Investigation on Improving the Business Environment in Mianyang, Sichuan: How to Achieve the Environment of Being Necessary and Disturbing Everything | Problems | Doing Business
There is no best business environment, only better. The benefits of optimizing the business environment are obvious, and various regions want to continuously optimize the "soft environment" of business to create a "hard power" for development, and build the local area into a "strong magnetic field" for attracting investment. As the second largest economy in Sichuan, Mianyang has chosen to create a "golden signboard" for improving the business environment by "responding to needs and disrupting everything". These 8 words are not new, but the real test is whether they can be truly implemented and implemented.
Recently, heads of 12 provincial-level departments, 21 cities, and 145 development zones in Sichuan gathered in Mianyang for a whole day to focus on inspecting the construction achievements of Mianyang Development Zone and hold a high-quality development work conference for Sichuan Development Zone. The hot project construction site and busy enterprise production workshop are full of vitality everywhere.
What is special about the development of enterprises in Mianyang? Recently, Economic Daily reporters conducted in-depth research on enterprises, parks, construction sites, and government departments in Mianyang. Some said they adhere to industrial leadership, some said they use parks as carriers, and some said they recruit large and strong enterprises... From different perspectives, the answers given have different focuses, but they all have one common point: the significant improvement of the business environment has greatly promoted the healthy development of the private economy, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
Face to face listening and doing
Mianyang is a "China Science and Technology City" approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, and also the second largest economy in Sichuan. In recent years, Mianyang has closely focused on the primary task of high-quality development, adhered to innovation driven industrial development, fully leveraged the unique advantages of scientific and technological innovation resource enrichment, and made every effort to compete in the economy and promote construction, promoting a vigorous development trend of the economy and society. However, in the face of increasingly fierce regional competition environment, how to achieve high-quality development and maintain a good development momentum, the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee and Government have provided the key "answer" through a series of innovative measures and practical achievements - vigorously optimizing the business environment.
In May 2022, the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee made a decision to further open up channels for enterprises to report problems, carry out the "Face to Face Listening to Opinions and Solving Problems" activity on a regular basis, and hold two "Optimizing the Business Environment Face to Face" special symposiums every month. The leaders of the Municipal Party Committee, Municipal Government, and relevant department heads will listen face-to-face to the demands of enterprise operators. Identify the participants as private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. "The channels for leaders of state-owned enterprises such as Changhong and Jiuzhou to report issues are very smooth, so we have focused our work on private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, including industries such as catering, express delivery, and retail." explained Huang Chaoyang, member of the Standing Committee of the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee and Executive Vice Mayor.
On May 6th last year, the first "face-to-face" symposium was held. "I feel that entrepreneurs have some concerns, and most of the questions they first raised are not painful or itchy. The main leaders of the Municipal Party Committee who presided over the meeting have repeatedly interjected to express their attitude, asking entrepreneurs to say what they want to say, say the most difficult things, and make the most urgent demands." Huang Chaoyang still remembers the scene more than a year ago.
During a speech at the meeting, Zhang Wenchang, the person in charge of SF Logistics Mianyang Company, pointed out the long-standing problems that have plagued logistics enterprises, such as the inability of delivery trucks to enter the city and the complex registration process of express electric tricycles. "These issues are common problems faced by the entire industry and have not been effectively resolved for a long time. Although they were raised at the time, we did not have much hope," Zhang Wenchang told reporters, but the situation after the meeting made him feel "serious.". On that day, the Mianyang Public Security Bureau made an appointment to have a face-to-face discussion, and in the following days, similar issues throughout the city were resolved. Nowadays, in Mianyang City, more than 500 trucks from logistics companies can travel widely in the urban area, and over 4000 delivery drivers don't have to worry about being punished for temporary parking.
At the first "face-to-face" symposium, Mianyang City established a "Mianyang Entrepreneur WeChat Group", including leaders of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, heads of relevant departments, and entrepreneurs, to listen to the suggestions, opinions, and demands of enterprises at any time.
