The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has recently issued the Decision on Revising Certain Rules and Normative Documents Including the Interim Measures for the Administration of State-owned Assets of Public Institutions (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for public comment by October 19, 2018.
According to the Draft for Comment, five rules and normative documents, including the Interim Measures for the Administration of State-owned Assets of Public Institutions and the Interim Measures for the Administration of State-owned Assets of Central-level Public Institutions, are amended this time. In particular, a new article is introduced under the Draft for Comment as Article 57 into the Interim Measures for the Administration of State-owned Assets of Public Institutions, reading: "research and development institutes established by the State and institutions of higher learning may decide at their own discretion on whether to transfer, license or make investment with, the scientific and technological achievements they hold, without the need to report such transactions to the competent authority and the department of finance for examination and approval or for record-filing; income derived from the transformation of scientific and technological fruits will be all retained by themselves". Accordingly, the original Article 57 through Article 60 are renumbered in sequence as Article 58 through Article 61.