A view of Huadian city in Jilin province [Photo provided to gojilin.gov.cn]

Huadian city – located in Northeast China's Jilin province – is understood to have made marked improvements to its business environment, with data showing that in 2021 its GDP hit 10.77 billion yuan ($1.71 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.7 percent.

During the period, the added value of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries was 3.46 billion yuan, 2.43 billion yuan and 4.88 billion yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent, 9.8 percent and 7.3 percent.

Fixed asset investment increased by 92.6 percent year-on-year, ranking it first in Jilin.

Workers get busy at various production plants in Huadian city. [Photo provided to gojilin.gov.cn]

To further streamline its business environment, Huadian has issued incentivized policies and action plans, including the Huadian Three-Year Action Plan for Optimizing the Business Environment.

To date, under the new initiative Huadian has provided 187 door-to-door business services, 191 extension services, free photo taking for 30,577 commercial residents and free seal carving services for 295 businesses.

The approval time that it takes for a commercial project's approval has been reduced to less than 71 working days, among other efficiencies that have been introduced.

In 2021, Huadian cut taxes and fees to the tune of 425 million yuan for local enterprises, reducing the financing costs of small and medium-sized enterprises by more than 35 million yuan.

A busy construction site is covered in scaffolding in Huadian city. [Photo provided to gojilin.gov.cn]