Looking at the chat records of this WeChat group with 215 people, it was found that there were issues ranging from land disputes to house number application. Entrepreneurs can report problems to relevant leaders at any time, and city leaders can also give penalties to relevant departments for timely research and handling. At the same time, various counties, industrial parks, and industry regulatory departments such as economy, information technology, and commerce have also established entrepreneur groups to listen to opinions and suggestions online, coordinate and solve difficulties and problems in enterprise operation and development.
On June 7th last year, Li Tonggang, the general manager of Sichuan Kangchuan Wei Technology Co., Ltd., reported in the group chat at Liu Chaowei, the person in charge of the Municipal Government Service Supervision Bureau, that the company's location does not have a house number, making it inconvenient to issue recruitment notices, receive goods, and so on. Liu Chaowei replied immediately and will implement it as soon as possible. The next day, the question raised by Li Tonggang was resolved.
On May 6th this year, Lv Zhonghua, the person in charge of Mianyang Aisas Electronics Company, raised concerns about difficulties and high financing costs, and there were several negotiations in between. On the 18th, the leaders of Mianyang Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and Mianyang Rural Commercial Bank visited the company for research and exchange. On June 15th, Lv Zhonghua happily replied in the WeChat group that Mianyang Rural Commercial Bank has proposed a new plan to reduce loan interest rates.
During research in Mianyang, I often hear the saying of "selling back". What does it mean? Local officials told reporters that the meaning is to provide a result and an explanation for the needs of others. To ensure that the issues raised by enterprises are resolved, Mianyang City has formulated a closed-loop management mechanism for the "Optimizing Business Environment Face to Face" symposium, establishing a work loop of problem collection, summary, resolution, feedback, result disclosure, supervision and supervision. A dedicated person is arranged to regularly visit enterprises, track the implementation status, and timely provide feedback to relevant departments, including the secretary and mayor, based on the level and management authority of the problems involved.
According to Wang Zuoquan, Deputy Director of Mianyang Municipal Government Service Supervision and Administration Bureau, since last year, Mianyang has established an office for implementing stable economic policies, built a "Mian Qi Tong" government enterprise service platform, opened a mayor's hotline to stabilize the economy, and carried out the "Solving Difficulties and Promoting Development · Thousand Enterprise Visits" campaign, accurately introducing a series of practical policies and measures to benefit and warm up enterprises. As of July 2023, a total of 12 specialized symposiums on "Optimizing the Business Environment Face to Face" have been held at the municipal level in Mianyang. Relevant departments in various regions have organized 224 symposiums based on classification, collected 3022 problems, and solved more than 2700 of them.
Concentrate on leading services
On May 8th, Mianyang City held a conference to optimize the business environment and released the 2022 City wide Business Environment Report, which not only introduced relevant measures and achievements in Mianyang, but also directly addressed shortcomings and problems. At the meeting, a hidden investigation film on the business environment was also broadcasted, which faithfully reproduced 20 issues such as difficulties in protecting the rights and handling affairs of some enterprises. The main leaders of the exposed units felt "unable to sit still". The detail of daring to shine a sword shows entrepreneurs the determination and action of Mianyang to optimize the business environment without protecting shortcomings or seeking refuge, and to sincerely solve problems. Wei Ziqin, Deputy General Manager of Huatuoguang Communication, felt that "optimizing the business environment, Mianyang is both serious and more realistic.".
As people's understanding of the importance of the business environment deepens and its effects gradually become more prominent, the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee and Government have proposed to make "responding to needs and disturbing everything" the "golden signboard" of Mianyang's business environment. These 8 words are not new, but they are easy to say and difficult to do. The real test lies in their implementation.
