Jiangsu embraces integrated services to boost real economy, well-being

Amid the nation's call to stabilize the real economy and improve people's well-being, East China's Jiangsu province has ushered in its first "integrated construction permit service window" to offer faster services.

Recently, the county-level city of Taixing became the first in the province to establish such a window, by consolidating all steps into a single service point and reducing the time required for construction permit approvals.

Huang Feng, director of the Taixing Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, said by integrating all steps — such as joint reviews of construction drawings, on-site inspections, quality and safety supervision and construction permits — into one service, the approach has pioneered an integrated service model known as the "Taixing Model".

Considering the large-scale chemical projects in Taixing, which often involve extensive auxiliary facilities and lengthy construction periods, the city has formed specialized service teams for chemical projects, providing tailored, on-site services for such complex undertakings, he said.

For example, during the construction drawing review stage, components like storage tank areas, office buildings and workshops are reviewed immediately upon submission.

A notable story is the New-Type Photoelectric Glass and Functional Specialty Glass Manufacturing Project of Jiangsu Gongcheng New Material Technology Co Ltd, an undertaking with a total investment of 500 million yuan ($70.4 million), whose construction permit was issued on the same day upon application.

Additionally, during phases like construction, quality and safety supervision and specialized inspections, city authorities coordinate various departments to provide on-site guidance, jointly formulate corrective plans and expedite acceptance opinions, enabling the swift commissioning of major projects.

"We've achieved three significant transformations: from 'multiple department visits' to 'one-window acceptance,' from 'unrelated approvals' to 'parallel approvals,' and from 'sequential approvals' to 'conditional acceptance'," said Huang, adding that these reforms have brought phased success to the city's engineering project approval system.

Concurrently, to improve people's well-being, under the prefecture-level city of Taizhou, Taixing also became the first to ensure that all old residential renovation projects have completed construction permit formalities, effectively enhancing supervision mechanisms and legal safeguards to accelerate key public welfare projects.

Huang stressed that in the future, Taixing plans to explore simplified management methods for low-risk project planning and construction permits, including refining standards, tasks and processes, and promoting integrated approvals through phased consolidation, process reengineering and collaborative services.