Lately, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ("MIIT") has issued the Administrative Measures for Announcement of Compliance with Standards for the Construction Materials Industry (the "Measures"), effective from January 1, 2018.
The Measures state that, enterprises that comply with the relevant standards may voluntarily apply for announcing their compliance with such standards for the construction materials industry. Alternatively, they may take the initiative to make their statements on the "Self-announcement Platform for Compliance with Standards in the Construction Materials Industry" on the MIIT's official portal to announce their compliance status. Further, the Measures provide that the MIIT or provincial competent authorities for industry may randomly select some enterprises that have made such announcements, and pay a visit to their business premises, within three days once they have been notified of the same, to temporarily check on the spot their efforts at staying in compliance with the relevant standards. Where the enterprise under inspection passes such sudden on-spot inspection, it will not be inspected for the same purpose within the upcoming twelve months. According to the Measures, where an enterprise that has announced its compliance status falls under any of four circumstances, such as "where it has suffered a major accident regarding the environment, quality or work safety", it shall be removed from the list of enterprises announced to be in compliance with the standards. Those enterprises removed from the list may apply again for announcing their compliance status or making statements on their own for the same purpose, after two years from the time when they are considered under corrective actions as being in compliance with the required standards.