When Yao Junjing, a staff member at Kudosbay, received 15 more business licenses from the district’s market supervision administration, the foreign startup incubator had in total helped 1,000 foreign companies gain a foothold at Songjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ) since it was founded in 2015.

“We only waited for one day to gain the business license. It’s so efficient,” said Natasha Lappos, entrepreneur and founder of Yanmi (Shanghai) Management Consulting Co, one of the 15 newly licensed companies.

Lappos is one of many foreign entrepreneurs who started their entrepreneurship in the ETDZ with help from Kudosbay.

“The sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic disturbed our original plan, but our investment activities and services continued. We tried our best to eliminate the worries of foreign businessmen about their corporate operation and let them feel the good business environment in Songjiang through our considerate services,” said Lin Qian, general manager of Kudosbay.

In June and July the number of foreign companies attracted by Kudosbay rose by 90 percent year on year.

“On one hand we did translation and interpretation of government policies promptly for our foreign entrepreneurs; on the other hand we offered remote agency service for them including remote documents verification. For foreign businessmen remotely operating their companies in China from abroad, we took custody to safe-keep their official seal and letter of authority,” said Gu Zhenlei, chief of Kudosbay’s consulting department.

The ETDZ also set up a special team to offer consultation on company registration, bank accounts, foreign exchange settlement, exit and entry administration and talent recruiting, among others.

Kudosbay’s customers have come from 109 countries and regions around the world.

“I think it’s a beginning that the number of foreign companies helped through us to gain a local foothold has amounted to more than 1,000. In the future we will help more foreign entrepreneurs set up companies in the ETDZ in Songjiang as we take advantage of the G60 High-tech Corridor vision and the district’s good business environment,” said Lin.