To implement the guiding principles of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the spirit of the document Implementation Opinions on Continuously Creating a “Three-Modernization and First-Class” Business Environment in Hunan Province (Xiang Zheng Fa [2024] No. 7), Hengyang aims to benchmark against advanced standards and strive for excellence. With enterprises’ sense of gain as the primary criterion, the city will adopt the “Five Ones” approach as an entry point, taking concrete actions and demonstrating genuine commitment to fostering a first-class business environment. In light of Hengyang’s specific circumstances, the following implementation opinions are formulated:

I. Strengthening the Foundation

Further reducing costs related to land use, electricity, water, gas, logistics, and financing.

1. Lowering Land Use Costs:

Fully implementing the “Four Immediate” reforms for industrial park projects: Immediate Service upon Negotiation, Immediate Land Supply upon Contract Signing, Immediate Supporting Facilities upon Project Commencement, and Immediate Certification upon Completion.Maximizing the advantages of the “Land Supermarket” platform to revitalize idle and inefficiently used land in industrial parks, ensuring that “land waits for projects.”Establishing a land supply mechanism tailored to the needs of private small and micro enterprises, supporting flexible land supply models such as “Lease First, Transfer Later” and “Flexible Transfer.”

(Lead departments: Municipal Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, relevant county-level governments, and park management committees.)

2. Ensuring Sufficient Industrial Premises:

Providing more affordable, well-equipped, and efficiently concentrated standardized factory buildings for enterprises.(Lead departments: Park management committees.)Supporting the inclusion of essential R&D, design, testing, and pilot production facilities in industrial projects beyond administrative office and living service areas, with a construction area not exceeding 15% of the total project area.

(Lead departments: Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.)

3. Reducing Water, Electricity, and Gas Costs:

Implementing a “zero-investment” policy for enterprises in off-site water, gas, and electricity connection projects. Providing on-site services for key water-consuming enterprises and offering customized water usage plans for industrial, office, and residential needs. Encouraging enterprises to optimize electricity usage, adopt peak-shifting measures, enhance power dispatch capabilities, and promote self-generation with surplus electricity fed into the grid. Standardizing gas pipeline charging criteria for small and micro enterprises, implementing a “one-price quotation” system for gas projects, and encouraging direct price negotiations between gas companies and major gas consumers.

(Lead departments: Municipal Development and Reform Commission, State Grid Hengyang Power Supply Company, Municipal Water Investment Company, Municipal Natural Gas Company, and park management committees.)

4. Lowering Logistics Costs:

Introducing policy measures to support the high-quality development of the logistics industry. Enhancing logistics digitalization, intelligence, informatization, and standardization. Promoting multimodal transport and expanding the capacity of road, rail, water, and air transportation.

(Lead department: Municipal Development and Reform Commission.)

5. Reducing Financing Costs:

Fully utilizing enterprise-supportive financial policies and leveraging the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) reform to reduce financing costs for small and micro enterprises. Enhancing the targeted use of monetary policy tools, guiding banks to optimize low-cost financing through re-lending and rediscounting mechanisms.

(Lead departments: Municipal Government Office, People’s Bank of China Hengyang Branch.)

II. Integrating Policies

Continuously improving policy integration, automatic benefit access, and reward-loan linkages to ensure precise delivery of business-support policies.

1. Advancing Policy Integration:

Unifying business-supportive policies under the “automatic benefit access” system and publishing policy implementation lists for enterprises, and promptly collect and accurately push enterprise-benefiting policies in a targeted manner.

(Lead departments: Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Data Bureau.)

2. Enhancing Smart Subsidy Disbursement:

Shifting from a “business application, department review” model to an “intelligent push, business confirmation” approach, increasing the coverage of automatic benefit access policies.

(Lead departments: Municipal Data Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau.)

3. Optimizing the “Reward-Loan Linkage” Mechanism:

Mobilizing banking resources and social capital to reduce corporate financing costs and improve capital efficiency.

(Lead departments: Municipal Data Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau.)

4. Developing Market-Oriented Industrial Funds:

Vigorously introduce market-oriented industrial funds, guide and nurture local industrial funds, establish and improve the framework of guiding funds, and form a cluster of industrial funds including thematic funds and functional funds. Strengthen the integrated development of industry, academia, research, and application, and promote the breakthrough of core industrial technologies and the local industrialization of achievements. (Lead departments: Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Government Office, Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau, Municipal State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, People’s Bank of China Hengyang Branch, Hengyang Financial Regulatory Bureau.)

