Japanese Hirasawa Jun swiped his ID to check in at the high-speed rail terminal in Shanghai and got on the train swimmingly.

Having lived in Shanghai since 2014, Hirasawa was the first foreign expat in Lujiazui, part of Shanghai’s CBD, to get the new-generation permanent resident permit in September, which looks and functions just like Chinese ID card.

“I can use it for checking in at railway stations and airports through channels for Chinese residents,” said the director of Marubeni (Shanghai) Corp.

To help Shanghai become an international destination for science and technology, the Ministry of Public Security has allowed Shanghai to pilot a simplified procedure for granting expats permanent residence permits.

Foreigners can apply for the permit from the Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone or the administration committee of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Senior executives of multinational companies like Hirasawa can enjoy swift processing, which previously took two years, in less than two months, said Xu Dejie, an official with the Oracle Bay, an HR consultancy in Lujiazui.

In addition to the permit service for the business elite, Shanghai has over 1,000 business incubators, which provide services for some 200,000 domestic and foreign entrepreneurs.

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission based its business incubator in XNode, a startup accelerator in downtown Shanghai. Daniel Zhan, the commission’s Landing Pad project manager, said it assisted Australian companies access the Chinese market.

Australian start-ups are keen to explore China’s health, AI, Web of Things, education, science and finance markets, said Zhan.

Half of the start-up businesses served by XNode are from overseas, said founder Zhou Wei.

“XNode has helped aspiring entrepreneurs from 24 countries and regions since it opened in 2015,” he said. It has also sourced 30 million U.S. dollars of start-up funding.

Another business incubator Histrong specializes in returned overseas Chinese talent.

“From medical and social insurance to fund sourcing, Histrong gives overseas Chinese entrepreneurs a sense of security of doing business in China,” said Zhu Zhenrong who, after living in the U.S. for over 20 years, set up Shanghai Sanoviv Biological Technology Co. Ltd. in June with Histrong’s help.

Chinese American Robin Young has lived in Shanghai since 2005. He set up AI firm Seedlink in 2013 to help companies in HR management.

“It’s all possible because we started in China. China is growing and has open policies for immigration,” Young said.

China’s first domestic remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can dive into a depth of 6,000 meters under water completed Saturday its maid deep sea test.

During its 12-day test, the vehicle made seven dives to a maximum depth of 5,611 meters. The ROV also carried out benthic organism observations and collected organizism and rock samples.

The ROV was co-produced by the Shenyang Institute of Automation and the Institute of Oceanology, both under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

It took two and a half years to make the vehicle, said Li Shuo, deputy director of the Shenyang Institute of Automation.

The ROV can be widely used in marine environmental and biodiversity investigation as well as marine mineral resources exploration.

China is now one of the few countries that can independently develop ROVs fit to operate in a depth of 6,000 meters, together with the United States, Japan and France.

Garbage bins on street in north China’s Shanxi Province have been given additional functions. They are safe and clean to sit on and can recharge your cell phone with solar power.

In the provincial capital of Taiyuan, some 500 of of new bins with trash classification containers have been put near bus stops.

Environmental workers love the bins because it is easy to extract the garbage.

City authorities said that more will be put on streets, upgraded with better functions such as ultraviolet light disinfection, free WiFi and screens with electronic street maps.

Bins are the latest way of demonstrating China’s innovative talent. In Jinan, capital of east China’s Shandong Province, there are garbage bins with sensors for opening and voice messages.

In Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, public garbage bins have QR codes for users to get credit rewards after they throw garbage in line with recycling requirements.

The price of a smart garbage bin can go from 3,000 yuan (450 U.S. dollars) to 100,000 yuan.

A smart garbage bin with solar-powered LED screen and WiFi transmitter, which appeared on streets of southwest China’s city of Chengdu, has been exported to Europe.

The guidelines released Saturday on green agriculture are significant for supply-side structural reform in the sector, a senior official has said.

The guidelines set goals for resource conservation and environmental protection in agriculture.

