Editor’s note
Building a law-based government serves as a crucial cornerstone for modernizing national governance. In recent years, Dongguan has launched a series of innovative practices focused on addressing business and public concerns, vigorously advancing the construction of a rule-of-law government. Effective immediately, the Dongguan Daily inaugurates its “Building a law-based government” column. Tracing institutional pathways across relevant departments, it will spotlight “nationally pioneering” and “province-wide replicated” reform cases. Using these innovations as analytical lenses and measuring success through tangible public/business benefits, the column showcases how Dongguan’s legal safeguards propel high-quality development. Stay tuned for forthcoming features.
Since the launch of reform and opening-up, Dongguan’s private economy has achieved a meteoric rise, creating one miracle after another to become the “backbone of Dongguan’s development.” Private enterprises contribute over 60% of regional GDP and industrial added value, more than 70% of total tax revenue, above 80% of innovation outputs, and over 90% of market entities.
Why are Dongguan’s private entrepreneurs willing, able, and quick to invest? The answer lies in the city’s unwavering commitment to fostering private investment. Amid building a law-based government, Dongguan’s Development and Reform Bureau has implemented multi-pronged measures: enhancing the business environment through strategic platforms and emerging industries that bolster the real economy; establishing a special assistance fund to optimize service efficiency; and implementing “three reductions” – cutting documentation, processing time, and procedures – to streamline business approvals.
Notably, Dongguan’s annual private investment has consistently exceeded 150 billion yuan in recent years, with a three-year total surpassing 500 billion yuan. This massive investment volume now constitutes over 60% of the city’s fixed-asset investment, demonstrating continuously unleashed vitality, momentum, and potential. Furthermore, Dongguan is strategically advancing its “8+8+4” modern industrial system (core clusters + emerging sectors + future industries), concentrating efforts in key domains including next-generation electronics, high-end equipment, semiconductors and integrated circuits, new energy, artificial intelligence, and low-altitude economy. This focused approach positions the city to capture opportunities in strategic emerging industries and future-oriented sectors.
Currently, Dongguan has formed one trillion-yuan electronic information manufacturing cluster, one 500-billion-yuan equipment manufacturing cluster, four 100-billion-yuan industrial clusters (new materials, food & beverages, papermaking, and textiles/apparel/footwear), and nine 10-billion-yuan industrial clusters including new energy. Among these, the smart mobile terminal cluster, intelligent equipment cluster, and Dongguan-Foshan household goods cluster have been successively selected as national advanced manufacturing clusters.
At a special press conference held by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the NDRC commended: “Regarding promoting private investment, the exemplary practices emerging from Dongguan, Guangdong Province and other regions are worth replicating and promoting.”
Over 1,000 services accessible citywide, Bay Area-wide, and cross-province
Improved business environment boosts private investment willingness
The “streamlining administration, delegating power, and improving services” reform serves as Dongguan’s key measure to activate private investment.
Dongguan Government Service Center, launched in October 2019, functions as an urban landmark integrating Party building, government services, public culture, and leisure entertainment. It serves as a crucial platform demonstrating digital government reforms and stands as a new urban hallmark for optimizing the business environment and advancing high-quality development. The center operates 270 service counters handling over 1 million annual transactions. Among these, 161 are comprehensive windows. Except for public security, taxation, and marriage registration services provided through departmental comprehensive windows, all other government services are handled through “general” comprehensive windows, achieving “all services under one roof” and “multiple services at one counter”. The city’s service rejection rate dropped from 13% to 2.3%. Municipal and town-level service halls now cover 100% of high-frequency government matters. Over 2,000 self-service terminals have been deployed, enabling nearly 1,300 items for “citywide access”, over 4,000 for “Bay Area-wide access”, and 2,500+ “cross-province access” items processable in Dongguan.
Beyond comprehensive standardization of government services, Dongguan has vigorously enhanced business startup convenience. Establishing an intelligent market entity registration system has more than doubled approval efficiency; creating a notarized document information-sharing database; launching China (Hong Kong) entrusted notarization integrated management platform; transitioning Hong Kong-funded enterprises from “one-trip maximum” to “zero-trip” fully digital registration... Dongguan also pioneered Guangdong’s “one-click online processing” for utilities (water, electricity, gas), and achieved fully electronic, zero-trip handling for housing provident fund services.
Strategic platforms and emerging industries advance together
Real economy as foundation enables private investment
Strategic scientific forces are rapidly converging across Dongguan.
China’s first and the world’s fourth spallation neutron source has been constructed and commenced operations, receiving the Special Prize of the Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Eleven neutron spectrometers including multi-physics and atmospheric neutron irradiation spectrometers have been established, completing over 2,000 user experiment projects.
The second phase of the spallation neutron source and the advanced attosecond laser facility have been formally included in the “14th Five-Year Plan” for National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure Development.
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory has published 4,286 papers and filed 1,139 patent applications. Team research achievements have been selected respectively for “China’s Top Ten Major Technological Advances,” “China’s Top Ten Semiconductor Research Advances,” and “China’s Top Ten Scientific Advances.”
High-level research universities including the Great Bay University and City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) are accelerating their development.
In 2024, the city undertook 134 National Natural Science Foundation projects with funding of 54.16 million yuan, maintaining its top position among Guangdong’s prefecture-level cities. For two consecutive years, it has secured National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars projects. Currently hosting 25 National Outstanding Young Scientists and 10 National Excellent Young Scientists in Dongguan, the young scientist cohort is rapidly expanding.
Cutting documentation, processing time, and procedures, and enhancing efficiency
Streamlined approvals to accelerate private investment
To efficiently advance project construction and operation, Dongguan trades power “reduction” for efficiency “addition”, propelling administrative approval reforms into the “fast lane”.
Dongguan rigorously streamlines approval materials, shifting pre-approval to in-process and post-event supervision. Requirements like worker wage deposits and performance bonds previously needed for construction permits are now governed through routine oversight. Under the fully informed commitment system, the government investment projects will have their approval time reduced to 40 days, and social investment projects will be cut to 30 days—representing a 60% and 50% reduction, respectively, compared to the time targets set at the provincial level. The optimized policy for simple low-risk private construction projects integrates construction and building permits through parallel processing. Reforms like non-mandatory design reviews and non-compulsory supervision delegation compress total approval time to 15 workdays.
Dongguan implements parallel and concurrent approvals, deepening reforms in the approval of construction projects such as “commencing construction upon land acquisition” and “immediate operation upon completion” It has restructured the processes for land use approval, planning adjustments, and engineering plan reviews. Under a model of “accept incomplete applications and conduct concurrent approvals,” Dongguan has effectively improved approval efficiency and the efficiency of resource utilization.
