The State Council has approved regulations on approving and record filing of enterprises’ investment projects.

The move is aimed at better regulating investment projects, speeding up the transfer of government’s function in investment governance and ensuring enterprises’ autonomy in making investments.

The investment projects affected by the new regulations are those in fixed assets made by enterprises in China.

And the approval process is targeted at investment projects involving national security issues, major productivity layout plans or strategic resources exploitation, and major public interests. The State Council will make adjustments or changes to the approval process according to related regulations.

All other projects need to follow the registration process and file records.

Except projects involved with national secrets, the regulations require that all investment projects should be processed through a national online supervision platform with transparent services.

The approval results will be released within 20 days of application. In addition, enterprises that cannot start the approved construction projects within two years will need to apply for an extension. The maximum extension period is one year.

The regulations will be implemented starting on Feb 1, 2017.