Govt to issue policies easing businesses’ concerns

The State Council released a document on Nov 8 focusing on improving the business environment, urging policies to be accurately carried out regarding easing enterprises’ burdens.

Fairness is highlighted on the list of priorities. A revised negative list must be finished and put into practice by the end of 2018, which will lower the market threshold for social capital in civil aviation, railroad and other areas, and give the green light to more projects that represent public-private partnerships.

A slew of favorable policies to help relieve financing difficulties for medium-sized, small and micro enterprises should be issued and implemented in a timely manner, local protection and administrative monopolies should be eradicated, and government credit must be enhanced, as requested in the document.

Opening-up is set to be increased to a higher level. It is asked that access limitation outside the negative list for foreign investment be canceled before next March. Large-scale foreign investments eligible for major project development plans will receive support such as land and sea-use approval procedures. Quickened custom clearance procedures and export rebates are also urged.

Moreover, cutting red tape in administrative approval must be stepped up, and a unified government service mode should be spread nationwide.

Fees will be reduced in a more extensive way, especially in logistics, certification, inspection and testing and public use sectors. Illegal charges from industry associations, intermediate agencies and institutions under government departments should be stopped, so as to eliminate unreasonable margins for enterprises. The burden of the social insurance rate also needs to be cut down for enterprises.

Meanwhile, protection to intellectual property rights will also be scaled up. The censoring period for trademark registration should be compressed to six months, and regulations over law enforcement in online shopping, export and import should be formulated before the year’s end.

Divisions of responsibility for supervision and organization are made explicit to ensure the policies are thoroughly enacted.