Business climate to improve steadily

China achieved considerable progress in improving the overall business environment last year, but more efforts are still needed to further level the playing field and strengthen the rule of law, experts said.

Zhang Junkuo, deputy head of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that a third-party assessment report had said the Regulation on Improving the Business Environment, which took effect on Jan 1, 2020, has been well implemented in the nation.

"Of the 34 specific items mapped out by the assessment team, 90.7 percent have been basically implemented," Zhang said during a State Council Information Office briefing on Thursday in Beijing.

"Most of the surveyed enterprises were highly satisfied with the business environment improvement, including tax and fee reductions and convenient government services."

According to Zhang, the government's continuous business environment optimization efforts provided strong support in the fight against COVID-19 and for work and production resumption. "The government's effective measures for ease of doing business have further vitalized market entities, promoted the profound transformation of government functions and helped create a new edge in global competition."

In fact, China has witnessed a growing number of newly established companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which strongly proves the remarkable improvement in the business environment, said Ma Jun, director-general of the Enterprise Research Institute of the DRC.

During the first three quarters of last year, the number of newly registered market entities in China surged by 3.3 percent on a yearly basis to 18.45 million, including 5.9 million enterprises, according to data from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

China's steady improvement in easing the business environment has also been backed by a World Bank report, which said China is a leading reformer among the large economies in optimizing the business environment.

According to the report, China has been included among the 10 economies with the most notable improvement in doing business for two years in a row. The country was placed 31st in the latest "Doing Business" rankings, up 15 places from the ranking in 2019.