The quality of a city's business environment can often be sensed within just one kilometer from home. A listed company that has operated for over 30 years still chooses to return to its "birthplace" to establish its group headquarters; a German returnee immediately signs a lease upon learning there's a startup incubator right at his doorstep; when a project prepares to go global, service specialists deliver timely assistance door-to-door...
In February 2025, Shanghai released its version 8.0 action plan for optimizing the business environment, marking the first time "strengthening grassroots foundations for business environment" was listed as a separate task module. This supports local areas in combining their territorial characteristics and industrial advantages to create a "one town, one brand" and "one street, one brand" business environment brand matrix, focusing on achieving dual improvements in street-town service capabilities and small and medium-sized enterprises' experiences.
Shanghai's business environment reform has evolved from the municipal-level "macro policy empowerment" stage to the street-town level "micro service decisive" stage. As a comprehensive demonstration zone for business environment, Pudong New Area proposed in its district-level version 8.0 action plan to focus on "bridging the last mile" and work to empower grassroots business environment construction.
At the end of August, reporters visited several streets and towns in Pudong to explore the grassroots business practices in this reform hotbed.
**Incubation Base "Hidden" in the Street Business Service Center**
On August 27, at 683 Zaozhuang Road, in the newly completed Jinyang New Village Street Business Service Center, Director Wang Haiqing of the business office had just finished receiving a group of visitors when another appointment call came in.
"As long as it's a working day, the business center welcomes about three to four groups of visitors daily, and receiving twenty to thirty phone calls per day is normal," Wang Haiqing said while leading the way to the second floor.
The second and third floors of the business service center house Jinyang Street's newly renovated technology innovation incubation base. Since beginning operations in June 2024, 42 enterprises have signed incubation agreements, and since this year, 9 new startups and project teams have physically moved in.
"Enable young talents to come in, stay, and develop well." In April 2025, Pudong New Area issued "Youth Innovation 15 Measures" supporting youth innovation and entrepreneurship, highlighting "two 1 million initiatives": "providing 1 million square meters of low-rent youth apartments and 1 million square meters of low-rent entrepreneurial space."
Under policy incentives, the creation and service upgrades of Jinyang Street's technology innovation incubator have attracted significant attention. At the incubation base, one can see what could be called "small but beautiful" corporate apartments. Each "apartment" is approximately 26 square meters, equipped with private bathrooms, office desks and chairs by the window, and sofas with coffee tables in the central area. With various policy supports, these spaces are perfectly suited for startup offices and even live streaming businesses.
Wang Haiqing introduced that Jinyang New Village Street has an aging population comprising 37.3% of residents, with 42 schools in the jurisdiction covering everything from kindergartens to universities. The high numbers of elderly residents and students led the incubation base to choose healthcare and AI + education tracks.
Beyond the "corporate apartments," the incubation base's public spaces include shared meeting rooms, private client reception areas, and a public live streaming base currently being negotiated. The street also plans to introduce Shanghai's largest fragrance company to create community healing scenarios in shared spaces, building a unique "corporate decompression chamber."
At the grassroots street and town level, "everyone is a business service representative, everything relates to business environment." Even in Jinyang Street's residential communities, business liaison officers are everywhere.
Xu Zhenhao, who returned from studying in Germany and is committed to developing an computing power project, had originally chosen an incubator in another district. Just before signing, his father mentioned this to a community official during casual conversation and learned there was an incubation base right at their doorstep. That same day, his father rode an electric bike to investigate. Subsequently, Xu Zhenhao himself had multiple contacts with staff members, learning about various support policies, and after careful consideration, ultimately signed the residency agreement.
Previously, when a Ghanaian student from China Europe International Business School was invited to visit the business service center, a service specialist recruited from JPMorgan Chase communicated fluently in English throughout the visit. Soon after, this student signed with the incubation base through partners, completed company registration, and introduced another Chinese classmate to also establish a company and move in together.
Additionally, the incubation base and business service center are in the same building, creating a comprehensive service complex that introduces technology innovation and human resources policies, achieving a one-stop model for enterprise services, startup incubation, and business processing, accelerating enterprise operations and startup growth.
Wang Haiqing introduced that Jinyang New Village Street has over 1,900 registered enterprises and over 2,900 locally operating enterprises according to the fifth economic census. In recent years, the street has focused on implementing municipal and district business environment optimization action plan requirements, guided by the concept "polish the golden brand, share a golden future," continuously developing enterprise service platforms and conducting special business environment optimization actions, expanding the influence of the new area's business environment construction and street micro-environment, improving enterprise service effectiveness.
"To optimize the business environment, we must form an ecosystem where government, enterprises, and communities coexist. Only then can the last mile of business environment become the 'best mile,'" Wang Haiqing said.
