The General Office of the People's Government of Hebei Province has issued a notice outlining several measures to further optimize the business environment and better serve market entities.

(Four) Reduce operating costs for small and micro enterprises. Implement the "One License, Multiple Locations" registration reform: Market entities that do not require prior approval can apply to have their business premises address listed directly on their business license, provided that both the registered office and the actual operating location are within the same county (city or district). This eliminates the need to register separate branches, simplifying the process of setting up branch offices. On the premise of ensuring food safety, reasonably relax approval requirements for chain convenience stores selling food—such as those related to food handling area size—and transition the food business license (for businesses solely selling pre-packaged foods) from a licensing system to a simple filing process. Additionally, establish and publicly announce clear standards for store signage, lighting fixtures, and other relevant criteria. Encourage and guide platform companies to appropriately reduce service fees—including platform commissions—charged to small and micro merchants, as well as transaction fees for services like barcode payments and online payments. Strictly prohibit platform companies from abusing their dominant market positions to impose unfairly high service charges. Finally, urge enterprises to legally implement occupational disease prevention measures, provide necessary protective equipment, and conduct regular occupational health monitoring. While safeguarding workers' health, allow employers with generally low occupational hazard risks to moderately reduce the frequency of hazardous factor assessments.In sectors such as construction projects and government procurement, permit bidders are allowed to replace cash deposits required for business-related guarantees with alternatives like insurance policies or letters of guarantee, thereby easing the financial burden on businesses.

Ji Government Office Document No. [2020] 170

People's Governments of all cities (including Dingzhou and Xinjishi), the Management Committee of Xiong'an New Area, and relevant departments of the Provincial Government:

"The Several Measures to Further Optimize the Business Environment and Better Serve Market Entities" have been approved by the provincial government and are now being distributed to you. Please carefully implement these measures in line with your specific circumstances.

Hebei Provincial People's Government General Office

September 30, 2020

On Further Optimizing the Business Environment

Several Measures to Better Serve Market Entities

To implement the spirit of the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Optimizing the Business Environment and Better Serving Market Entities" (Guobanfa [2020] No. 24), and in alignment with the need to balance regular epidemic prevention and control measures with economic and social development, we have formulated the following measures to better support market entities, effectively address bottlenecks, pain points, and challenges faced by businesses in production and operations, and accelerate the establishment of a world-class business environment system.

1. Continuously enhance the convenience of investment and construction

(1) Optimize and streamline the pre-approval process for investment projects. Focusing on handling all necessary pre-project tasks as a single, integrated "one-stop" service, we will strengthen collaborative working mechanisms among departments such as Development and Reform, and Natural Resources. This includes better aligning project approval with essential development requirements like land use and planning. Additionally, in various development zones and industrial parks, we will implement a unified approach where project proponents submit a single set of documents. Administrative approval authorities will then handle centralized acceptance, simultaneous evaluation, parallel review, and unified feedback—accelerating the overall project implementation process. Furthermore, we will refine the approval workflow on Hebei Province’s online platform for investment project approvals and regulatory oversight, enabling online printing of approved documents and other official paperwork.

(2) Further enhance the efficiency of project approval for construction initiatives. On the premise of ensuring safety, for new, renovated, or expanded factory and warehouse projects—those under 10,000 square meters that do not involve flammable, explosive, toxic, harmful substances, or hazardous materials—the local government’s departments responsible for housing and urban-rural development, urban management, natural resources planning, emergency response, water resources, civil defense, earthquake monitoring, and meteorology will jointly issue unified conditions for enterprises to commence construction. Once an enterprise secures land use rights and meets these pre-approved conditions, it can submit a formal commitment, enabling the relevant approval authorities to directly issue the necessary certificates, thereby allowing the project to break ground immediately. Additionally, accelerate the implementation of fully online approval processes for all stages of construction projects. This includes integrating the construction project approval management system with real-time data sharing across various administrative platforms—such as government services, investment approvals, planning, and fire safety systems—to achieve seamless information submission, single-point material uploads, and timely delivery of review feedback and approval outcomes. By the end of 2020, all administrative permits, filings, assessments, intermediary services, and municipal utility services related to construction project approvals will be incorporated into the respective-level construction project approval platforms, ensuring transparency in processing standards and associated fees.

(3) Reduce the approval timeline for water and gas external line projects. We will streamline the approval process by shifting from a sequential to a parallel approach for procedures such as planning permits, road excavation permits, and line construction approvals. As a result, the total approval time for external line construction projects (excluding project initiation and land-use approval) will be compressed to within 10 working days.

