Xinhua News Agency Correspondent: Liu Ziling, Liang Jianqiang and Li Siyuan
How do inner regions break barriers and move forward at the first year of comprehensively deepening reform? Located in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Yichang, answers the question with actions, learns from Shanghai──the "Yangtze River Leader", and joins Shanghai Free Trade Zone, promotes reform and innovation boldly, boosts leapfrog development and plays the pivotal role in the development of the economic belt along the Yangtze River.
Although Yichang fails to catch up with Shanghai in developing base, stage, level, etc., the latter’s FTZ reform is of great demonstration significance to the former. Yichang will take Shanghai’s reform mode for reference and try to be the first pilot city of reform in Hubei Province, thus forcing itself to deepen its overall reform.
The joining work speeds up. On the "route map" in accordance with views, Yichang figures out that it will become the first pilot city of reform to break through key points and strive to create new institutional and environmental advantages, based on the "six innovations": admittance of investments, admittance of market entities, administrative examination and approval, social credit investigation, comprehensive law enforcement and industry regulatory system.
For investments, Yichang will focus on working out "Negative List" and "Positive List", remake investing approval process and optimize investing facilitation, speed and efficiency.
For market entities, Yichang, upgrades admittance system, transforms regulatory mode and makes admittance of market entities most convenient with the goal of "the least restrictions, the optimal processes and the fastest speed".
For the administrative examination and approval system, Yichang carries out authority list management. The authority directory, procedure and responsibility list will be worked out and published in the society.
For the construction of social credit system, Yichang integrates credit resources of legal person and natural person in the People\'s Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, Public Security Bureau, Administration of Industry and Commerce, Human Resource and Social Security Bureau, Administration of Taxation, Civil Affairs Bureau, Bureau of Justice, Food and Drug Administration, Tourism Administration, Bureau of Health and Family Planning and other authorities. It also informationizes credit resource, establishes the display system of corporate annual reports, inspection system, abnormal operation directory and blacklist system.
For the comprehensive law enforcement system reform, it depends on the rapid advance in the improvement of urban management, food and drug security supervision and protection of water resources.
For the industry supervision, Yichang makes great efforts to develop and standardize guilds, chambers of commerce, intermediary agents and other social organizations, transform registration systems of guilds and chambers of commerce, separates guilds, chambers of commerce and political associations and promote guilds and chambers of commerce to build up self-regulation industry mechanism.
The above-mentioned reforms and innovations cover all fields of reform and innovation, especially institutional improvement and "soft environment" reform.
In order to carry out the measures, Yichang has also clarified a program of duty division in major tasks.
For example, in terms of administrative approval system reform, the Municipal Inspection and Reform Bureau takes the lead in clearing up and standardizing the administrative examination and approval affairs, the Municipal Finance Bureau in clearing up and standardizing fees, the Municipal Legislative Affairs Office in strengthening recording review of normative documents ...... said a member of the special leading group in joining Shanghai FTZ, the requirements in reform not only offer institutional guarantee, but also define the subject of liabilities and "timetable".
Good system design is inseparable from good exchange platform. Yichang has also proposed to connect regional, channel, attracting investment and service butt joints together.
In terms of regional butt joint, Yichang High-tech Zone, Yichang New District, Three Gorges New Tourism Area, Three Gorges Hub Port are the first to further optimize the development and construction of management system; in terms of channel butt joint, Yichang accelerates the construction of Bonded Logistics Center and strives to upgrade it into a comprehensive bonded zone through 3-year hard work; in terms of attracting investments, Yichang accelerates the improvement of investment cooperation system, tries to join Shanghai FTZ and transfers industries to the Yangtze River Delta; in terms of service, it accelerates the improvement of government affairs service system, brings communities the service which is more convenient to the public and more favorable to market entities.
Reform plan and joining idea are clear and the related work goes smoothly.
In the midsummer, the reporter visited the Enterprise Service Center in Yichang High-tech Zone and saw work processes rolling on the electronic screen, waiting chairs, copiers, self-check machines and other necessities in the bright and spacious hall.
"91 approval items have decreased by 49%, transaction processes by 48%, approval time by 74%." said Hu Yu, Director of Yichang High-tech Zone Enterprise Service Center.
According to Ma Xuming, Mayor of Yichang City, taking the examination and approval system reform for example, 1340 municipal items in 2003 declined sharply to 72 now, only 5% of the past after "burden reduction" seven times one after another. (Xinhua News Agency, Yichang, July 6)