The High-level International Conference on Doing Business Practice and Reforms was held in Beijing on November 22 and 23, 2019, organized by the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and the World Bank. 

With a theme of improvingthe business environment for a more dynamic economy of China and the world, the conference aimed to build a platform for exchanging experiences and jointly promoting business environment reform. 

Premier Li Keqiang sent a letter of congratulations to the conference, Liu Kun, Minister of Finance, delivered an opening speech, Ding Xuedong, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council, and Yin Yong, the member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Beijing Committee and Vice Mayor of Beijing attended the conference. Zou Jiayi, Vice Minister of Finance, chaired the opening session.  

Liu Kun stated in his opening speech that in accordance with the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Finance, seizing the opportunity of participating in the World Bank’s Doing Business assessment and aiming at the advanced global standards, has taken the lead in working with relevant departments and the municipal governments of Beijing and Shanghai to introduce a series of bold reforms and has successfully improved China’s ranking of business environment by moving up 15 places to the 31st in the global ranking this year on the basis of last year’s increase of 32 places, thus making China one of the world’s top ten most improved economies for the ease of doing business for two years in a row.  

Liu also said the Ministry of Finance will act on the overall deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and facilitate the efforts of government departments and local authorities concerned to learn from the global best practices, promote reform through opening up, and create a business environment consistent with commonly applied international rules; to implement policies based on the needs of enterprises and for pragmatic results, and further increase the sense of policy benefits and satisfaction of enterprises; and to focus our work on addressing problems, target policy implementation on the weak links identified in Doing Business reports, with greater strength and more practical measures, to optimize China’s business environment in a constant manner.