China will promote the notification commitment system for certificates and business licenses within regions and departments at all levels, after it has been previously trialed in pilot regions, according to the State Council’s executive meeting, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, on Oct 21.

"Replacing certificates with the system is necessary for continuing the action on facilitating the people with less certificates and separating certificates from business licenses," said Premier Li, adding the reform will not only facilitate enterprises and people, stimulate market vitality and social creativity, but also help build a faithful society and push for long-term progress.

Positive achievements have been made since the trials of the system began in May 2019 in 13 provinces and municipalities and five departments of the State Council. The Premier called for a thorough summary of the piloting experience before fully implementing the notification commitment system.

To facilitate people with less certificates, Premier Li stressed the need to promote the notification commitment system as soon as possible in areas related to people’s livelihood and enterprises’ production activity, administrative services in high demands or certificates that are not easy to acquire, especially for household registration management, operation permits of market entities and social security insurance, the Premier said.

He added the system will not be applied to matters concerning public security, ecological protection and personal health, and the list of applicable items should be published to the public.

"Local authorities and departments have been used to check accuracy through evidentiary materials, while the existence of fake certificates made the cost to separate true materials from false ones high," the Premier said, adding promoting the notification commitment system means applicants should be responsible for their commitments.

"Once commitments are found to be phony, untrue, or even fraudulent, the applicants will be punished according to related regulations," he said.

The all-around implementation of the notification commitment system is a test for local authorities and departments, especially for administrative institutions that directly deal with enterprises and people, Premier Li said.

"Though the system seems like a mild reform," the Premier said, "it reshuffles current interest patterns and benefits the construction of a credit-based society in the long run."

Premier Li said in the process of pushing forward the socialist market economy, the government should have the courage to eradicate obsolete red tape and foster new rules.

If an applicant is unwilling or unable to make a commitment, a certificate or permit must be submitted or requested in accordance with regulations. Those with bad credit records or false past commitments should not apply before credit is restored.

Applicants should take responsibility for their commitments, it was determined at the meeting. Once fake commitments are found, the application process will be terminated according to law, and applicants will be asked to make rectifications within fixed period of time or receive administrative punishment, or the decision will be canceled.

In addition, unfaithful applicants will have fraudulent commitments filed in their credit records, along with corresponding punishments for discredit.