The city of Shanghai in East China is moving to streamline and optimize its ecosystem for business, in a bid to further stimulate its economy.

In order to do that, the city released the Action Plan on Strengthening Integrated Innovation and Continuously Optimizing the Business Environment in Shanghai recently.

Since 2018, Shanghai has issued five successive versions of the action plan to optimize the business environment. This year's plan contains 195 tasks and measures.

Intellectual property, or IP protection – as an important aspect of shaping a market-oriented, law-based and world-class international business environment – is also highlighted in the plan.

Plans are for Shanghai to strengthen its digital governance capacity for its IP sector and to promote integrated services for IP protection. Banks are encouraged to include IP pledge financing within the scope of credit risk compensation for medium, small and micro technological enterprises in the city.

What's more, Shanghai will provide one-stop IP services for enterprises to be listed on the science and technology innovation board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The city aims to improve its overseas IP protection assistance mechanism to help enterprises develop their overseas markets.

In addition, Shanghai will continue to promote the construction of a complete public service system for IP. It will provide medium, small and micro enterprises with IP protection assistance, legal assistance and other basic public services.

Also, the city will extend the IP protection system to new fields and new forms of business such as big data, artificial intelligence and gene technology.