Pedestrians check out the splendid urban scenery on the North Bund of Shanghai on November 13, 2025. Photo: VCG

Shanghai held a meeting on Thursday pledging fresh measures to improve its business environment and invigorate the private sector. Since the beginning of 2026, other provinces and cities have convened similar meetings to rump up efforts to advance high-quality economic growth.

Chinese analysts said that investor confidence in the business environment will underpin the nation's manufacturing upgrading and overall economic improvement throughout this year.

Shanghai outlined targeted measures such as expanding financing service platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises and building an "entrepreneurship first-stop" service center, aimed at driving sustained improvements in the city's business environment, according to Shanghai Fabu, the municipal government's WeChat account.

The city also pledged to continue carrying out a series of reforms to facilitate market entry, ensure fair competition and provide equal protection for all types of business, with the goal of delivering tangible results within the year.

On the first working day of 2026, Shanghai convened its business environment conference for the ninth consecutive year, stressing the need to put business environment optimization at the heart of the city's high-quality development to bolster market confidence and attract leading companies and talent.

And, Northeast China's Liaoning Province held a conference on optimizing the business environment, with the provincial authorities vowing to mobilize province-wide resources to improve business climate, the Liaoning Daily reported on Sunday. 

The meeting reiterated the need to boost the vitality of market entities and improve broad investor expectations, while vowing zero tolerance for any actions that undermine the business environment, with strict punishment for those responsible.

Also, the authorities of East China's Fujian Province pledged to go all-out to boost economic growth and rally efforts to better respond to the concerns of market entities, and build a first-class business environment there, in order to advance high-quality development across-the-board, the Fujian Daily reported. The province noted the need to focus on removing market access barriers and addressing issues affecting fair market competition.

Multiple local governments are stepping up economic planning at the outset of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), with the priority on generating new growth momentum, mounting a coordinated push to stabilize public expectations and strengthening business confidence, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of Forum 50 for Digital-Real Economies Integration, told the Global Times in an interview. 

Investment, particularly in fixed assets, is seen as the most direct lever, as industrial development ultimately depends on premium infrastructure and strong supply chains, Hu said, adding once investment is in place, it can quickly spur production, procurement, and job creation, delivering an immediate boost to regional economies.

Hu noted that good business environment will help stabilize companies' medium- to long-term expectations and bolster their investment appetite, providing stronger institutional support for China's economy to achieve high-quality improvement.

"Convenience-oriented business services would help cut costs by lowering administrative and transaction burdens," Hu said. 

In the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), China's economy maintained overall stability with steady progress, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality amid concerted nationwide efforts, the Xinhua News Agency said.

In the first three quarters of 2025, the Chinese economy saw a smooth transition from old to new growth drivers, with the value-added output of the equipment
manufacturing sector rising 9.7 percent year-on-year and that of high-tech manufacturing rising 9.6 percent, according to Xinhua. Emerging green growth engines such as solar panels and new-energy vehicles have gained pace, injecting fresh momentum into the economy.

In the first three quarters of 2025, Shanghai saw an average of 320 new technology firms set up each day, and the city added 353,000 new businesses for the full year, up 2.69 percent year-on-year, according to the People's Daily.