This year’s government work report stressed deepening reforms in key fields to further stimulate the vitality of market players. By April, the number of market entities in China had increased to over 140 million. Following are the measures introduced this year to foster and stimulate the vitality of market entities.
Unleashing vitality
01 Nationwide reform of separating business licenses from administrative permits
Nationwide list management system was set to include all items related to enterprises’ business license since July 1, in an effort to help market entities apply for permits. Enterprises should not be restricted from doing business in relevant industries outside the list.
Efforts were stepped up to reduce required permits and certificates from enterprises with business licenses and streamline administrative approvals. Among 523 items related to enterprises’ business license set by the central government, 68 are annulled, 15 are transformed into record-filing items, and 37 are transformed into notification and commitment items. Measures to optimize approval services for other items include delegating examination and approval permission, simplifying requirements and documents, optimizing approval procedure, and reducing approval times. Pilot reforms in free trade zones are also being intensified.
02 Promoting on-the-spot registration
Efforts are made to facilitate convenient registration for market entities and promote on-the-spot, one-stop, online, fast and interprovincial processing of registration applications. Application materials that meet requirements are registered on the spot, otherwise, within three working days. Electronic and paper business licenses have the same legal effect.
Materials and registration procedures should be streamlined. Registration authority will not require applicants to provide information that can be obtained through government information sharing platforms. If application materials are not complete or do not conform to legal requirements, registration authority should inform the applicant of the materials to be supplemented and corrected at one time.
03 Easier market entity cancellations
Market entities without claims and debts, and unpaid wages, social security expenses and due tax can be canceled with summary procedures. Individual businesses do not need to make public announcements.
04 Market entities with management difficulty can register for suspension
If a market player falls into difficulty due to natural disasters, accidents, or public health events, it may decide on its own to suspend business for a certain period of time and report to the registration authority. Maximum period of suspension should not exceed 3 years.
05 Flexible employment personnel can participate in social insurance
Policies and measures for flexible employment personnel should be improved, and household registration restrictions for participation in social insurance should be lifted. Trials of occupational injury insurance should be accelerated, and coverage of work-related injury insurance should be expanded to protect the legitimate rights and interests of flexible employment personnel.
Measures should be taken to advance trials of occupational injury insurance focusing on workers in industries such as transportation, food delivery and fast delivery.
06 Lower employment threshold
Number of vocational qualifications with access will be further sorted out and reduced. Vocational qualifications such as rural veterinary and registered petroleum and gas exploration and design engineer are canceled. Identification for socialized vocational skill level should be promoted, and national catalog of professional qualifications should be continuously improved. Work experience requirements for taking exams for some vocational qualifications with access should be reasonably relaxed or canceled.
07 Further remove market barriers
Illegal restrictions on non-local second-hand vehicles will be cleaned up with limits on sales of second-hand vehicles relaxed. Standards will be put in place for qualification certification of enterprises that recycle and dismantle scrapped vehicles, and support qualified businesses to enter the market.
Market entry restrictions on tourism and homestay inns should be lifted.
A guide on approval procedures for cross-region art performance tours should be made, to help producers’ cross-regional business.
Improve regulation to achieve fairness
01 Resolutely address arbitrary charges on enterprises
State Administration for Market Regulation launched a special campaign to curb arbitrary charges and reduce burden on enterprises, strengthening supervision of enterprise-related fees. Priority was given to charges by intermediary agencies, industry associations, chambers of commerce, and transportation and logistics.
02 Clarify regulatory requirements for market entity registration
Market entities should implement real-time registration and be held accountable for authenticity, legality and validity of materials submitted. They should also disclose annual reports and registration-related information in line with relevant regulations. Market entities will see their registration revoked if they are found to have provided falsified materials or committed other fraudulent acts during registration. Persons in direct charge should not apply for registration again within three years.
Registration departments should exercise graded and category-based oversight in light of credit status of market entities. In terms of supervision over registration items, targets and inspectors should be selected randomly, and results should be made public.
03 Strengthen supervision and guidance on platform enterprises
Supervision and guidance on platform enterprises will be intensified to promote fair and orderly competition. They should do more to improve service agreements and trading rules in accordance with laws and regulations, reasonably determine fees, and upgrade management services.
04 Intermediary agencies to offer more standardized services
Violations by administrative authorities, such as setting hidden barriers to help intermediary agencies launch monopoly services or impose intermediary service fees for government review and approval on enterprises, should be strictly investigated and addressed.
Supervision over intermediary agencies should be intensified. They should be urged to make public their service conditions, procedures, time frames and charges. Arbitrary charges and higher payments in disguised forms should be resolutely punished.
Upgraded services to boost efficiency
01 Faster, more convenient patent and trademark registration, examination
Processing time for general trademark registrations will be shortened from 8 months to 7 months; for high-value patent applications it will be reduced to 13.8 months by the end of this year.
Online digital application of prioritized patent review and pledges registration will be advanced.
Digital trademark registration certificates and patent certificates will be promoted. Review time will be significantly shortened for patents for invention, and alteration and extension of trademarks whose applications were made online.
02 Notary services to further benefit enterprises and people
Certification materials for notarization will be further simplified, with efforts to set up a list of materials required and one-time notification system by the end of the year.
Materials that can be verified by valid personal certificates or shared information among ministries should not require repeated submissions, and the method of notification-commitment should be implemented on the frequently used notary items that are closely related to people's lives and production of enterprises.
Green channels for notarization will be opened for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and "one-on-one" services will be provided for expanding financing and capital turnover.
03 Optimized approval services for enterprises
Materials and procedures for administrative record-filing should be clarified. Through national administrative service platforms, more items concerned with enterprises will be dealt with online, and business service process will also be more simplified and improved. Reducing procedures, materials, time and fees will be advanced to lower institutional costs.
04 Easier access to tax, fee benefits
Review procedures for tax refunds from national treasury will be optimized gradually to become more intelligent and automatic. Application procedures for businesses enjoying preferential tax and fees policies will be simplified, and the scope of self evaluations, applications and post-supervision will be continuously expanded.
05 More standardized accreditation and evaluation
Evaluation system for accreditation should be regulated for a nationally unified accreditation system. Improve accreditation mechanism for government, industries and society, and promote recognition of accredited results among different departments, levels and regions.
Statistics showed that annual average number of new market entities exceeded 10 million since 2013, and registered market entities increased 1.6 times, from nearly 55 million in 2012 to 143 million in April.
Premier Li Keqiang said that market entities are important forces in economic and social development and the people are true heroes, at a national teleconference on deepening reforms to streamline administration and delegate powers, improve regulation and upgrade services, and the development of market entities.
