Recently, the State Council has announced the Catalogue of Administrative Licensing Items Decided to Be Cancelled (the "Catalogue of Cancelled Items") and the Catalogue of Administrative Licensing Items with Approval Levels Decided to Be Decentralized (the "Catalogue of Decentralized Items").
According to the Catalogue of Cancelled Items, the State Council decides to cancel 29 administrative licensing items, including, among others, "the verification and issuance of opinion letter on foreign investment in the operation of telecommunications business", "examination and approval of interbank bond market bilateral quoters", and "verification and issuance of enterprise bank account opening license". At the same time, the Catalogue of Cancelled Items also contains provisions on the examination and approval departments, setup basis and the measures for strengthening in-process and ex-post supervision. In addition, the Catalogue of Decentralized Items specifies the names of four administrative licensing items that are decentralized by the State Council, the examination and approval departments, setup basis, the new examination and approval departments after the decentralization, and the measures for strengthening in-process and ex-post supervision. For example, the examination and approval authority for the "examination and approval of qualifications for the retail sale of refined petroleum products" has been delegated from provincial commerce departments to designated departments of the people's governments of the cities divided into districts.