Shanghai's market regulators on Thursday released a raft of measures to facilitate market access registration, which aimed at optimizing the city's business environment.
Among the 10 measures, the city will expand the service scope of the "Shanghai Online Business Registration" platform, which is to offer full online registration services for foreign enterprises involved in manufacturing and business activities within China and for foreign enterprises' permanent representative offices in China.
Through the platform at https://yct.sh.gov.cn/portal_yct/, applicants will receive clear guidelines and policy interpretations to help them accurately prepare the required application materials, according to the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation.
Applicants can submit registration applications remotely via the platform and complete electronic-version signatures through digital identity authentication. The registration authority will issue business licenses online, exempting applicants from the need for on-the-spot visits and significantly cutting the registration process cost.
"Shanghai is one of the most favored investment destinations for foreign investors and a premier location for the global industrial and supply chain layout of multinational companies... the measures aim to further optimize the business environment and provide more convenient and high-quality services for them," said Ni Junnan, director of the administration.
A business license was issued on Thursday under the new measures unveiled by the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation.
The measures also include simplifying real-name authentication, electronic signature, and license download operations to provide more convenience for the registration of chain enterprise branches.
When enterprises apply for registering their branches, their legal representatives must verify their identities through facial recognition and sign the branch registration application documents in accordance with the requirements for material submission.
Statistics show that there are 202 chain enterprises, with more than 100 branches each, in the city.
Due to the large number of subordinate stores and high frequency of registration, legal representatives of chain enterprises have to conduct facial recognition and electronic signature for each branch's registration one by one.
Under the new practice, legal representatives can authorize a registration liaison to conduct facial recognition and sign the relevant registration documents.
In addition, during the entire online registration process, those who need to sign electronically only need to conduct facial recognition once to sign all registration documents for up to 50 branches under their name.
"(Restaurant group) Wagas operates 171 stores in Shanghai, and due to business requirement, we recently needed to change the persons in charge at more than 90 outlets," said Zhao Qianying, public affairs manager of Wagas Shanghai.
One of the business licenses issued on Thursday.
"According to the previous regulations, the legal representatives had to undergo facial recognition for each individual store. Given the tight schedule, we had planned to take half a month, handling a few stores each day in a step-by-step process.
"However, on the first working day after the Spring Festival holiday, market regulation authorities introduced the new policy. Now, a single facial recognition session allows the electronic signature to be applied to registration documents for dozens of stores simultaneously. We've scheduled a time and expect to complete the changes for all 90 stores in just half an hour – far more convenient than before."
Moreover, the administration is using large models and big data algorithms to recommend available names for enterprises, helping business entities quickly select their preferred choices.
To improve name registration service and address the difficulty of enterprises struggling with name selection, the administration has developed an intelligent naming assistance system.
The artificial intelligence large model can analyze user preferences and create detailed user profiles. It then generates names that closely match user preferences and expectations.
The model evaluates the generated names from multiple angles and levels, including basic rules, prohibited and restricted content, and similarity checks, ensuring that the recommended names are both "desired" and "available" for use, according to the administration.
Interpretations of the new measures
Source: Shanghai Daily