Practical and Efficient  Shanghai Government actively changes its function and tries to support foreign invested companies from different ways and improve the transparency and efficiency. Shanghai is the first city in China to establish an investment promotion organization – Shanghai Foreign Investment Development Board to provide foreign investors with comprehensive services.
  
   Office Automation
   Shanghai goes ahead in terms of government efficiency. Investors can make enquiries, file consultations and lodge complaints through logging on the gateway website (www.shanghai.gov.cn) of Shanghai Municipal Government. Furthermore, Shanghai has made achievements on examination and approval system and the time to examine and approve foreign-invested projects in Shanghai has been cut from 5 weeks to 3 weeks.
  
   “Great Clearance” Programme
   As the reform and opening up is progressing, the import and export volume of Shanghai Port has increased a lot, and the delivery efficiency has become one key factor in appraising trade and investment environment. So in June 2000, Shanghai government started a project, which is called “Great Clearance” Programme, to speed up port delivery. Through “Great Clearance” Programme, the time of Customs Clearance for sea transport has been reduced from 120 hours to 24 hours, and for air transport, form 72 hours to 12 hours. Songjiang Export Processing Zone enjoys the shortest time, only 4 hours for air transport.