ENHANCING executive efficiency remainsone of the priorities of east China’s ZhejiangProvince， a coastal economic powerhouse.Over the past decade， it has launched a seriesof reforms to improve government performanceand to better serve businesses and residents.

Reforming Government Service

In 2014， Zhejiang announced a reform to streamlineadministrative processes and delegate power.The Zhejiang Government Service Network， whichwas opened subsequently， is China’s first online governmentservice platform integrating services at theprovincial， municipal， and county levels. The mobileapplication version of the platform， launched laterin the same year， now has over 120 million users andreceives more than 3 million visits daily.

In 2019， Zhejiang implemented its “One Visit AtMost” reform， with services for administrative licensing，administrative penalty， collection of administrativefees and others done in one go. The reform hasalso established collaboration between departmentsfor various reviews， checks and supervision. Thereform has also led to services such as online consultation，online processing， and express delivery ofcertificates and licenses.

In 2021， Zhejiang initiated digitalization， integratingdata flow with decision-making， execution， andbusiness processes.

Since 2023， the province has been implementingan important project to optimize the business environmentby improving government services. Thanksto it， Zhejiang has been rated as the province withthe best business environment by the All-China Federationof Industry and Commerce for four consecutiveyears.

One Visit to Zero Visit

Zhejiang has restructured and streamlined governmentprocedures so that people don’t need to goto government offices again and again. Data digitalizationplays a major part in this reform.

In 2017， Zhejiang implemented a policy that alldocuments， certificates， photos and other electronicmaterials with reliable electronic seals that have beenprocessed and archived by the Zhejiang GovernmentService Network have the same legal validity as paperdocuments.

Local governments across Zhejiang have alsorolled out measures to upgrade administrativeprocedures. Jiangbei， a district in Ningbo City，has addressed complaints by private enterprisesregarding shareholder information changes andreal-name authentication. Lucheng， a district inWenzhou City， has facilitated the enrollment ofmigrant workers’ children in local public schools.Pujiang， a county in Jinhua， has reduced therequirements for the registration of changed propertyright certificates.

“Today， people don’t even need to go to a governmentoffice to complete various procedures fortheir children’s birth registration，” said a resident ofYiwu City. She said last year she used the government-service app to apply for various certificatesand registrations for her child， including birthcertificate， household registration， medical insuranceregistration and the medical insurance card.“I made an error in the information for the birthcertificate and a staff member found it and immediatelycalled me，” she said， showing her application，which indicated that all application itemswere completed on the same day. “The certificatesand documents were couriered to me，” she added.

Today， when you open the “One Visit At Most TaskList” on the Zhejiang Government Service Network，you can see that the vast majority of the tasks arenow marked “zero visit.”

Value-Added Government Services

Value-added government services reform has beenachieved by integrating resources from the government，society， and market to solve the difficulties ofbusinesses and industries.

In 2023， Zhejiang issued a guideline on its pi-lot program for value-added government servicesreform. The pilots were launched in seven localities.In February 2024， Zhejiang released another guidelineproposing to continue improving the businessenvironment and upgrading government services tovalue-added services.

Xu Wenguang， vice governor of Zhejiang， laterelaborated on the focuses of the value-added governmentservices reform at a press conference.

Local governments are establishing one-stop servicecenters where enterprises can not only receivebasic government services like approvals， but alsopersonalized services. For example， those wanting toopen a restaurant can receive essential governmentservices like registration and seal application in onevisit. They are also provided with a dozen additionalservices such as location selection and fire safetyguidance.

Digitalization is another driver of the reform.Zhejiang has created an online “policycalculator” that automatically pushesbusiness-friendly policies to businessesin a targeted manner. In 2023， RMB71.2 billion was earmarked in rewardand subsidy funds to business entitiesprovince-wide and more than RMB330 billion of taxes were reduced forbusinesses.

Zhejiang has also established ahigh-efficiency closed-loop solutionmechanism for the issues enterprises face by classifyingthem into different types. This mechanism shiftsthe reliance on personal connections to an institutionalarrangement in government-business interactions.

With a focus on key areas such as bidding， agentservices， intellectual property protection， andgovernment-business interactions， Zhejiang hasimplemented initiatives to address institutional andsystemic barriers.

“One Visit” is considered one of Zhejiang’slandmark initiatives， a crucial breakthrough inprovincial reforms and a prime example for otherprovinces.