Shenyang voted among 10 cities with best business environments

Shenyang, capital of Northeast China’s Liaoning province, has been voted among the 10 cities in China with the best business environments, according to a report on business environments in Chinese cities launched by the Global Times at the 2019 Forum on International Business Environments in China in Beijing on July 2.

Shenyang is a key city in the old Northeast China industrial area, which consists of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces and was among the first regions in China to industrialize.

However, the city began experiencing an economic downturn due to industrial structure adjustments and external economic changes.

In recent years, Shenyang has been making efforts to reverse its economic downturn by introducing an abundance of useful services and improving its administrative approval efficiency, which has significantly improved the business environment.

The State Council included Shenyang among the first batch of business evaluation cities in 2018. Shenyang ranked seventh in China in terms of its business environment and first in Northeast China, according to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“The economy of Shenyang has rebounded after hitting rock bottom and is showing a positive development trend,” said Wang Jianlin, chairman of Chinese industrial giant Wanda Group.

Wang signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the government of Shenyang in May to invest an additional 80 billion yuan ($11.64 billion) over the next several years in response to the city’s promising economic prospects.

In 2018, the number of market entities in the city increased by 173,000, or 2.8 percent, private investment increased by 18 percent, total retail sales of social consumer goods increased by 8.3 percent, and total imports and exports increased by 16.7 percent. In addition, 36 new financial and financial service institutions were established.

In the first four months of 2019, 20,973 enterprises registered in Shenyang, an increase of 22.82 percent over the same period in 2018. Private investment increased 21.8 percent, 16.3 percentages points higher than the national growth rate.