(Four) Deeply advance "multi-plan integration." Accelerate the coordinated planning of spatial plans, including the Main Functional Zones, Land Use Master Plan, Urban System Plan, City/Town Master Plan, and Marine Functional Plan, while promoting seamless data alignment and integration across these plans. In conjunction with the construction of the National Territorial Spatial Information Platform, ensure consistency in accordance with the "single-map" requirement for national territorial spatial planning, and promptly address and resolve any planning conflicts or conflicting land patches. Additionally, adopt unified surveying and mapping standards and guidelines to facilitate the mutual recognition and sharing of surveying results across key stages—such as land use, planning, construction, acceptance, and real estate registration—thereby eliminating redundant surveying efforts.

II. Further Simplify Business Operation and Production Approval Processes and Requirements

(1) Further lower market entry barriers. Ensure the effective implementation of the "Negative List for Market Access (2020 Edition)," strictly adhering to the "single-list" management model to guarantee that "all eligible activities are listed, with no exclusions beyond the list." Focus on key sectors such as engineering construction, education, healthcare, and sports, conducting comprehensive clean-up efforts to eliminate unreasonable requirements imposed by provincial departments and local governments regarding enterprise qualifications, capital, equity ratios, personnel, and premises for market access. Establish a detailed accountability system, clearly outlining specific solutions, responsible entities, and deadlines for addressing each issue. Strengthen regulatory oversight of clinic establishment and operations, launching a pilot program in free trade zones to implement filing-based management for clinic setup and practice. Once the pilot proves successful, expand this approach across the entire province. Government agencies will directly handle applications, inspections, and issuance of maritime labor certificates, removing the previous requirement for companies to undergo separate inspections by ship inspection authorities—and eliminating any associated certification fees. Additionally, streamline cross-regional touring performance approval processes through online review systems and other digital tools.

(II) Optimize the management of construction project enterprise qualifications. Implement a notification-and-commitment system for the accreditation of Class C supervision qualifications in highway engineering projects. Standardize licensing criteria for highway maintenance operations, eliminating the requirement for applicants to submit documents such as business licenses, and enabling fully online processing of qualification approvals. Additionally, introduce a notification-and-commitment-based approval process for construction industry enterprise qualifications.

(3) Streamline and optimize management measures across various stages of industrial product production and distribution. Effectively take over the authority delegated by the national government for managing production licenses of key industrial products. Strengthen the sharing and application of information related to motor vehicle production, sales, registration, maintenance, insurance, and scrapping, thereby enhancing transparency in motor vehicle circulation. Conduct a comprehensive review and overhaul of regulations governing the registration, incorporation, and filing processes for used-car markets and dealerships, eliminating unreasonable restrictions—such as limits on the number of registrations or filings allowed—for these businesses. Simplify the procedures for registering motor vehicle transactions when used-car dealerships acquire vehicles. Once the national procedures for updating the catalogs of eligible new-energy vehicles exempt from vehicle purchase tax and those qualifying for vehicle and vessel tax reductions are finalized, implement a streamlined approach: "single submission, joint review, and batch publication"—allowing enterprises to immediately benefit from relevant tax relief policies simply by referencing the official product announcements issued by road motor vehicle manufacturers.

(Four) Reduce operating costs for small and micro enterprises. Implement the "One License, Multiple Locations" registration reform: Market entities that do not require prior approval can apply to have their business premises address listed directly on their business license, provided that both the registered office and the actual operating location are within the same county (city or district). This eliminates the need to register separate branches, simplifying the process of setting up branch offices. On the premise of ensuring food safety, reasonably relax approval requirements for chain convenience stores selling food—such as those related to food handling area size—and transition the food business license (for businesses solely selling pre-packaged foods) from a licensing system to a simple备案 (filing) process. Additionally, establish and publicly announce clear standards for store signage, lighting fixtures, and other relevant criteria. Encourage and guide platform companies to appropriately reduce service fees—including platform commissions—charged to small and micro merchants, as well as transaction fees for services like barcode payments and online payments. Strictly prohibit platform companies from abusing their dominant market positions to impose unfairly high service charges. Finally, urge enterprises to legally implement occupational disease prevention measures, provide necessary protective equipment, and conduct regular occupational health monitoring. While safeguarding workers' health, allow employers with generally low occupational hazard risks to moderately reduce the frequency of hazardous factor assessments. In sectors such as construction projects and government procurement, permit bidders to substitute cash deposits required for business-related guarantees with alternatives like insurance policies or letters of guarantee, thereby easing the financial strain on businesses.

