The National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") has recently issued the Administrative Measures for Investment Consulting and Appraisals (the "Measures") which will go into effect from January 1, 2019.
The Measures provide that, the NDRC will pick over appropriate investment consulting and appraisal agencies through competition among such agencies, and establish and dynamically manage the "short list" of vendors. Two major groups in charge of investment consulting and appraising affairs, namely the "consulting and appraisal for the investment examination and approval" and the "interim appraisal and post-evaluation of investment management", will be entrusted. Meanwhile, the Measures expressly state that, to be qualified to undertake a specific professional investment consulting and appraisal program, an appraisal agency must satisfy three requirements, such as "having been filed under record on the National Online Examination and Regulation Platform for Investment Projects and been placed on the published name list of engineering consulting agencies". After the acceptance of an appraisal task, the appraisal agency shall designate a head to take charge of this task, form an appraising team, prepare an appraisal schedule, provide regular feedback on the progress of this appraisal task, and submit an appraisal report within the designated time limit. In general, it shall complete an entrusted consulting and appraisal program within 30 working days.