China's coastal city of Weihai in east China's Shandong Province is stepping up efforts to foster a more attractive international business environment by providing full-lifecycle services for foreign firms, advancing integrated reforms in foreign-related government services, and accelerating smart port upgrades.
The city has established a comprehensive and dynamic service system to improve the investment environment through tailored, full-lifecycle support for foreign-funded enterprises.
The municipal commerce bureau conducts regular monitoring and analysis of foreign-invested enterprises to keep track of their business performance. Leveraging Shandong Province's service platform for stabilizing foreign trade and investment, the city ensures that issues encountered by foreign businesses can get prompt responses and effective settlement.
Weihai has established a multi-department collaborative regulatory and service mechanism covering the entire lifecycle of foreign-invested enterprises, providing coordinated support from business registration and information updates to foreign exchange transactions and daily operations.
The city has introduced a series of reforms in government administrative services for foreign businesses and talents working here, further improving the efficiency and quality of dealing with related issues, making it rank among China's top 10 cities in terms of the attractiveness index for international talents.
In 2025, Weihai took the lead in piloting a one-stop service window for foreigners working in the city by combining five procedures, namely work permits for foreigners, residence permits, social insurance registration, professional title evaluation, and registration for electronic social security cards.
To facilitate access to government services, the city issued a trilingual service package in Chinese, English and Korean on policies for foreigners working in China, providing comprehensive guidance on application scenarios, policy requirements, procedures and frequently asked questions. Government service centers also offer consultation services in English and Korean, along with end-to-end assistance throughout the application process.
As a frontier gateway for China's opening-up, Weihai's port ranks 1st among coastal ports in Shandong Province in customs clearance efficiency, driven by accelerated smart-port development.
The city has advanced the construction of smart ports while continuously expanding the coverage of the international trade "single window" to logistics, financial services and other sectors.
It has also continued to innovate its regulatory measures and introduced a non-intrusive inspection model integrating pre-arrival scanning, AI-assisted image inspection and risk-based control, and a smart telecommunications-based quarantine system that has reduced vessel quarantine time by 80 percent. (Edited by Li Xueqing with Xinhua Silk Road, lixueqing@xinhua.org)
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