Recently, three departments, including the State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR"), have jointly issued the Several Opinions on Supporting the Building of China (Hainan) Pilot Free Trade Zone (the "Opinions").
The Opinions call for efforts to: 1. promote the registration system reform under which the self-declaration plays as the dominant approach; 2. promote the quality assurance mechanism mainly aimed at strengthening the building of infrastructure and the institutional innovations; 3. spur the innovation in the in-process and ex-post regulatory system under which credit restraints will be adopted as a major measure; 4. facilitate the formation of a fair, orderly, secure and assuring market environment; 5. support and promote the improvement to the intellectual property protection and application system; and 6. endorse the better guarantee via legal system and information system. Further, the Opinions expressly state that measures will be taken to support the launching of the pilot reform of applying the direct registration to enterprises from foreign countries (regions) in Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ); and in certain areas of Hainan support will be provided to explore ways of operating the administrative licensing immunity system among those directly-registered enterprises from foreign countries (regions), by means of the legislation for commercial affairs in the special economic zone.