The General Office of the State Council has recently issued the Opinions on Further Compressing the Time for Starting a Business (the "Opinions").
The Opinions state that, by the end of 2018, the length of time required to start a business shall be halved at least in all municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities separately listed in the State plan, sub-provincial cities and provincial capitals, reduced from the current 20 working days on average to 8.5 working days, and this objective will be achieved within the first half of 2019 across the whole nation. Further, the Opinions outline major tasks and work measures to achieve the aforesaid objective. To be specific, the first is revising the procedures and vigorously promoting the "one single window for multiagency services". The second is streamlining corporate registration formalities, in a bid to shorten the time required for the incorporation registration for enterprises to five working days or less. The third is incorporating the record-filing for producing official seals into the reform of "consolidating multiple certificates into one business license" and requiring the entity in charge of seal production shall get the official seal ready within one working day. The fourth is optimizing procedures for newly-established enterprises to obtain invoices, reducing the length of time for a newly established enterprise to claim for invoices for the first time to less than two working days. The fifth is making improvements to the procedures for enterprises to register for social insurance.