Ten government bodies, including the Standardization Administration of China ("SAC"), have recently issued the Guiding Opinions on Creating and Developing the Standardization Service Sector (the "Opinions").
The Opinions state that by 2020, a thorough standardization service system, a market environment with orderly competition, and a complete regulatory mechanism, will basically come into being, and the standardization service sector will turn into one of the most dynamic fields in the science and technology service industry; at that time, the effects of "standardization plus" will be further revealed, and the standardization services will be deeply integrated with the economic and social development, making a much greater contribution to the economic and social development. To achieve this end, the Opinions map out an array of tasks, including creating market players in the standardization service sector, bettering the ecosystem for the standardization service sector, encouraging the integrated development of the standardization service sector and other related sectors, and forming a sound market environment for the standardization service sector. Moreover, the Opinions stress the need to optimize laws, regulations, standards, credit, and other institutional rules relating to the standardization service sector, and to tighten market supervision for the standardization service sector by exploring ways of establishing in-process and ex-post regulatory mechanisms.