On April 11, Zhang Jiurong, Deputy Secretary-General of China Privately-Owned Business Association (CPBA), and his party visited Shanghai Academy and conducted an in-depth discussion with Li Youmei, First Vice President of Shanghai Academy and Executive Vice President Zhao Kebin on issues related to Shanghai's business environment in 2018. Both parties initially reached a strategic cooperation agreement on this issue.

Li Youmei pointed out that the business environment in Shanghai has a unique historical origin. Shanghai has enjoyed a favorable legal environment all along. How to make that competence even stronger? How to continuously provide new breakthroughs in the provision of better systems is an important issue for achieving the goal of building Shanghai into a globalized city. Shanghai Academy is a thinktank jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Shanghai Municipal People's Government. Since its establishment, it has been dedicated to building a high-end research base for national conditions. Shanghai Academy will give full play to its advantages, and carry out research focusing on the Shanghai business environment.

Zhang Jiurong believes that it is imperative for Shanghai to strengthen its attractiveness, creativity, and competitiveness, build into a globalized city of excellence, determine the overall situation of the business environment and rectify its short-sighted business context. CPBA is a united social group composed of individual workers from individually-owned businesses, sole proprietorships, and partnerships. It is a good assistant for the government to manage the individual economy and has advantages in analyzing and investigating the business environment in Shanghai.

Both parties reached a preliminary strategic cooperation agreement with regard to the business environment in Shanghai. Both parties will conduct investigation on relevant topics by using their respective resources in the thinktank and enterprise community, in order to more realistically depict the business environment in Shanghai on the basis of research data, and to provide effective advice for building Shanghai into a globalized city.

The meeting was attended by Jin Zhaohui, Director of the Information Department of CPBA, Tian Feng, research fellow of CASS, and Fan Zhaoxia, project manager of the Research Division of Shanghai Academy.

(By Xu Tingting)