The Ministry of Natural Resources ("MNR") has recently distributed the Announcement on Cancelling a Batch of Certification Items (the "Announcement"), deciding to scrap 14 certification items which do not apply immediately from the date this Announcement is made.
The Announcement clearly states that two certification items established in departmental rules, namely the proof of Chinese parties' controlling shareholding and the evidence for no safety or quality accidents in the most recent five years, will be cancelled, adding that a joint venture or a cooperative enterprise will not be asked to provide a supporting document to prove that it is controlled by a Chinese investor, when it applies for the surveying and mapping qualification, or to prove that it has no record of safety or quality accidents in the past five years, when it applies for the qualification for survey, design, construction and supervision of geological disaster control projects. Moreover, the Announcement states that another 12 certification items set up in normative documents, including the legal representative's resume or the document on his or her employment, and the surveying instrument calibration certificate, will be removed as well. An applicant will not be required to furnish the legal representative's resume or the document on his or her employment when it applies for the surveying and mapping qualification for the first time; instead, relevant matters will be supervised with the aid of the publicly available information on mining rights. Also, a letter for proof affixed with the official seal of a related entity will no longer be required for the application for applying the basic survey and mapping results.