Production of the first car within 300 days
On April 9th, the sound of working machines and flashes of weld spatters were reverberating continuously in the workshop of GAC-ZX Auto Co., Ltd (Yichang) of Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Park in Yichang New District, and the electronic screen was displaying: Production of the Day: 80.
It is insignificant to produce dozens of cars per diem for a large carmaker. “But such a small progress can change the industrial layout of Yichang”, said Deng Aimin, the general manager of the company. “The dreams of car production in Yichang would set sail from here!” He added proudly.
10 days ago, among flashlights and acclaims, the first car of Yichang rolled off the line in this very place and built the milestone of Yichang Automobile Industry.
The rapid development of Automobile Industry in Yichang City is awe-inspiring:
The settlement of GAC, one of the four big Automotive Groups in China, in Yichang only took 5 months from contacting to signing contract, and only 10 months from signing contract to the first car rolling off the line.
At the rollout ceremony, Zhang Fangyou, Chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group, together with Xiao Wei, Chairman of Zhongxing Automobile Group said, "This is not an easy undertaking."
Why can Yichang, a prefecture-level city whose automobile industry is relatively weak, win the favor of GAC?
Zhang Fangyou answered, "It is the rapid development of Yichang City that promotes its Automotive Industry."
A task of 3 months accomplished in 5 days
On March 28th, an approval from the National Ministry of Industry and Information Technology excited Zhou Xin, Director of Housing Administration Bureau in Xiaoting District, Yichang City--Yichang Factory Branch of GAC-ZX Auto has been approved for car production. "I am really happy because we have put a lot of efforts to handle the application procedures for the qualification, and it only took us five days to finish the work of three months." Zhou Xin recalled
At the end of last year, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Group, Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor Co., Ltd (GAC MOTOR) restructured the Yichang Branch of ZX Auto, and planed to set up a Yichang branch of the GAC MOTOR to produce the SUV and sedan with the car production qualification of GAC Changfeng MOTOR CO.，LTD. in Yongzhou, Hunan Province.
The initial scale of this project was 100,000 cars, and the annual output will gradually amount to 450,000 cars. Meanwhile, March of this year was designated as the time for the first car to roll off the line.
The Car Production Qualification was widely regarded as the "Birth Certificate" for Automobile Industry with the value of more than 1 billion yuan. Due to a series of new policies adopted by the state authorities to reduce automobile enterprises, it would be much more difficult to gain a new Car Production Qualification in recent years.
The new companies must apply for approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology if they want to use the original qualification to produce cars. Therefore, the progress of the registration of the new company determines the timely roll-off from the line on schedule.
The registration of the new company has miscellaneous procedures which involve GAC and GAC MOTOR in Guangzhou Province, ZX Automobile and GAC-ZX Auto joint venture in Hebei Province, Yichang Branch of ZX Auto, and the changes of land and factories ownership of Yichang Branch of ZX Auto.
In accordance with conventional procedures, it would take three months to complete all formalities because of complying with the rules, of signing up by every department etc.
On January 25th this year, the 25th day of the twelfth month of the lunar year, Yichang Branch, GAC and ZX Auto established a joint working group, set up six special work teams, and inverted the time: All approval procedures must be completed before the New Year\'s Eve.
Yichang government reformed the approval pattern, transferring the sequential to parallel and turning the passive data-acceptance into initiative onsite services, thus the new company successfully finished the registration and approval within only five days.
The special work team went to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Guangdong Province and Hunan Province several times for negotiation, and finally reached a consensus with Changfeng MOTOR CO.,LTD on moving out the Production Qualification in Yongzhou, Hunan Province.
The acquisition of qualification in such a short time facilitated the full realization of rapid production and fruit-bearing. Li Shao, Deputy General Manager of GAC, said, "This project and this speed are gained by the manner of ‘chasing’ ”.
Huang Chuping, Member of the Hubei Provincial Standing Committee and Secretary of Yichang Municipal Party Committee, said that the pragmatic cooperation between Yichang and GAC&ZX Auto is a successful example of innovating systems and mechanisms, of multifaceted cooperation, and of open-up and development.
Excellent environment attracted hundreds of billions of investment
In Yichang City, the example like "Yichang speed" in GAC- ZX Auto is not rare.
Last December, the first phase of Yichang Branch of CSG Display Project was officially completed，and Yichang Brach of CSG ranked among the three manufacturers in China that has such a similar perfect production capacity to produce ultra-thin glass with 0.7mm thickness.
The settlement of this project with 3 billion yuan took less than a year from contracting to production, creating a miracle of the major projects in Yichang with contract signed, construction started and trial production completed in the same year.
Zhou Yu, the General Manager of Yichang Branch of CSG Holding Co., Ltd, said," The ‘Yichang Speed’ has surpassed the ‘Shenzhen Speed’ .”
What lies behind “Yichang Speed” is the profound change in the concept of administration service.
“The simplification of administrative procedures brings fresh air of \'soft environment\' in Yichang for attracting more investment.” said Ma Yunhe, the Chief Statistician of Yichang Municipal Statistical Bureau.
Data showed that the department in Yichang took just 8.5 days on average to handle with the administrative procedures, a reduction of 64% of the original time, and only 36% of the statutory time limit.
The approval limit time of establishing enterprises in Yichang has been reduced from the statutory 60 days to only three days, and the approval time of industrial project construction has been reduced from the statutory 134 days to 33 days.
"The municipal administrative procedures have been decreased from 1340 items to 72 items after seven rounds of thorough clean-ups." said Zhang Wu, the Deputy Director of Yichang Municipal Administrative Service Center.
At the end of last year, Yichang was nominated on the list of "Chinese Most Attractive City for Investment" in the "Global Looking---China and the World" Summit Forum & the 2013 Overall Standings of Global Times hosted by Global Times.
The continuous optimization of investment environment will enhance the attractiveness of projects. Last year, the fixed assets investment in Yichang City exceeded 200 billion yuan with 1,436 new projects started, 800 projects with over billion yuan investment under construction. Yichang has successfully invited 687 investment-promotion projects, the total investment for contracts reached 483.1 billion yuan, and the proof investment funds has numbered 93 billion yuan. (Reporter Yan Yuntao, Tang Yigui, and Wang Chenglong; Correspondent Yi Shixuan (Hubei Daily)