IT will now take only 24 hours to obtain a license to set up a company in Shenzhen from June 28, according to the city’s market supervision bureau.

    Bureau head Xu Youjun told a news conference Wednesday business licenses originally took 10 days to be processed, according to the requirements by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce. However, that had been shortened to five days in an earlier reform in Shenzhen.

    “There were 372,744 companies in Shenzhen in May, accounting for more than one-third of the total in Guangdong Province,” said Xu.

    There were more than 50,000 new companies being established each year and the 24-hour mechanism would save a lot of time, he said.

    In addition to the faster processing time, applications for business licenses could be submitted to any of the registration centers in Luohu, Nanshan and Yantian districts, Guangming and Pingshan new zones from Sept. 1, Thursday’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    The flexible application mechanism would apply to the entire city next year, Xu said.(Li Hao)