The Tianhe central business district (CBD) has been improving its services and optimizing the business environment, boosting high-quality economic development, said Liu Lizi, deputy head of the Institute of Urban Culture of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences.

Construction of intelligent tax affairs services has been advanced in the district in recent years, with two appointment scheduling systems for tax affairs having been launched in the Guangzhou government affairs service center. In addition, the processing time for online tax-related affairs has been decreased to one hour.

Cross-provincial governmental affairs handling, which is centered on employment, social insurance, medical care, and market entity registration, has been promoted by the district. By the end of December 2021, a total of 183 government affairs can be handled cross-regionally in Tianhe and over 60 places inside and outside of Guangdong province.

Tianhe district is characterized by tall modern buildings. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

Tianhe has also been focusing on building a legal service brand cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and accelerating the formation of a legal service headquarters cluster.

There are currently 277 law firms in the Tianhe CBD, accounting for 33 percent of Guangzhou's total, of which 16 generated a revenue of over 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) in 2021.

In addition, an action plan was recently issued by the Guangdong Provincial Commission for deepening overall reform to support building the Tianhe CBD into an innovative and outstanding demonstration area for comprehensive urban functions, urban culture, modern service industry, as well as a modern and international business environment.

It proposed building a full-range digital tax service mechanism, bringing more enterprise-related governmental affairs into the "cross-provincial governmental affairs handling" list, as well as setting up the Greater Bay Area international business and digital economy arbitration center.