**Making Enterprises Never Want to Leave**
"If the economic ecosystem is a river, it must contain both big fish, small fish, shrimp, as well as microorganisms, aquatic plants, and so on. A first-class business environment must not only focus on large enterprises or mature business formats," said Zhou Jun, Deputy Mayor of Zhoupu Town. He believes the best business environment is when business owners stay in a place for a long time and don't want to leave.
In the 1990s, a technology company called "Huide" came from Jiangsu to Shanghai Pudong. The 15-acre plot in Zhoupu Town became this company's initial foundation for "settling down." Later, Shanghai Huide Technology Co., Ltd. developed into a polyurethane resin product enterprise integrating R&D, production, sales, and technical services, and was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in August 2018.
"During the company's development, they also underwent iterations and relocations, but after going public, the enterprise still approached us, hoping to build their headquarters in Zhoupu," Zhou Jun introduced. In October 2022, the Huide Enterprise Group headquarters building and innovation center project signed with Zhoupu Town, with the project still using 15 acres of land. This year, the enterprise has obtained land permits, and next year, the project will begin construction.
Public information shows that Zhoupu Town is one of the earliest settled towns in the Pudong area, already known as "Little Shanghai" during the late Qing and early Republican periods. In recent years, with the expansion of Zhangjiang Science City, Zhoupu Town has embarked on industrial transformation. Currently, four-fifths of the area has become part of Zhangjiang Science City, undertaking spillover effects from Zhangjiang.
Industrial transformation opportunities have brought more entrepreneurs to this Jiangnan town. Therefore, Zhoupu has made all its 350,000 square meters of office buildings, factories, shops, and other assets into incubation, cultivation, and support platforms for enterprises, providing small and medium enterprises with rent subsidies, living facilities, and customized property services.
In June this year, the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission released the list of technology innovation and entrepreneurship carriers to be included in the cultivation system for 2025, with Zhoupu Smart Valley Startup Incubation Base being selected. Zhoupu Town now has 14 incubators, including 1 national-level incubator, 5 municipal-level incubators, and 8 district-level incubators, making it the administrative town with the most incubators.
In July 2025, Shanghai Puchuang Lixi Lesheng Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) (abbreviated as "Puchuang Lile Fund") was established. This fund with a total scale of 200 million yuan was jointly initiated by Shanghai Pudong Innovation Investment Development (Group) Co., Ltd., Zhoupu Town People's Government, and Shanghai Lechun Baihui Biotechnology Co., Ltd., becoming Pudong's first town-level industrial development joint fund.
"In incubating startups, Zhoupu is both a 'shopkeeper' and, through joint fund innovation, attempts to be a 'partner' with enterprises. But more often, we need to be a caring 'steward,'" said Jia Minjie, Director of Zhoupu Town Enterprise Service Center.
For example, optimizing enterprise-related administrative inspections is also one of the key tasks in Shanghai's version 8.0 business environment action plan this year. In June, Zhoupu Town's standardized multi-party coordination mechanism for enterprise-related administrative law enforcement took shape. Led by Deputy Mayor Zhou Jun, the second Tuesday of each month is designated as the multi-department joint inspection day, with a dedicated work group established.
"It's essentially one joint inspection per month, and only once," Zhou Jun explained. During visits, many enterprises reported that different departments each conduct monthly inspections. While each sounds manageable individually, when multiple departments each inspect once, some enterprises spend most of their month receiving various inspections, ultimately dedicating specialized personnel solely to handle them.
Aligned with Zhoupu Town's transformation and development, Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical Group, a veteran pharmaceutical company established over 20 years ago, also stands at the crossroads of transforming from factory to R&D center.
At the end of 2023, Wang Ruwei, a "National Outstanding Science and Technology Worker," joined Shanghai Haini Pharmaceutical as Special Assistant to the Chairman of Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical Group and General Manager of Shanghai Life Science Industrial Park, becoming Pudong's first "Pearl Leading Talent" in Zhoupu. That autumn, he transferred his household registration to Zhoupu, becoming a "new Zhoupu resident."
He said: "Here, I felt the high-quality business environment and warm talent services. Since the government has shown the greatest sincerity and support, I must also demonstrate my own sincerity."
**Building New Benchmarks for Industry-City Integration**
In April 2025, Li Zheng, Member of the Shanghai Municipal Committee Standing Committee and Secretary of Pudong New Area District Committee, pointed out during research in Jinqiao Town that "Jinqiao Town should fully promote town-level economic development and build new benchmarks for industry-city integration."
Public data shows that from 2022-2024, Jinqiao Town's economic development momentum was fierce, maintaining 20% growth for three consecutive years.
