The State Council has said it will reform the approval system of construction projects, according to a circular released on March 26.

The reform will cover the whole process of approval, and will focus primarily on housing construction and urban infrastructure, the circular said.

The circular said the time it takes to examine and approve should be reduced to 120 working days, and that the examination and approval system should be connected to related systems by the end of 2019, completing a national construction project approval and management system by the end of 2020.

The circular also called for the streamlining of the approval process by canceling illegal, unreasonable and unnecessary approval items and delegating approval power.

Local governments should sort out all approval items before forming unified, national approval items, application materials and approval time limits.

The approval process should cover four phases: land use and planning permits, project permits, construction permits, and completion acceptance, according to the document.

A unified, national demonstration flow chart will be set, and approvals for small and medium-sized construction projects with social investment will be streamlined.

Administrative measures for joint reviews of construction projects will be formulated, according to the circular.

Local governments at or above prefecture level should establish approval systems covering all relevant local departments, and link them with the national approval-management system to realize real-time data sharing, said the circular.

Government should also provide single-window service and only request one application when approving.

Supervision and credit construction are also mentioned in the circular.