First, let's take a look at "what needs to be answered". The reason why the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee and Government propose "there is a need" instead of "there is a demand" or "there is a call" is to change the previous style of "passively" solving enterprise needs, effectively act as a "shop assistant", actively serve in front, always pay attention to enterprise needs, and be ready to serve at any time. At present, the "Optimizing Business Environment Face to Face" symposium held at all levels in Mianyang has collected 3022 "needs", including "hard needs" and "hard needs". Some problems are old and difficult to verify, some involve multiple departments and business entities, and the situation is complex. Some problems require a large amount of funds and are very difficult to solve. Should it be? How to respond? Mianyang did not back down and provided an answer.
The person in charge of Mianyang Sili Trading Co., Ltd. complained that a farmhouse has been illegally occupying the company's land for a long time, and the problem has not been resolved for many years. After receiving feedback on the demands, relevant parties in Mianyang immediately launched an investigation and handling. By the end of May this year, the illegal buildings on the company's land had been basically demolished and development and construction were about to start.
Li Jixia, the person in charge of Mianyang Yidi Education Investment Co., Ltd., introduced that the company operates kindergartens and other institutions. Due to the use of rental housing, there is a situation of charging for electricity transfer, resulting in an excessive amount of electricity payment. Although this has been reflected for many years, it has not been effectively resolved. In September last year, the Development and Reform Commission, Market Supervision Bureau and other departments of Mianyang City carried out "power transfer" governance, resulting in a halving of the company's electricity expenses and a significant reduction in operating costs.
Looking at the summary of relevant cases, there are still many more complex problems than the above situation, but most of them have been effectively solved.
What is "nothing bothers"? In Mianyang, interviewed entrepreneurs stated that if the "necessary response" tests the responsibility of the party committee and government, then the "no disturbance" test is the ability to govern. Government departments should minimize evaluation and inspection, so that enterprises can focus more on production, management, and market.
In the view of the Mianyang Municipal Party Committee and Government, "not disturbing everything" is not only about canceling unnecessary inspections and evaluations, but also to concentrate on doing a good job in "necessary responses"; Not only should we passively respond to problems that come to our doorstep, but we should also take the initiative and prioritize what the government should do.
Huang Chaoyang said that over the past year, Mianyang has been truly focusing on deepening reform and innovation in key links and areas, promoting the implementation of central and provincial policies and measures to stabilize the economy, and has successively introduced a series of policy measures such as "Ten Talents", "Ten Finance", "Ten Science and Technology Innovation", and "Ten Parks" to address the financing, talent, and innovation aspects that enterprises are most concerned about; Re engineering the key administrative approval process to fit enterprises, implementing the "four reductions" action of reducing matters, time, materials, and links in government services, and reducing the average time limit for handling approval matters at the local level in Mianyang City by more than half; Promoting decentralization and empowerment, 51 municipal level management authorities have been delegated to municipal parks, and a total of 1276 county-level management authorities have been delegated to county-level parks by counties. This has basically achieved the goal of "park affairs and enterprise affairs not leaving the park".
The establishment of a special fund for enterprise emergency loan transfer is an important measure for Mianyang City to effectively help industrial and productive service enterprises obtain timely financial loan support. Jiangyou Changxiang Special Steel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is one of the many beneficiaries. "We have used this fund twice this year to renew our working capital loans. This money not only alleviates the financial difficulties of the enterprise, but also saves financial expenses and effectively protects the credit records of the enterprise. It's a win-win situation," said Tang Fengjun, the executive director of the company. It is reported that since the beginning of this year, this measure has solved the cash flow difficulties for many enterprises in Mianyang.
To help enterprises attract urgently needed talents, Mianyang City has not only established a special fund for talent development of 1 billion yuan, but also formed 17 small teams to go to universities to recruit and attract talents, relying on talent groups and high-level talent liaison stations stationed abroad to connect and introduce high-level talent teams. According to statistics, since 2022, there have been 34800 new high-level talents coming to Mianyang, and 83 new high-level industrial innovation and entrepreneurship talent teams have been added.
