By Ma Xiaobai & Yuan Dongming, Research Team on “Third-party Evaluation on Business Environment Reform in Beijing and Shanghai”, Enterprise Research Institute, DRC

Research Report, No.195, 2018 (Total 5470) 20 18-11-19

Abstract: In line with the State Council’s work plan on improving the business environment, the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) has carried out a comprehensive reform on access to electricity facilitation with Beijing and Shanghai as the core in 2018. Significant results have been achieved through streamlining procedures, reducing power-on time and costs, improving power-supply reliability, and innovating service tools. In the World Bank’s latest “Business Environment Report 2019”, China’s “Access to electricity” index jumped from No.98 in last year to No.14, up by 84 places in a year. The reform of access facilitation to electricity has enabled small- and micro-enterprises to get the electricity with “zero-cost door-to-door service, zero-cost approval and zero-cost investment”, which has greatly increased the enterprises’ satisfaction, and provided experience and enlightenment for optimizing business environment in other fields. First, the optimization of the business environment must take the interest of the enterprises and the masses as the foothold of reform. Second, we need to take “Internet + government services” as the key to optimize business environment. Third, to improve business environment in the public sector, we need to increase the utilization ratio of public resources and effectively reduce social costs.

Key words: business environment, access to electricity, State Grid Corporation of China