3. Optimize the Business Environment for Foreign Trade and Foreign-Invested Enterprises

(1) Further enhance the efficiency of import and export clearance. Implement "advance declaration" for both import and export goods, allowing companies to complete declaration procedures ahead of time. Once the goods arrive at the customs supervision area, customs will immediately proceed with inspection and release processes. Optimize the "two-step declaration" clearance model for imports: after companies submit a "summary declaration" and customs completes risk assessment and handling, businesses are permitted to pick up their goods right away. Actively encourage companies to leverage the reforms of "direct delivery from shipside to warehouse" for imports and "direct loading upon arrival at port" for exports, coordinating closely with pilot customs initiatives to significantly speed up clearance times. Additionally, improve the effectiveness of cargo inspections by strictly adhering to pre-arranged inspection directives. For containers flagged for inspection, prioritize automated inspection methods over manual opening, minimizing the need for physical unboxing and further boosting inspection efficiency. Introduce a no-site-inspection policy by fully rolling out the "Information Interaction Platform for Shippers and Consignees Exempted from On-Site Presence During Epidemic Prevention and Control," ensuring real-time monitoring and documentation throughout the entire inspection process. Companies can now independently decide whether to accompany inspectors, thereby reducing their operational burdens. Finally, strictly prohibit ports from adopting unreasonable measures—such as daily flow restrictions or limiting customs declarations—to artificially compress clearance times.

(2) Expand the functions of the International Trade “Single Window.” In line with national directives and plans, accelerate the development of the China (Hebei) International Trade Single Window. The platform will extend its capabilities beyond traditional customs clearance and enforcement at ports, encompassing the entire supply chain—including port logistics, trade services, and more. This initiative will enable transparent online access to port fees, shipping agency charges, and cargo inspection rates, allowing businesses to easily query these costs in real time. Except for cases involving classified information or other special circumstances, regulatory documents required during import and export processes will, in principle, be processed through a single, centralized “Single Window” interface. Relevant departments—such as Customs, Taxation, Maritime Affairs, Border Control, Market Supervision, Environmental Protection, Transportation, Agriculture & Rural Development, and Commerce—will handle their respective tasks behind the scenes while maintaining robust oversight. This approach will empower businesses to make online payments and independently print necessary documents. Furthermore, we will intensify efforts to promote the widespread adoption of the “Single Window” by organizing diverse training programs—both online and offline—to guide companies in effectively leveraging this tool. Our goal is to provide businesses with comprehensive, multi-faceted, and highly convenient services, helping them streamline operations and enhance efficiency in international trade.

(3) Further reduce investment and operational restrictions for foreign-invested foreign trade enterprises. Support foreign trade exporters in connecting with well-known e-commerce platforms and establishing dedicated domestic sales zones for their export products, thereby facilitating the shift of exports to domestic markets. Implement alternative measures—such as self-declarations by foreign trade companies—to replace certain domestic certification requirements. For products that have already obtained relevant international certifications meeting or exceeding domestic standards, allow foreign trade firms to make a written commitment confirming compliance with domestic standards before directly marketing and selling these products. Strengthen ongoing and post-market oversight to ensure continued adherence to regulatory requirements.

4. Further lower the barriers to employment and entrepreneurship

(1) Optimize employment requirements for certain industries. We will urge the elimination of the road cargo transport driver qualification exam—except for those transporting dangerous goods by road—and instead integrate the relevant exam and training content into the curriculum for driving license programs corresponding to each vehicle category. Drivers can then obtain their road cargo transport driver qualification certificates by submitting both a certificate of completion from the training program and their valid motor vehicle driver’s license. Additionally, we will implement the reform requirements for the veterinary practitioner qualification exam system, making it easier for current students majoring in veterinary-related fields at universities to register for the exam. Finally, we will fully promote mutual recognition of pre-employment medical examination results among workers, thereby easing the financial burden on job seekers.

