Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Optimising the Business Environment to Better Serve Market Entities

Source: The State Council of China (gov.cn), Guo Ban Fa 2020 No. 24, dated July 15, 2020

The General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Optimising the Business Environment to Better Serve Market Entities to all provincial governments and ministries. The preamble notes that the Party centre and State Council attach great weight to deepening the streamlining reform and optimising the business environment; that China’s business environment has improved markedly yet shortfalls remain, especially under the pandemic’s impact, with enterprises’ difficulties prominent; and that focusing on market entities’ concerns, benchmarking against international standards, breaking bottlenecks through reform, and building a market-oriented, law-based, internationalised business environment are important handles for stabilising the economy and securing the six guarantees. Twenty measures across six areas follow, summarised.

1. Continuously improve the ease of investment and construction

Optimise and rebuild the pre-approval process for investment projects: from handling project preliminaries as one matter, strengthen departmental coordination and the linkage of project approval with land use and planning, and where conditions allow, let project units submit one set of materials for feasibility study, land pre-review, site selection, environmental impact, safety and soil-water assessments, with government departments accepting, evaluating, approving and feeding back in unison, speeding project landing; optimise the national online investment platform so approval documents print online. Raise construction project approval efficiency: fully implement graded, classified management, and for small, low-risk new and expanded projects funded by social investment, government departments publish unified commencement conditions, enterprises commit after obtaining land, and departments issue certificates directly so work starts; bring approvals, filings, evaluations, intermediary and utility services onto the online platform with published standards and fees by year end. Advance multi-plan integration: coordinate spatial plans, connect and merge planning data, eliminate conflicts, unify surveying standards, and share survey results across land, planning, construction, acceptance and registration.

2. Further simplify production and operation approvals and conditions

Lower market entry thresholds: across construction, education, medical care and sports, clear away unreasonable conditions on enterprise qualifications, funds, share ratios, personnel and premises, with a ledger, measures, responsible parties and deadlines; study filing-based management of clinics to expand medical supply; have government accept maritime labour certificate applications directly without charging; simplify touring performance approvals online. Streamline industrial product management: delegate all remaining important industrial product production licence authority to provincial market regulators by year end; share motor vehicle production, sales, registration, repair, insurance and scrapping information; remove unreasonable restrictions on used-car dealers; align the NEV purchase-tax exemption and vehicle-vessel tax catalogues with the vehicle manufacturer announcement in one declaration. Lower small and micro enterprises’ costs: support one licence, many addresses reform; relax approval requirements on chain convenience stores’ food handling areas where conditions allow; explore changing the food operation licence for pre-packaged food sales into filing; publish standards for shop signage and lighting; guide platform firms to lower commissions and payment fees charged to small and micro merchants while forbidding abuse of market dominance; reduce occupational-disease testing frequency for generally exposed employers; and replace cash deposits with insurance and guarantee letters in construction and government procurement.

3. Optimise the operating environment for foreign trade and investment

Raise customs clearance efficiency: advance declaration of import and export goods, with inspection and release once goods arrive at supervised sites; optimise the two-step declaration so enterprises may collect goods after summary declaration and risk screening; pilot ship-side direct pickup and port-arrival direct loading; monitor and trace all inspection work, letting enterprises choose whether to accompany inspections; and forbid ports from crude daily traffic limits or declaration controls to shorten clearance times. Expand the single window for international trade: extend it from clearance enforcement to port logistics and trade services, publish port, agent and tally charges online, accept regulatory certificates through the window in principle, and enable online payment and self-printing of documents. Reduce foreign trade and investment restrictions: support exporters in selling domestically, letting self-declaration replace some domestic certifications and permitting products with equivalent international certification to market after written commitment; and authorise all prefecture-level and above cities to register foreign-invested enterprises.

4. Further lower employment and entrepreneurship thresholds

Optimise some industries’ entry conditions: cancel the road freight driver qualification exam except for dangerous goods, folding its content into driver licence training; reform the veterinary practitioner exam to let students of relevant majors sit it; and speed mutual recognition of pre-employment health checks. Promote talent flow and flexible employment: achieve online cross-region verification of professional titles by June 2021 and encourage mutual recognition; guide firms with needs into shared employment, raising allocation efficiency; unify unemployment insurance transfer procedures and simplify claims; and set reasonable vending sites balancing management and freedom. Improve inclusive and prudent regulation of new business forms: assess issued policies, clear unreasonable measures; relax internet diagnosis and treatment further, include qualifying internet medical services in medical insurance reimbursement, publish national approval standards, and speed innovative device review; unify intelligent connected vehicle autonomous driving test standards for national mutual recognition, publicise test services and fees, simplify notices and extend them without retesting; and lower the surveying qualification threshold for navigation electronic map making. Increase application scenarios for new forms: encourage localities to build supply-demand platforms for new technologies and products in city governance, public services and government affairs; pilot intelligent connected vehicle demonstrations on suitable roads and at airports, ports and parks; and establish data opening rules for government and public institutions, opening transport, road administration, medical and elderly care data orderly.

5. Raise the quality and efficiency of enterprise services

Make opening and running a business convenient: full online enterprise registration, smarter name self-declaration checks, and faster electronic business licences and seals across tax, social security, housing funds and banking; relax registration premises limits for small and micro firms and individual businesses; explore one industry, one licence reform, merging multiple licences into one with cross-region recognition; sort mandatory newspaper announcements, studying cancellation or free online publication; and accelerate cross-province handling of government services. Keep raising tax services: basically achieve electronic VAT special invoices by year end, move main tax services online, simplify preferential tax declaration with approval steps generally removed, share data among tax, customs and the central bank, speed export tax rebates, and promote paperless filing. Raise trademark registration efficiency: increase data update frequency and intelligent retrieval, achieve online graphic comparison, shorten opposition and review cycles, and compress average registration review to within four months by year end. Optimise movable property financing: guide commercial banks to support small and medium firms’ financing secured by receivables, equipment, products, vehicles, ships and IP, and build an electronic database indexed by guarantor name for online query, modification and cancellation of registration status.

6. Improve long-term mechanisms for the business environment

Establish and improve policy evaluation: issue guiding opinions, take policy effect evaluation as the focus, build long-term mechanisms for before-and-after evaluation of major policies, and make policies more scientific, precise, practical and effective. Build regular government-enterprise communication: maintain regular contact with enterprises and industry associations, improve enterprise services, build a one-network intake and graded handling of business environment appeals, advance reform by letting enterprises order the dishes, integrate government service hotlines, and standardise intake, transfer, supervision, feedback and evaluation. Deliver enterprise-benefiting policies: localities publish policy lists and push them precisely by industry and scale, county governments publish responsible persons and contacts for policies they issue, implement delivery to named persons, encourage no-application-needed enjoyment through data sharing, and for policies requiring application set and publicise reasonable conditions, simplify procedures, and achieve one declaration, full online handling and fast delivery.

All regions and departments should implement the tasks earnestly, study more practical reform measures around market entities’ needs, and report implementation to the State Council by year end. Where reform involves legal adjustments, advance legislation, amendment and repeal per the requirement that major reform rest on legal basis. The General Office will strengthen guidance, coordination and supervision to ensure the measures land and take effect.

Original link: gov.cn policy content 5528615.

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