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The city's government departments are working to improve Shanghai's foreign investment environment by settling complaints faster and satisfying requests forwarded by foreign investors.
Zhu Xiaoming, chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission, cited Intel as an example to illustrate how the commission is working to offer better service. Intel, a chip-making giant, issued a complaint to the municipality over the quality of electricity and the high operation costs resulting from utility fees, in the beginning of 2002.
Mayor Chen Liangyu immediately set up a special research team to aid major investors, including Intel, to lower their investment costs and operation expenditures that are generated from leasing land, paying for utility bills and seeking services from the local government.
Intel later reported that the number of power outages have been reduced and the voltage is more stable.
They also said, "The company fully acknowledge the great effort to cut fees, made by the officials from the foreign economic relations and trade commission and from the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone," where Intel is registered.
Zhu added, "In order to instantly solve the problems for foreign investors, we have established a centre especially dedicated to complaint-resolution. In the first half of this year, the centre has received 124 cases of complaints and have settled 99 of them after thorough investigations."
The municipality's efforts have diminished the number of complaints.
Vice-Mayor Jiang Yiren said, apart from dealing with complaints carefully, the municipality is also refining the investment environment by getting rid of unnecessary formalities and amending laws and regulations.
Government departments have abolished 27 procedures related to foreign investment and have offered 104 categories of information online.
(China Daily August 17, 2002)
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