Special article for Shanghai Free Trade Zone （FTZ）
Topics: Inside Shanghai FTZ
Original title：Building Economics Specialist Yan Weijuan: The waiter who finds problems in the skyscraper
Source: China News Service
Written by: Li Shuzhi, Yu Mei
“I visited 3 or 4 companies in the morning, and scheduled 4 more companies for the afternoon…” At 9AM, Building Economics Specialist Yan Weijuan stepped into the elevator of a high rise office building and started her work for the day.
In the Expo area of China (Shanghai), the Pilot Free Trade Zone (referred to as Shanghai Free Trade Zone), there are many building economic specialists like Yan Weijuan. They are waiters who work on the front line, providing personalised services to enterprises.
Starting from shantytowns and steel furnace areas, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo transformed this treasure land along the Yangtze River from a caterpillar to a butterfly; in 2015, the World Expo area, which was included in the expansion of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, took flight. You can see the greenery through the windows, lean over the water, stroll in the park, and watch birds from a distance… This central activity area and “world living room” where headquarters of state-owned enterprises, high-end institutions and multinational companies gather has long changed from what it used to be. Some changes brought about by the free trade zone can be seen at a glance, but the deeper changes are often hidden in the details.
Since 2000, Yan Weijuan has been engaged in investment promotion work in Dongming Road Street, Pudong New District, Shanghai. Currently, she is the building economics specialist at the Global Metropolis Plaza in the Expo area, responsible for connecting with many companies located in the four skyscrapers. On the business card handed over by Yan Weijuan, the word “service” appears particularly prominently.
“The way we serve enterprises is to take the initiative to come to ‘find problems’.” As a shop waiter, Yan Weijuan understands stress points and bottlenecks in the development of enterprises in the region during her visits and collects feedback from enterprises on policies while also responding to the company’s questions, when they present.
Before visiting the company, Yan Weijuan first had to answer her own questions: What is the main business of this company? How many employees are there? What new policies are in line with the company’s main business? Only by studying and researching beforehand, can you get the opportunity to speak.
Even so, Yan Weijuan is questioned by companies from time to time. “Once, a person in charge asked me nine questions in a single breath, and I gave solutions for eight of them on the spot. There was only one question that I couldn’t answer immediately, and I needed to consult multiple departments.”
The problems that these enterprises cannot solve are precisely the breakthrough points for institutional innovation in the free trade zone. Yan Weijuan said that when a company’s problem is not an outlying case, the shop waiters will collect this information, summarize and report it, and explore a direction for the next step of system innovation in the free trade zone.
The Shanghai Free Trade Zone shoulders the important mission of China to accelerate the transformation of government functions in the new era, actively explore innovation in management models, promote trade and investment facilitation, explore new ways and accumulate new experience for comprehensively deepening reform and expanding opening up, so as to form a replicable, scalable experience to serve the development of China.
According to Zhao Yuan, deputy director of the Expo Administration Bureau of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone Management Committee, the priority on service pursued by the Expo area is not only its main direction of optimizing the business environment, but also a vivid footnote to the transformation of government functions.
In order to better serve enterprises, this year’s World Expo Administration Bureau established a corporate service office. “Whether it’s talent services, housing, education, medical care, or policy implementation, for all problems encountered by enterprises, there is no need to rush to multiple departments. The Enterprise Service Office can provide ‘one-stop’ services.” Zhao Yuan said.
The unique policy environment of the free trade zone, the excellent office hardware conditions of the Expo area, and the official “service spirit” here… Only the Expo area that is “excellent on the outside and smart on the inside” can attract headquarters of such state-owned enterprises, high-end institutions and multinational companies to come from both near and far away. Among them, many international economic organizations are also “bagsing” the Expo area.
“From how to settle in the country to tax issues, and even organization and coordination, the Expo Management Bureau has provided us with help in all aspects.” Zheng Peihua, head of the China Representative Office of the Chartered Institute of Shipbrokers (ICS), told China News Service reporters before the Expo. It is a gathering area of international economic organizations in Tantan, with many international institutions “getting together” to work. “The office next to us is the German Logistics Alliance. We often share information and often attend events together.” In Zheng Peihua’s view, the Expo Qiantan is, very simply, the “world’s living room.”
16 international economic organizations have gathered in this area, mainly focusing on the three fields of economic and trade rules, resource allocation, and international arbitration, playing a positive role in improving Shanghai’s international image and influence, and enhancing the city’s soft power.
Zhao Yuan said that in the next step, the Expo area will continue to focus on institutional innovation in the field of international economic organizations, transform the policy dividends of the free trade zone into the driving force and vitality of regional development, and attract more international economic organizations and international talents.(Enditem)