(2) Promote talent mobility and flexible employment. Leverage the national achievements in cross-regional online verification of professional and technical personnel title information, and implement mutual recognition of titles across different regions. Encourage enterprises to adopt innovative flexible employment models such as "shared workforce," "part-time delivery services," and "temporary customer support," thereby enhancing the efficiency of human resource allocation. In line with national guidelines, streamline the unemployment insurance transfer process and simplify procedures for claiming unemployment benefits. While ensuring safety, hygiene, and safeguarding public interests, we will simultaneously emphasize a balanced approach of regulation and facilitation, adopt a coordinated planning strategy tailored to local conditions, and rationally designate operating areas for mobile vendors. This will ensure that mobile stalls are set up in a standardized, orderly, and convenient manner—benefiting residents without causing disruptions or compromising urban aesthetics and environmental cleanliness.

(III) Enhance inclusive and prudent regulation of new business models. Conduct a comprehensive review of existing entry and regulatory policies for emerging sectors, firmly eliminating any unreasonable management measures. Adopt an inclusive and prudent regulatory approach toward new technologies, industries, business models, and market innovations, establishing a dedicated catalog of such regulations that will be dynamically updated. On the premise of ensuring medical safety and quality, further expand the scope of internet-based healthcare services. Qualified online medical services will be systematically integrated into the medical insurance reimbursement system. Implement national approval standards for internet-based healthcare services. Strengthen guidance for innovative medical device product applications, prioritizing inspection processes, promptly issuing inspection reports, and expediting quality management system assessments. Additionally, streamline timelines for acceptance, review, and approval to accelerate clinical adoption. In line with unified testing standards for autonomous driving capabilities in intelligent connected vehicles, provide guidance to ensure that closed-site test results are mutually recognized both within and outside the province. Encourage closed sites to publicly disclose their testing service offerings and fee structures, simplifying procedures for obtaining and renewing test notifications across regions. For vehicles whose test notifications have expired but remain unchanged in condition, no repeat testing will be required—instead, the validity period of the notification will be automatically extended.

(Four) Enhance the supply of new application scenarios. Focusing on areas such as urban governance, public services, and government administration, local authorities are encouraged to establish platforms that connect supply with demand, creating more opportunities for new technologies and products to be deployed in real-world settings. Additionally, pilot programs for intelligent connected vehicles are encouraged in specific road sections where conditions are favorable, as well as in high-demand areas like airports, ports, and industrial parks. Furthermore, we will thoroughly implement national guidelines on data openness and sharing across government and public service institutions, promoting the orderly release of data from sectors such as public transportation, road management, healthcare, elderly care, and government departments themselves.

(5) Boosting Innovation and Technological Vitality. To meet the needs of innovation, entrepreneurship, and the growth of small and micro enterprises, we will vigorously support the development of crowd-creation platforms, maker spaces, and other innovative ecosystems, offering "hands-on" entrepreneurial services. We will also enhance our science and technology service system by providing public-benefit, open-access, and cost-effective innovation and entrepreneurship spaces for all types of innovators and entrepreneurs. This will help build a comprehensive innovation service chain—from innovation nurseries to incubators and accelerators. Additionally, we’ll focus on elevating the quality of innovation across society, encouraging increased investment in cutting-edge, high-tech fields to generate more high-quality, impactful innovations. The province aims to maintain an annual growth rate of patent applications at or above 15%.

5. Enhance the Quality and Efficiency of Business-Related Services

(1) Enhance the quality of government services. Optimize and improve the functionality of the province-wide integrated government service platform, strengthen and refine the provincial government service database, and leverage cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, and mobile internet to facilitate seamless cross-regional, cross-departmental, and cross-level data sharing and integration. This will enable more processes to be handled entirely online. Focusing on the goal of "streamlining one key task," develop comprehensive guides for "one-stop" services, and roll out high-frequency service packages closely tied to innovation, entrepreneurship, and daily life activities. Additionally, refine and enhance the corporate credit repair mechanism, assisting businesses affected by the pandemic—such as those experiencing delayed order deliveries or contract breaches—to restore their credit standing. Finally, review and streamline all mandatory public notice requirements, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks while phasing out or adjusting unnecessary announcements, ultimately enabling free online publication of required notices. Accelerate efforts to enable cross-regional access to government services.

(II) Enhance convenience for business establishment and operation. Improve the intelligence level of the enterprise name self-declaration system to streamline name approval processes. Accelerate the digitalization of enterprise identity verification, issuing electronic business licenses and electronic seals simultaneously with business establishment approvals. Additionally, expedite the adoption of electronic business licenses and electronic seals across key service sectors such as taxation, human resources and social security, housing provident funds, and commercial banking. Implement a declaration-based registration system for the registered addresses (business premises) of market entities, while easing restrictions on operating locations for small and micro enterprises and individual businesses. Actively explore integrating multiple permits required for entering a single industry into a single "one-permit-for-one-industry" license, enabling streamlined operations under "one license, one permit" and ensuring mutual recognition and seamless cross-regional use.

