The General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources ("MNR") has recently issued the Circular on Improving the Network Operation and Maintenance Environment for Information Platforms and Facilitating the Sharing and Integration of Real Property Registration Information (the "Circular").
The Circular states that great efforts will be made, based on the optimized real property registration flowchart, to enable all cities at and above the prefecture level across the whole country and certain counties where conditions permit, to complete in steps and at three different levels the work on optimizing the layout of information platforms and safeguarding their security, in two to three years, adding that information connectivity and sharing and "internet plus real property registration" will be advanced via overall efforts, in a bid to dramatically simplify registration documents, cut costs of registration, shorten the time frame required for such registration, and boost efficiency of the registration process. To this end, the Circular outlines five tasks, among which are "developing online service halls for real property registration through which registration applications will be accepted through one window and then processed simultaneously by different departments, and promoting online filing of applications, intensive acceptance of applications and self-service inquiries" and "shifting, in a positive and steady manner, certain functions in relation to real property registration, including examination, entry in registration database and certificate preparation, into government extranets, and strengthening interconnections of departmental systems and information interconnectivity. The Circular also stresses that, authorities shall endeavor to complete the integration and aggregation of historical data on existing registration in relation to the right to use state-owned construction land and the house ownership, by the end of 2020.