25 Key Tasks! General Office of the State Council Issued the Plan, Further Deepening the Reform of “Delegation, Regulation, and Service”

The General Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued The key Tasks Division Plan of the Nationwide Deepening the Reform of “delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services”, focusing on cultivating and stimulating the vitality of market entities teleconference (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), making deployments for deepening the reform of delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services and improving the business environment.

(Picture source: CFP.CN)

The Plan clarifies 25 key tasks in five areas.

1. Confront the needs of the market entities, adopt new approaches in implementing macro policies, and deepen the reform of delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. Ensure to implement a normal practice of the direct mechanisms of financial funds and direct tools of monetary policy. Increase the supply of infrastructures such as water, power, gas, heat, transportation, and telecommunications, improving the quality of service. We will strengthen the guarantees of compulsory education, basic medical care, basic housing, and improve the systems of unemployment security and basic rights of the workers in flexible employment.

2. Devote great efforts to create a market-oriented business environment. We will make efforts to reduce the procedures, documents, time, and expenses required for a government review of applications by enterprises, advance the reform for separating operating permits from business licenses, and revise and release a new negative list for market access. Reform of the approval system for investment and construction field will be furthered. The mechanism for market entities to exit will be improved, and the coverage of simplified procedures for deregistering will be expanded. Full coverage of fair competition review, and regulate monopoly and unfair competition will be promoted. Efforts will be made to improve the regulation systems, deeply advance the “double random, one open” regulation, the comprehensive inter-agency regulation, the Internet plus regulation and the credit risk classification regulation. And implement key regulations in areas involving security production, people's health and life safety, ensuring quality and security. Advance the standardization, formalization and facilitation of administrative services. We will work to provide high-frequency services like long-distance medical treatment on an inter-provincial basis, improve the services like vehicle detection and notarization.

3. Devote great efforts to create a law-based business environment. Set up a legal system for the business environment. We will fully protect all types of property rights in accordance with the law, and strictly implement the punitive compensation system for intellectual property infringement. We will improve the long-term mechanism for preventing and resolving late payments to small and medium businesses. We will work to ensure that law enforcement is strict, procedure-based, impartial, and civil. And tough steps will be taken to end arbitrary charges, fines, and quotas from the source.

4. Devote great efforts to create an internationalized business environment. We will strengthen alignment with relevant international rules and adopt higher standards in trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, Improve the foreign investment promotion and service system, reduce and improve the negative list of foreign investment access, and facilitate high-level foreign talents to come to China for entrepreneurship and innovation. We will improve the foreign trade development environment, overhaul and standardize port charges, and deepen the construction of a "single window" in international trade.

5. Further enhance the sense of responsibility and promote the reform implementation effective. We will strengthen the overall planning for reform, continue to promote the reform of “delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services” as a whole, and improve the overall effectiveness of reforms. We must regulate the business environment review, guard against pointless formalities, and avoid burdening local government and market entities.

Creating a fine business environment is a key link in China's current economic development, and it is also a reform measure that China has made in recent years to improve its intensity in all aspects. The Party Central Committee and State Council pay high attention to deepening the reform of delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services, improving the business environment, and move faster to create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.

The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) was held in Beijing from September 4 to 9 with the theme of “Global Services, Shared Prosperity”. On the Summit Forum "Trade Facilitation in Services: Perspective of the Multinationals" during the 2020 CIFTIS, Zhang Junkuo, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that at present and in the future, China would focus on promoting reforms in four areas in promoting the service industry expansion and the service trade facilitation:

1. We will further improve the negative list management system. We will combine the service trade facilitation with stabilizing foreign investment and expanding domestic demand, relax the access mechanism, and promote the service trade market access system for overseas consumption.

2. We will improve the national treatment system before and after the admission of foreign capital. In accordance with the principle of consistency between domestic and foreign investment, we will comprehensively overhaul the separate restrictions on foreign investment that are not on the negative list of foreign investment access. We will promote fair treatment for foreign-funded enterprises in terms of land supply, tax reduction and exemption, standard- setting, listing and financing, job title evaluation, and human resources policies. We will ensure that domestic and foreign-funded enterprises have equal access to capital, technology, human resources, land use rights, other production factors and public service resources in accordance with the law.

3. We will strengthen legal guarantees for the high-level opening of the service industry. We will strengthen benchmarking with international advanced rules, use more legal methods to promote the high-level opening of the service industry and service trade facilitation, and speed up the comprehensive review and revision of laws and regulations that are inconsistent with the foreign investment law.

4. We will improve the operational and post-operational regulation system in line with the negative list management model. The relationship between the high-level opening of the service industry, the service trade facilitation and service regulation should be handled well, and efforts should be made to strengthen the regulation mechanism and capacity building during and after the process. In view of the characteristics and development trends of different service industries, we will improve the policy and regulation system, improve the new credit-based regulation mechanism, and further explore and improve the inclusive regulation system.

On the Summit Forum “Trade Facilitation in Services: Perspective of the Multinationals” during the 2020 CIFTIS, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan said that China would continue to optimize the business environment in the service sector, comprehensively deepen the pilot service trade innovation in Beijing, accelerate the build-up of a digital, cultural, and Chinese medicine characteristic service export base. Meanwhile, we will continue to relax market standards in the service sector. We will fully implement the pre-access national treatment plus a negative list management system, further reduce the negative list for foreign investment access, introduce a negative list for cross-border service trade, and promote the reform of “delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services” in the service sector to create more fairness, openness, and attractive investment environment.

(Picture source: Development Research Center of the State Council)