(3) Enhance the convenience of tendering and bidding services. Actively develop and improve the electronic tendering and bidding system, leveraging the role of market entities in building and operating electronic trading platforms to enable online bidding and bid opening for all projects legally required to undergo tendering. Further optimize the appointment management system for bid evaluation and opening, introducing online booking and processing for bid evaluation and opening venues. Additionally, appropriately increase the number of bid evaluation rooms to ensure that key projects and those supporting epidemic prevention and control initiatives have waiting times of no more than one day for bid evaluation and opening, while general projects can expect venue appointments within a maximum of 7 days.

(Four) Continuously enhance taxpayer service levels. In accordance with the unified deployment of the State Administration of Taxation, we are rolling out the electronic issuance of special VAT invoices across the province, aiming to essentially achieve full electronic transformation of these invoices. We are also steadily expanding the online tax-filing capabilities of the Electronic Tax Bureau, making it possible to handle most tax-related services entirely online. Additionally, we’ve streamlined the application procedures for VAT and other tax incentive policies, eliminating the approval process in principle. Furthermore, we’re strengthening data sharing among tax authorities, customs, the People’s Bank of China, and other relevant departments, promoting paperless document filing. As a result, the average processing time for standard export tax refunds has been reduced to within 5 working days.

(5) Further strengthen intellectual property protection. Develop measures to enhance IP protection for the new economy and emerging business models, supporting the growth of these sectors in our province. Advance the pilot program of Shijiazhuang Arbitration Commission’s “nationwide first batch of capability-building mechanisms for IP arbitration and mediation,” fostering diversified approaches to resolving IP disputes. Additionally, closely monitor the national initiative to reduce the average trademark examination period to within four months, ensuring effective policy communication and coordinated implementation efforts.

(6) Strengthening Financial Support for Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises. Continuously enhance the functionalities of Hebei Province’s financial service platform and organize diverse financing matchmaking events. Encourage and guide commercial banks to moderately expand the scope of eligible collateral, enabling SMEs to secure financing guarantees using movable assets and rights such as accounts receivable, production equipment, products, vehicles, ships, and intellectual property. Effectively utilize the electronic database indexed by guarantor names, allowing online access to, modification of, or cancellation of information regarding the registration status of collateral. Additionally, promote the standardization and reduction of unreasonable fees in corporate financing, streamline approval processes, and increase both the overall credit volume and its proportion allocated to SMEs.

(7) Strengthen land resource guarantees. Adhere to the principle of allocating resources based on projects, using the actual and effective implementation of projects as the basis for determining land allocation targets, thereby ensuring robust support for investment-driven land needs. For projects included in the provincial government’s major project list, land-use plans will be directly allocated upon approval. Additionally, intensify efforts to revitalize and utilize previously approved but undeveloped or idle land, boosting overall land supply.

(8) Safeguarding Businesses' Legal Production and Operations. We will intensify efforts to address the issue of fraudulent litigation through targeted campaigns, effectively curbing abusive litigation practices such as malicious lawsuits and unreasonable prolonged legal battles. This will ensure the lawful protection of private enterprises' normal business activities. Additionally, we will strictly regulate property enforcement measures like seizure and freezing, minimizing their adverse impact on companies' day-to-day operations. Furthermore, we will continue identifying and compiling a selection of high-profile cases involving severe crackdowns on violations of private entrepreneurs' legitimate rights and interests, as well as landmark cases where private entrepreneurs were acquitted. These cases will be promptly released to the public, fostering a societal environment that fully respects and protects businesses' legal rights and interests.

(9) Further strengthen the implementation of differentiated ecological and environmental control measures. In accordance with the procedural requirements outlined in the "Technical Guidance for Developing Emergency Emission Reduction Measures for Key Industries During Severe Pollution Events (2020 Revised Edition)," key enterprises prioritized for epidemic prevention and control will be included in the positive list management system for ecological and environmental supervision, ensuring full support for their normal production operations. Additionally, refine the dynamic adjustment mechanism for the positive list of ecological and environmental regulators, promptly adding eligible enterprises to the list. Continue to enhance policy communication and guidance efforts, helping companies benchmark against industry-leading standards to improve their pollution-control capabilities. Companies rated as Grade A or classified as leading performers may independently adopt emission-reduction measures during severe pollution weather alerts. Meanwhile, enterprises rated B or lower, as well as non-leading companies, must maintain emission-reduction efforts no less stringent than those specified in the "Technical Guidance for Developing Emergency Emission Reduction Measures for Key Industries During Severe Pollution Events (2020 Revised Edition)."

