On October 28, China Media Group (CMG) hosted a launch ceremony in Beijing for the 2024–2025 Urban Business Environment Innovation Report. Quanzhou was honored as an "Innovative City of the Year" for its urban business environment for 2024–2025. Quanzhou Mayor Cai Zhansheng attended the event, where he highlighted the city's business environment innovations during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and this year's accomplishments.

Mayor Cai Zhansheng emphasized that Quanzhou has consistently embraced, promoted, and innovatively developed the "Jinjiang Experience", prioritizing the optimization of its business environment as a key reform initiative. The city has enhanced its policy framework to support the high-quality development of the private sector and has been recognized for several consecutive years as a national innovative city for its urban business environment. Efforts have concentrated on market-oriented resource allocation, utilizing standardized industrial park development as spatial carriers, and advancing seven critical elements: innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, talent chain, land chain, legal chain, and service chain. These initiatives aim to reduce overall costs for the real economy and bolster private enterprises' confidence and commitment to invest and expand. Over the past four years, Quanzhou has revitalized more than 30,000 mu of idle and inefficient industrial land, constructed over 39 million square meters of factory space, and attracted more than 3,000 enterprises to its industrial parks. This has resulted in the "Three Reductions and Three Improvements": reducing project implementation cycles, lowering overall business costs, and minimizing environmental and safety risks for enterprises, while increasing land and factory utilization rates, enhancing industrial chain clustering, and improving supporting facilities within the parks.

Cai Zhansheng stated that as Quanzhou looks ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, the city will thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, alongside the significant speeches delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his visit to Fujian. The city plans to leverage the comprehensive pilot reform for the market-based allocation of production factors, focusing on the revitalization of land resources as a key driver. This approach aims to enhance the efficient allocation of all elements—industry, technology, talent, capital, data, and management—ensuring the orderly and efficient flow of every piece of land, every sum of capital, and every talent. This will empower entrepreneurs in Quanzhou to explore, invest, and compete with confidence.

This marks the sixth official release of the annual business environment report by CMG, which is the first third-party evaluation report on China's business environment initiated by the media. This year's report systematically evaluates the annual innovations in the business environment across 45 Chinese cities, including municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capitals, municipalities with independent planning status, and economically vibrant cities with GDP exceeding one trillion RMB. The assessment adopts the latest international trends in business environment evaluation and incorporates China's urban best practices, refining its perspective, criteria, and methodology accordingly. The highlights and practical experiences presented in the report aim to provide valuable insights into the business environment, supporting a successful start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.