Shanghai's business environment improves as litigation capability grows

A total of 224,000 first-instance commercial cases were finalized in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percent, a result of the efforts by the Shanghai High People's Court to optimize the business environment in the city, according to the court's president Liu Xiaoyun.

The court issued reports on financial trials and guidelines for legal risk prevention last year for a stable financial market, Liu said at the fifth session of the 15th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress held in the city on Tuesday.

The court, which has improved the bankruptcy trial system as well, has also launched over 30 related measures with local taxation and financial regulatory departments. It solved a total of 792 bankruptcy cases last year.

In terms of intellectual property protection, 37,000 first-instance intellectual property cases were concluded in the city in 2020, a growth of 60.2 percent year-on-year. Among them, four were selected as exemplary cases for courts in the country, he said.

According to Zhang Bencai, chief prosecutor of Shanghai People's Procuratorate, 1,289 people were prosecuted for intellectual property crimes last year, a jump of 85 percent from 2019. This, he said, was due to the city's efforts in strengthening regulation in the field.

Zhang added that Shanghai had last year also formulated guidelines for dealing with cases involving corporate and economic crimes.

Liu said the city will enhance trial time limits management, shorten the litigation process, improve trial quality, and reduce litigation time and cost for all parties in line with the World Bank Group's business environment assessment.