environment in the field of project construction, the city has formulated the Plan 6.0.2. Main features of the Plan 6.0 First, it reflects “continuity” by comprehensively summarizing and solidifying the existing reform achievements. Since 2018, the city has consecutively released five versions of reform plans and supporting policies to form a unified construction project approval management system (hereinafter referred to as the “project approval system”) in the city. And the approval and review centers for construction projects at the municipal and district levels have been established. Through measures on “reduction, merger, deregulation, change, and adjustment” (e.g., reducing approval items and conditions, merging approval items, delegating approval authority, changing administrative approaches, and adjusting approval timing), nearly one-third of the approval service items have been streamlined and optimized. The city has introduced reform measures to integrate multiple regulations and evaluation procedures, conduct the joint review of multiple design maps, and streamline multiple measurement and testing steps in a bid to promote the process overhaul. The Plan 6.0 adheres to the continuity and stability of reform policies, and maps out new developments and strives for new breakthroughs based on comprehensively summarizing and building on the experience and practices in the previous five years.Second, it follows “advanced nature” by actively benchmarking against the first-class business environment standards worldwide. The World Bank’s assessment on the business environment is an important indicator for global investors, so striving to keep up with the assessment criteria is a key approach to help optimize the business environment. The World Bank’s new Business Ready assessment system is about to be launched, covering a broader range and raising higher requirements. The Plan 6.0 comprehensively benchmarks against the open and authoritative business environment evaluation rules and advanced practices worldwide, while paying attention to grasping the underlying logics and work requirements. It focuses on supervision, services and efficiency, and embeds the latest methods and philosophies of the World Bank into various efforts to reform the business environment in the field of project construction.Third, it highlights “relevance” by actively responding to the urgency, challenges, concerns, and expectations of market entities. The perception from market entities is the purpose and result for optimizing the business environment. In the process of formulating the Plan 6.0, we adhered to the orientation of solving specific problems and the goal of stimulating market vitality, while taking practice as the core criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of reform policies and achievements. With a focus on the needs of market entities, we continued to make efforts in promoting construction starts, accelerating completion, and stabilizing expectations, while maximizing policy effects by overcoming weakness and eliminating uncertainty.3. Main objectives of the Plan 6.0The work objectives of the Plan 6.0 can be summarized as “Three Mores” from the aspects of system, service and efficiency.First, the reform system will be more established. We will step up efforts on system integration, continue to promote the merger and simplification of similar items, and accelerate the integration reform in the field of project construction. Second, government services will be more efficient. We will focus on the project approval system and municipal and district-level approval and review centers, while continuing to promote the deep integration of online and offline government services, and striving to improve the quality and efficiency of government services. Third, it will be more convenient for enterprises to deal with various items. We will further reduce the time and costs on the approval for various projects, and continue to improve the experience for market entities. 4. Main contents of the Plan 6.0The Plan 6.0 focuses on “Five Efforts” and proposes 20 key tasks and measures, including:First, efforts shall be made to strengthen integration of the reform system and promote a more established and stable policy system. As part of the main measures, the government will organize unified regional assessments on traffic impacts, geological disasters, water and soil conservation in specific areas, and release the assessment results in a timely manner through the project approval system, in a bid to replace or simplify separate assessments and reviews of the projects. The city will make efforts in linking project construction permits with land approvals, and expand the scope of projects eligible for one-stop approval on construction permits from industrial projects to all social investment projects. In accordance with the principle of “same surveying and mapping results being required to be submitted only once,” the city will optimize and integrate surveying and mapping items in a phased manner, and enhance the sharing and mutual recognition on the results after streamlined measurement. The city will refine and improve the comprehensive final acceptance system, and compile 2023 Work Manual for Construction Project Comprehensive Final Acceptance. The city will strengthen the linkage between real estate registration and leasing, and both the lessor and lessee can jointly apply to record the contents of the lease contract in the real estate register to maintain the security of real estate transactions.Second, efforts shall be made to improve the convenience of approval and services for construction projects to facilitate early starts and completion. As part of the main measures, the city will consolidate the pilot results of issuing separate permits for pile foundation, and expand the implementation scope of phased acceptance to industrial, research and development, public service facilities. The city will strengthen the overall allocation of six types of resource quotas, namely land, water area, green space, forest land, muck removal, and requisition for resettlement housing, and explore the establishment of a municipal-level quota reserve bank. The city will optimize and improve one-stop installation services for water, electricity, natural gas, and internet facilities, with an aim to achieve full coverage of construction projects within the year. The city will strictly implement the “zero cost” for water, electricity, and natural gas access for users within the scope of planned urban construction land and outside the restriction line of building zoning. The city will enhance the rapid approval mechanism for road occupying and excavation, and expand the scope of one-stop approval for “road excavation in general project construction.”Third, efforts shall be made to improve the quality of government services in the field of project construction and promoting the deep integration of online and offline platforms. As part of the main measures, the city will build a unified system in the field of project construction so as to comprehensively consolidate the portal for handling various approval services. Enterprises will be offered a unified portal in a unified system that aggregates all factors, information, and procedures. The city will promote the construction of district-level review and approval centers, enable more items to obtain approval within the centers, and effectively give play to the overall coordination and leading role of these centers in terms of approval services such as one-stop installation services for water, electricity, natural gas, and internet facilities, one-stop construction permits, as well as comprehensive acceptance.Fourth, efforts shall be made to improve the quality and effectiveness of supervision in the field of project construction so as to continue to boost the construction market environment. As part of the main measures, the city will explore pilot cross-departmental comprehensive supervision, remote supervision, mobile supervision, intelligent early warning and prevention, while establishing a concise and efficient interim and ex-post supervision model. The city will revise the implementation opinions on the management of major municipal projects, and study the approval and supervision procedures for urban renewal projects such as historical heritage reservation, decoration and renovation, and old housing revamping. The city will expand the scope of project bidding services, optimize and improve electronic bidding functions, and eliminate hidden barriers and thresholds in the market.Fifth, efforts shall be made to improve the development capacities of the construction industry and promote the innovation of production organization models. As part of the main measures, the city will comprehensively advance the responsibility system for architects in the fields of rural construction, urban renewal, historical heritage reservation, science, education, culture and health, as well as the “five new cities” and “north-south transformation” in a bid to improve the quality of buildings. All new buildings must comply with green building construction requirements, and the city will issue the Green Building Project Acceptance Standards. For certain major municipal infrastructure projects, the city will explore the implementation of “bundled” EIA approval. The city will support key areas such as Pudong New Area, Lingang New Area, and Yangtze River Delta Integration Demonstration Zone to take the lead in pilot programs such as the “land use list system” and the reform of the commitment system.In the next step, the city will accelerate the formulation of various supporting measures of the Plan 6.0 and build a “1+X” reform policy system that is highly integrated, coordinated and efficient. The city will adhere to one unified blueprint, persistently ensure the implementation of various measures, continuously improve the sense of gain and satisfaction of market entities, and strive to create a market-oriented, law-based, and international business environment in the field of project construction.