Strive for efficient corporate voting
Last year, the investment promotion work in Mianyang created a new situation -128 projects with a total amount of 253.713 billion yuan were signed in the city, including 7 industrial projects with a total amount of over 500 million yuan, and currently 3 have been put into operation. In the first quarter of this year, Mianyang set a new record: the total actual investment in newly introduced industrial projects from outside the province jumped to the top of all cities in Sichuan Province, marking the first time Mianyang has reached the forefront in this indicator. In the first half of this year, Mianyang introduced four new industrial projects worth over 10 billion yuan.
This is the vote that entrepreneurs have cast for the business environment of Mianyang with their projects and real gold and silver. Both time and practice have proven that their choice is correct - the construction period of multiple projects worth billions of yuan in Mianyang has been significantly shortened. For example, the Exxon New Energy Project was put into operation in April this year, the high-efficiency single crystal solar cell intelligent manufacturing project achieved the first cell offline in May this year, and the Giant Star Rare Earth Permanent Magnet New Material Industry Project was put into operation in early June, and has achieved the "acceleration" of Mianyang. These major projects only took 8 months, 7 months, and 10 months from start to production, respectively.
At the construction site of the Mianyang Chuangming New Energy Project, a billion dollar project in Fucheng District, Mianyang City, more than 10 trucks shuttle back and forth, with tower cranes up and down. The busy scene is exciting. What's even more exciting is the efficiency of Mianyang. "Our project is to build a factory with orders, and samples must be produced in December this year, and bulk supply must be achieved by March next year at the latest." Zhuang Xinzhen, Deputy General Manager of Mianyang Chuangming New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters, "Due to the large investment amount and clear time regulations for orders, we must find efficient and reliable places to meet the tight schedule. In the end, we settled in Mianyang. The entire project took only 83 days from negotiation to signing the contract, and then to starting construction."
In early June, during an on-site interview at the Giant Star Rare Earth Permanent Magnet New Material Industry Project in Mianyang High tech Zone, the first batch of products had just been produced, and the investors were still immersed in the joy of newborn birth. "In just over 10 months, our first batch of rough products has been taken offline!" Huang Hao, Deputy General Manager of Mianyang Juxing Permanent Magnetic Materials Co., Ltd., introduced that after the project is fully completed and put into operation, it will have the production capacity of producing 100000 tons of high-performance sintered neodymium iron boron permanent magnetic materials annually.
The Exxon New Energy Battery Industrial Park, located just across the street from the giant permanent magnet, was completed and constructed in May last year. Tong Shuanglong, the person in charge of the Mianyang base of Exxon New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said, "The government established work teams are stationed on the construction site and work with us. If we encounter problems, we will immediately study and solve them.".
"Investors are particularly sensitive to the business environment," said Zhuang Xinzhen. "With such a large amount of funds, the cost of capital for every day of delay in production is not a small fraction, let alone the negative impact on seizing the market." Enterprises invest real money and silver in project construction, without any carelessness. Preferential policies are important, and a good environment is even more important. Huang Hao and Tong Shuanglong also share the same feeling.
In 2023, the investment promotion work in Mianyang continued to maintain a good momentum. From January to June, a total of 166 signed projects were attracted, with a signed amount of 163.942 billion yuan, an increase of 12.9% and 13.3%, respectively. Among them, 106 projects with a value of over 500 million yuan reached 158.415 billion yuan. In the first half of the year, Mianyang handed over an excellent "report card": the city's regional GDP increased by 8.5% year on year, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 8.3% year on year, the fixed assets investment of the whole society increased by 7.8% year on year, the added value of the service industry increased by 9.6% year on year, the total retail sales of social consumer goods increased by 12.4% year on year, and the total import and export volume increased by 10.2% year on year. The dividend of continuous optimization of the business environment is accelerating its release.
It has become a consensus throughout the city of Mianyang to adhere to the principle of "responding to every need and disturbing everything" in the business environment brand. The mountains are high and the marshes are long. Mianyang is continuously optimizing the business environment with higher standards, greater efforts, and a more practical style, solving difficulties and doing practical things for private enterprises and entrepreneurs, making policies that benefit enterprises more powerful and warm, and promoting high-quality economic and social development through the healthy development of the private economy.