6. Enhance and Optimize the Long-Term Mechanism for Improving the Business Environment

(1) Strengthen efforts in policy evaluation. Implement the State's guidelines on policy assessment, enhance pre- and post-assessment of major policies, and ensure that policies are more scientific, precise, practical, and effective.

(2) Establish a regular mechanism for government-enterprise communication and engagement. Develop a consistent platform for gathering feedback from market entities, leveraging channels such as Hebei Province’s Government-Enterprise Service Direct Access Information Platform and quarterly forums for government-enterprise dialogue and consultation. Strengthen ongoing connections with businesses, industry associations, and chambers of commerce, promptly listening to their concerns and needs, identifying challenges they face, and proactively formulating targeted policy measures and solutions. This will facilitate the shift from a "government-driven approach" to a more "business-led, demand-oriented model." Additionally, accelerate the development of the provincial-level 12345 government service hotline, ensuring that all cities and departments complete the necessary integration tasks with the provincial hotline on schedule. Further streamline the processes for handling, routing, supervising, providing feedback on, and evaluating inquiries received through the government service hotline, ultimately achieving a unified provincial system characterized by "one dedicated hotline for external outreach, tiered responsibility, and centralized management." This will enable the hotline to respond swiftly to the needs and concerns of both businesses and the public.

(3) Strengthen the delivery of business-friendly policies. Conduct a comprehensive review of all existing policies designed to benefit enterprises, compile them into a centralized policy list, and publicly announce it on a unified platform. This platform will offer businesses online search, subscription, and personalized matching services tailored to their needs. Additionally, enhance efforts to explain these policies through flexible, multi-channel approaches—combining both online and offline methods—and proactively deliver relevant information based on factors such as industry and company size. When county-level governments introduce measures aimed at supporting businesses, they must clearly publicize the names and contact details of the officials responsible, ensuring that policy implementation is "accountable to specific individuals." Furthermore, promote the "automatic access" model for eligible business-friendly policies by leveraging government data sharing and other mechanisms, allowing qualified companies to directly benefit without the need for manual applications. For policies that still require enterprise applications, relevant departments should establish reasonable eligibility criteria, publish a clear checklist on the unified platform, streamline application procedures, and expedite the entire process—from single-point submission to fully digital, end-to-end processing—ensuring swift policy delivery.

(Four) Drive breakthroughs in the business environment of key regions. Cities like Shijiazhuang, which participated in China’s Business Environment Assessment, have benchmarked themselves against the nation’s leading standards and top-tier cities. By addressing their weaknesses, strengthening their strengths, and elevating overall performance, these cities achieved excellent or good rankings in terms of business convenience during the 2020 assessment, positioning themselves as model cities for multiple indicators. Meanwhile, Xiong’an New Area, the Free Trade Pilot Zone, and various development zones have fully implemented supportive policies aimed at deepening reform and opening up, making significant efforts to build first-class business environment hubs and taking the lead in optimizing the local business climate.

(5) Further optimize the business environment evaluation system. Based on China’s existing business environment evaluation framework, we will incorporate additional indicators that reflect our province’s unique characteristics, thereby developing a comprehensive provincial-level business environment assessment system. Building upon evaluations conducted across all prefecture-level cities, provincially-administered counties, and the Xiong'an New Area, we will now extend the assessment to include every county (city) in the province. Strengthen efforts to effectively utilize the evaluation results by designating "Hebei Province's Advanced Counties (Cities, Districts) for Optimizing the Business Environment and Promoting High-Quality Development" based on these findings.

(6) Strengthen inspection and accountability efforts. Accelerate the establishment of a unified channel for business environment complaints and reports on Hebei Province’s integrated online government service platform, ensuring centralized reception and tiered handling. Seamlessly integrate regular inspections, random spot checks, and targeted oversight initiatives to intensify scrutiny and hold accountable those who undermine the business climate or harm corporate interests. Additionally, implement an internal notification system to publicly address instances of poor enforcement, bureaucratic delays, inefficiency, and lax discipline—prompting accountability measures in strict accordance with laws, regulations, and organizational rules.

Attachment: Key Task List