To expand reforms in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, the city’s Pudong New Area will test the “one integrated license” in 31 sectors, combining the previously required multiple licenses into one for market access, the State Council’s executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Nov 11.

The meeting also decided that construction, surveying and mapping qualification requirements will be slashed and optimized nationwide to energize the market and create conditions for expanding consumption and effective investments.

“The Pudong New Area is well positioned to roll out the pilot program, as it started to simplify licensing approval procedures in its Pilot Free Trade Zone as early as 2015,” said Premier Li. “It has gained fresh experience in scrapping undue restrictions, especially in addressing post-market access obstacles to business operations and in improving the business environment.”

It was decided at the meeting that 31 sectors in Pudong New Area, including e-commerce, construction projects, convenience stores, cafeterias, cinemas, gyms and bookstores, will start the integrated license reform, which will merge multiple licenses into one for market access. A total of 25 permit items under the responsibility of State Council departments will be processed and issued by the authorities in Pudong New Area to allow market entities to get up and running with one single permit effective nationwide.

“The 31 sectors covered in this first round of pilot reform are closely related to people’s daily lives and consumption. Large numbers of micro and small businesses are involved in the reform,” Premier Li said. “It is important to gain experience in this process.”

Holistic regulatory systems with better information sharing and efficient collaboration will be put in place to make regulation and enforcement more effective while minimizing inconvenience for businesses and individuals. Experience gained in this process will be summarized and then introduced nationwide.

“A fairly quick recovery has been realized this year. One important reason is that we have implemented macro policies and relief measures designed to resolve difficulties faced by market entities, and at the same time worked to foster an enabling business climate by meeting market needs,” Premier Li said. “Our efforts in these two aspects are mutually reinforcing and taken forward in parallel.”

Noting the myriad categories, grades, and approval procedures and high thresholds in the qualifications of construction companies and surveying and mapping units, the meeting decided to cut the number of qualification categories for engineering investigation, design, construction and supervision enterprises, from 593 to 245. The total number of surveying and mapping qualification categories and grades will be reduced from 138 to 20.

The meeting urged enhancing compliance oversight. The backlist approach will be strictly implemented. Any acute project quality and safety issues will be seriously dealt with pursuant to laws and regulations. The lifelong accountability system will be applied to ensure the quality and safety of construction projects and bolster healthy growth of the surveying and mapping industry.

“We are delegating powers to energize the market, and improving regulations to enhance enforcement quality. Our purpose is to foster an enabling business environment for market players,” the Premier said.