Lingang leads in war on red tape

An all-in-one platform for comprehensive online approvals and services made its debut in Lingang in Shanghai on Monday.

It enables different government agencies to serve one enterprise simultaneously and budding entrepreneurs no longer need to make multiple trips to myriad government offices — one visit to the administrative center will cover all permits.

The 1.0 edition of the platform mainly focuses on the examination and approval for startups in manufacturing. Companies should be approved for construction within 100 hours.

The 2.0 platform will integrate government services in comprehensive monitoring, risk control and market access.

Applicants now can follow the process via a QR code. Previously, an applicant had to visit the counters of different government agencies 22 times just in the planning stage.

Lingang is a national trailblazer in streamlining government services.

It took just 17 months from the signing of the agreement with the Shanghai government to build the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory to the output of the first body-in-white of Tesla’s Model 3 electric car and five days for the Enn Energy Power Technology (Shanghai) Co to obtain a land-use permit, a land-use planning certificate, planning permission and building permit for the launch of its small gas turbine project.

With the help of the latest information technologies, the platform will turn the experiences of Tesla and Enn Energy into a new normal in Lingang.

“The platform ... creates an ‘all-in-one’ type of administration, which not only embodies the convenience brought by cross-departmental data communication and process reengineering, but also gives full play to the precise supervision and joint prevention and control of risks,” said Chen Jie, deputy director of Lingang’s administrative committee.