Shanghai has been playing a prominent role in building China’s overall business climate. In a newly-published World Bank report, China ranked 31st in the world for being business friendly.

As the “Doing Business 2020” report shows, the economies with the most notable improvement in doing business include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria. China’s ranking jumped from 46th last year, the best performance it has achieved since WB’s first release of such report.

Created in 2003, the Doing Business report covers 12 areas of business regulation in 190 economies across the world, such as starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, trading across borders and paying taxes. In China, it investigates two cities: Beijing and Shanghai. Beijing’s results account for 45% of the total mark, while those of Shanghai account for 55%.

As a key sample city, Shanghai has gone through numerous reforms over the past years, especially in the past year. According to a Shanghai government press conference held on October 17, the city has made remarkable progress in construction permits, resolving insolvency, protecting small and medium-size enterprises, paying taxes, and trading across borders.

(The Lin-gang New Area in south Shanghai)

The government said that an updated version of plans to optimize Shanghai’s business climate would be outlined as soon as possible, moving towards a wider range of reforms so as to benefit more enterprises and to give a stronger impetus to the high-quality development of the city.