The city of Baotou in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region has been chosen as one of the Top 10 Chinese Cities (Cases) for Business Environment of 2020, according to the 18th China Enterprise Development Forum, which was held recently in Beijing.

Baotou was the only city in the autonomous region to win the honor.

Throughout 2020, Baotou city sought to create a first-class business environment with fewer approval procedures, better services and shorter processing time.

The city launched a series of measures aimed at enhancing its business environment and attracting more projects from all across the country.

In 2020, Baotou released the "Several Measures to Build a First-class Business Environment in Baotou" which proposed 26 specific improvement measures in four areas: improving the level of enterprise facilitation, solving difficult problems for enterprises, providing convenient and efficient government services, and enhancing the sense of gain and satisfaction among the people.

In terms of improving the level of enterprise facilitation, there were seven measures aimed at helping people start a business, apply for construction permits, obtain electricity, obtain water and gas, register property, pay taxes, and conduct cross-border trade.

The first six items have been quantified and have reached the domestic first-class level.

Of these, enterprise establishment registration, seal engraving, invoice applications, social security and medical insurance registration and housing provident fund registration can all be completed within 0.5 working days.

The enterprise deregistration process has been reduced from three days to two, and the cancellation processing time has been reduced from 45 working days to 20 working days.

In order to enhance government services, Baotou has taken steps in three areas: intellectual property (IP) creation, IP protection and use, and market supervision.

The city has launched a batch of 24-hour online declaration and automatic approval services, and promoted their standardization.

As a result, the city signed cooperation agreements for a total of 264 projects, with an investment of 293.3 billion yuan ($45.37 billion), throughout the year.