China will streamline procedures for the establishment of foreign-funded companies in order to promote trade and facilitate investment.

Measures will be taken to dramatically reduce the time foreign firms need for business registration, according to a statement released after a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on May 16.

Effective on June 30, foreign firms will see much easier business filing and registration as the procedures will be finished paperless and free of charge and needs no presence in person.

To facilitate the implementation, banks, customs, taxation and foreign exchange agencies will share business information and coordinate management.

China has been pushing for easier access for foreign investment, with an array of favorable policies rolled out this year.

More than 35,000 foreign-funded businesses were established on the Chinese mainland last year with direct investment hitting an all-time high of 878 billion yuan ($140 billion).

The meeting also decided to integrate online platforms of government services at the national, provincial and city levels, with all services items to be put on online, except those laws otherwise stipulated and confidential information.

No less than 90 percent of the services items offered at provincial level and 70 percent at city and county levels will be available online by the end of 2019.

A series of measures will be also be rolled out to reduce logistics costs by more than 12 billion yuan this year, according to the meeting.

Land use taxes will be halved for logistics companies that rent land for warehouses between May 2018 and the end of 2019. Vehicle purchase taxes of trailers will be halved during the next three years from July. Expressway toll stations at provincial boundaries will be gradually removed.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2018)