It is the first document on green agriculture published by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, according to Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu.

The overall goal is to maintain the area of arable land and prevent the quality of land from worsening, Han said.

By 2020, farmland quality should be improved by 0.5 grade on average, while the total arable land area should be no less than 124 million hectares, according to the guidelines. China grades its farmland quality on a scale of one to ten.

The government aims to prevent excessive exploitation of groundwater and improve irrigation.

The document set the target of zero growth chemical fertilizer and pesticide use in major crops by 2020. Forest coverage is to exceed 23 percent.

The comprehensive production capacity of grains should be stabilized at or above 550 million tonnes by 2020, with the quality of farm produce markedly improved.

Straw, animal waste and agricultural plastic film should be fully utilized, according to the guidelines.

The agricultural sector remains resource-intensive, with pollution and ecological degradation yet to be contained, while the supply of high-quality and green farm produce cannot satisfy growing demand, the document said.

Agriculture should be more sustainable, farmers better off, and the countryside more beautiful and liveable, it said.

The country will set up 40 pilot zones for agriculture sustainable development, according to Han.

After years of bumper harvests, China no longer struggles with food shortages, but structural problems remain: some agricultural products are over-supplied and some still rely heavily on imports, while homegrown produce struggles to compete with foreign rivals.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, last month released a guideline on supply-side structural reform in agriculture, specifying major tasks and targets for the coming years.

By 2020, China plans to have a modern system in the grain industry and raise the ratio of high-quality grain by around 10 percentage points.

The country is also eyeing an annual average expansion of around 7 percent in the added value of the industry, with the increase of the grain processing rate to 88 percent. By 2020, the number of grain companies with annual business revenue of more than 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) should exceed 50, the State Council said.

Major tasks include invigorating leading enterprises, creating new growth models and speeding up restructuring and upgrading.

The State Council stressed that more fiscal, tax and financing support should be extended to the industry, and favorable policies in land and power use should be put in place.

Xi Jinping and other 47 leaders of Communist Party of China (CPC) membership have been elected delegates to the Party’s 19th National Congress that is to open on Oct. 18.

Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, was elected delegate by a unanimous vote at the 12th CPC Guizhou provincial congress in April.

The announcement of Xi’s election by more than 730 provincial congress delegates won long and warm applause.

Other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, were elected delegates in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province, Hunan Province and Shaanxi Province, respectively.

They were all nominated by the CPC Central Committee as candidates for delegates.

These places are either major battlefield of poverty alleviation, important points on the “Belt and Road” or ethnic minority regions.

The choice of places or electoral units where Party and state leaders participate in elections should strengthen Party governance, assist in implementing national development strategies and allow the voices of grassroots Party members and the people to be heard.

Party and state leaders did not participate in elections in places such as their native homes or where they have worked, except for that they hold concurrent posts as Party secretaries of electoral units. Leaders from ethnic minority regions can participate in autonomous regions, according to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The fact that Party and state leaders, especially members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, participate in elections in underdeveloped provinces and regions densely populated by ethnic minorities sets an example in the implementation of the Party and state’s major development strategies, said Professor Zhu Lingjun with CPC Central Committee Party School.

The leaders are the “key few” of the Party’s “key few.” The arrangement is important to forming a sound political atmosphere and motivating cadres and citizens, said Professor Wang Yukai, with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

“We will try to translate General Secretary Xi’s concerns and the CPC Central Committee’s poverty eradication policies into better lives which the people can see and enjoy,” said Yang Bo, a provincial delegate and a village official in Guizhou, adding that he is confident of leading his village out of poverty.

The election of the 48 leaders shows the people’s support for the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core, recognition for the leadership’s capability and shared aspirations for the future of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

A total of 2,287 delegates have been elected to attend the five-yearly national congress on behalf of more than 89 million Party members and 4.5 million grassroots Party organizations.

Delegates will decide on a new blueprint for development. They will also elect a new central committee and a new anti-graft body.