On June 20 this year, Pudong New Area held a work promotion meeting to support enterprises "going global." At the meeting, Secretary Li Zheng presented certificates to 11 overseas headquarters enterprises, with Jinqiao Town's key enterprise—Milkyway Chemical Supply Chain Services Group Co., Ltd.—being one of them.
Milkyway is a shipping headquarters enterprise in Pudong New Area, specializing in providing global one-stop logistics and trading full supply chain services, with business spanning Asia-Pacific, United States, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and other global markets.
Behind the enterprise's rapid development, Jinqiao Town continuously optimizes the business environment, providing precise, efficient, and warm services that offer solid support for the enterprise's steady expansion and global layout.
Early this year, when the enterprise suffered a sudden power outage that caused its 24-hour "document operation" system to halt, disrupting core business, Jinqiao Town immediately coordinated with property manager Pukai Group and actively sought support from Pudong New Area Construction and Transportation Commission and Pudong New Area Power Company, urgently deploying 2 diesel generators to restore power and ensure uninterrupted operation of key business.
Additionally, Jinqiao Town proactively engaged and has already provided door-to-door guidance this year to help the enterprise complete household registration procedures for 3 core talents, helping the enterprise retain backbone forces and stabilize core teams.
Facing the enterprise's new business expansion needs and requirements for establishing new companies, Jinqiao Town dispatched specialists for door-to-door coordination, providing full assistance to help the enterprise complete the entire registration process from name verification to business license application within one week.
Targeting the actual situation of its newly expanded industry tracks and implementing Pudong New Area's "going global" work, they promptly understood the enterprise's "going global" progress, precisely matched and interpreted relevant policies, meeting core needs for overseas expansion.
In Jinqiao Town, Milkyway's refined and professional services are not unique cases. Deputy Mayor Wan Yun told reporters that the town government has established "one-on-one" service mechanisms with enterprises, assigning service specialists to precisely meet enterprise needs. Meanwhile, by building an enterprise service information platform to monitor enterprise dynamics in real-time, key enterprises maintain a 100% net stability rate and 100% resolution rate for reasonable enterprise demands.
This year, Jinqiao Town promotes industry-city integration construction under the theme "Jinqiao POWER," where the five letters each represent a work goal: City Plus (industrial-city circle), City Oxygen (green oxygen circle), City Walk (strolling circle), City Energy (enjoyment circle), and City Ride (touring circle).
Taking the Tonghui Automotive Parts R&D and Intelligent Manufacturing Center (RDC) renovation and expansion project as an example, once completed, the project will focus on cultivating future vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, and other hardcore industries, using the innovative "industry upstairs" model to create an industrial complex integrating manufacturing production, R&D offices, warehousing logistics, and living facilities. This includes over 100,000 square meters of factory space, over 40,000 square meters of R&D office areas, and over 20,000 square meters of living facilities.
Beyond this, Jinqiao Town has also made arrangements around enterprise employees' "eating, housing, and transportation" needs: in 2022, they launched the first enterprise customized bus service, solving the "last mile" commuting problem from enterprises to subway stations for employees of over 50 enterprises in the Eastern Suburb Center Park. In July this year, they added a customized bus from Jinhu Road industrial cluster to Line 14 subway stations, benefiting 4,000 enterprise employees along the route.
The enterprise central kitchen adopts an "enterprise ordering + kitchen meal preparation + dedicated delivery" model. From 2023 to now, it has cumulatively delivered over 55,000 meals, solving dining difficulties for employees of enterprises without cafeterias.
"The business environment is specific, three-dimensional, and equally warm," Wan Yun said. The transformation of the "last mile" of business services into the "best mile" gives enterprises the most authoritative voice in terms of experience.
**Reporter's Notes**
What does transforming the "last mile" into the "best mile" mean?
When spring river water warms, fish and shrimp in the river are the first to sense it. Enterprise experience is the only standard for judging business environment quality.
The version 8.0 action plan placing "street-town business environment" under the spotlight perhaps releases the greatest signal: Shanghai recognizes that business environment competition in the first half depends on policy innovation and institutional openness, while the second half depends on service details and implementation quality.
The "last mile" is the "final testing ground" for policy effectiveness and the "final perception point" for enterprises. Only by transforming this link from traditional "weak points" and "bottlenecks" into "strengths" and "highlights" (i.e., the "best mile") can version 8.0 reforms truly take root and release maximum practical effectiveness.
In Pudong, we observed the details, warmth, and resilience of Shanghai's grassroots business environment optimization—it sprouts in the comprehensive complex formed by business service centers and incubators; grows during the footsteps of joint inspection days; surges at moments when enterprises achieve overseas expansion.
To achieve the "best mile" of business environment may not require earth-shattering policies, but rather letting every enterprise and every entrepreneur feel the sincerity and vision of Shanghai as a city in places closest to their daily lives.
Comments