Going through complicated and extensive processes for administrative approval of a project has long been a headache for investors in China. Fortunately, that is likely to be no longer the case in the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone in Fujian province.

In a bid to further ax bureaucratic red tape, authorities of the local Party Working Committee set up a special office responsible for project assessment and approval on Oct 16.

This is a vital step in the reform of Pingtan’s administrative examination and approval, as it will reduce the approval time of a project from 256 days to 100 days, said the Pingtan Times.

Also, a project investor used to have to run a lot of errands to collect 99 affixed seals from various authorities to get the green light. But with the revolutionary establishment of the office, it now only needs one final stamp.

The office is named “Mashang Office”, meaning “doing things the right away”. The name is inspired by a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who then was the Party Secretary of Fuzhou city in the 1990s.

During an inspection of Fuzhou’s Mawei economic development district, Xi urged local authorities to improve work efficiency and handle affairs right the first time.

Mashang Office is a reform of the current popular administrative approval mode in China, said Zhuo Huabin, the office’s director.

“From now on, the office is responsible for all the approval procedures of a project,” he said.

For foreign investors, the office will provide a special agent who will help them go through all approval procedures.