5. Enhancing Fair Competition and Regulatory Oversight:

Launch the “Year of Improving the Quality of Document Legitimacy and Fair Competition Review” initiative. Conduct third-party evaluations of fair competition reviews, carry out special antitrust enforcement actions in the livelihood sector, clean up and regulate investment promotion policies, and rectify issues related to the unlawful implementation of fiscal and tax incentive policies for investment attraction. (Leading departments: Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, Municipal Bureau of Justice, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Bureau of Finance, and Municipal Taxation Bureau).

III. Establishing a Support System

Enhance innovation efforts in areas such as talent recognition, children’s education, parents’ medical care, special incentives, and enterprise services to create a favorable entrepreneurial growth environment, allowing entrepreneurs to feel valued and supported in Hengyang.

1. The service targets are outstanding entrepreneurs whose enterprises are registered in Hengyang and have paid more than 10 million yuan in taxes in the previous year. A “Heng Youxiang” service card will be issued to eligible entrepreneurs, granting them access to the relevant services specified in this document. (Leading departments: Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Taxation Bureau, Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio, Television, and Sports). 12. Providing Education Support:

2. Provide school placements for the children of employees in the enterprises of the service recipients, ensuring their educational needs are met. For the children and grandchildren of corporate legal representatives within the city’s enrollment area, placement in public kindergartens, compulsory education schools, and vocational schools can be arranged based on the availability of slots at their preferred schools. (Leading department: Municipal Bureau of Education).

3. Establish a priority medical service channel for entrepreneurs in hospitals at the second-tier level and above within the city. Service recipients, along with their parents, spouses, and children, can use the “Heng Youxiang” service card to access medical escort services and discounted health check-ups. (Leading department: Municipal Health Commission).

4. Provide each service recipient with one free annual tourism pass per year. Additionally, selected recipients and their family members (spouses, children, and parents) will be invited to participate in sports, cultural, and major festive events organized by government departments within the city, helping entrepreneurs integrate better into Hengyang. (Leading department: Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio, Television, and Sports).

5. Actively promote the resolution of outstanding issues by conducting a special cleanup of overdue payments owed by government departments, public institutions, and state-owned enterprises to businesses. Develop a coordinated plan for resolving these debts and implement targeted measures to address the issue of “new officials ignoring old debts.” (Leading departments: Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Municipal Bureau of Finance).

6. Strive to establish Hengyang as a “National Model Zone for Social Credit System Development” by advancing the construction of a trustworthy governance system. Establish and improve government credit records and set up a dedicated complaint section for government contract breaches and dishonesty. Support and encourage financial product innovation, expand the scope of intellectual property pledge collateral, and increase financing limits. (Leading departments: Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, Hengyang Financial Regulatory Bureau).

7. Strengthen enterprise support services by conducting regular research visits and exchanges to gain in-depth insights into businesses’ needs, concerns, and expectations. Provide “face-to-face” assistance to help enterprises resolve difficulties and foster a close yet transparent government-business relationship.

IV. Focus on a Single Goal

  Enforce strict performance evaluations with rewards and penalties. Centering on the goal of becoming a provincial leader and a national benchmark, make every effort to excel in national and provincial assessments. Strengthen the application of feedback from evaluation results to drive improvements and excellence. Municipal-level departments, counties, districts, and provincial-level industrial parks that achieve top rankings in the province will be commended by the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. Those ranking lower (within the “Good” category) will have their main officials interviewed by the responsible municipal leaders. If a major work error severely impacts the evaluation, the relevant department will be held accountable.

V. Extend a batch of brands.

Continue advancing signature programs such as the enterprise “Code Assignment” protection mechanism, further standardizing law enforcement inspections to ensure a truly business-friendly approach—“no unnecessary disturbances, but prompt responses when needed.”

1. Deepen the implementation of the enterprise “Code Assignment” protection mechanism and upgrade it to an enhanced version. (Leading departments: Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Management Committees of Various Industrial Parks).

2. Fully implement Hengyang’s “14th Five-Year Plan” Talent Development Initiative, vigorously carry out the “Ten Thousand Talents to Hengyang” Recruitment Program, and continue promoting the “PhD Action” collaboration between the city, universities, and enterprises. Strengthen the talent chain around industrial development, assisting enterprises in attracting, developing, and retaining talent. (Leading departments: Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, Municipal Party Committee Talent Office, Municipal Talent Group).

3. Strictly enforce the “Nine Prohibitions” for optimizing the business environment and implement the “Three Lists” for inclusive and prudent regulatory enforcement (List of Exemptions from Administrative Penalties, List of Lenient Administrative Penalties, and List of Reduced Administrative Penalties). Firmly investigate and expose issues such as excessive bureaucracy, rent-seeking behavior, collusion, extortion, favoritism, inaction, misconduct, and inefficiency in administrative approvals, regulatory enforcement, and services for market entities.