Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment
Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment
Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment
Order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No.722
October 22, 2019
The Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment were adopted at the 66th Executive Meeting of the State Council on October 8, 2019, and are hereby released. These Regulations shall take effect on January 1, 2020.
Premier: Li Keqiang
Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 These Regulations are formulated for the purpose of continuously optimizing the business environment, constantly liberating and developing social productive forces, accelerating the construction of a modern economic system and promoting high-quality development.
Article 2 "Business environment" as mentioned in these Regulations refers to the institutional mechanism factors and conditions involved in the market economic activities of enterprises and other market entities.
Article 3 The State shall continue to deepen the reform of streamlining administration, delegating powers and optimizing services, minimize the direct allocation of market resources by the government and the direct intervention of the government in market activities, strengthen and regulate in-process and ex-post supervision, strive to improve the ability and raise the level of government services, effectively reduce institutional transaction costs, and further stimulate market vitality and social creativity, and enhance development drivers.
People's governments at all levels and their departments shall adhere to the openness and transparency of government affairs, take openness as the normal and non-openness as the exception, and comprehensively push forward the openness of decision-making, implementation, administration, services and results.
Article 4 The business environment shall be optimized with adherence to the principles of marketization, the rule of law and internationalization, by taking the needs of market entities as the orientation and deepening the transformation of government functions as the core, innovating systems and mechanisms, strengthening collaboration and linkage, perfecting the safeguard of the rule of law and benchmarking against the internationally advanced level, so as to create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable favorable environment for the investment and business development of all kinds of market entities.
Article 5 The State shall speed up the establishment of a unified, open modern market system with orderly competition, promote the free flow of various factors of production according to the law, and ensure the fair participation of various market entities in market competition.
Article 6 The State shall encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public economy and stimulate its vitality and creativity.
The State shall further expand the opening up of the country to the outside world, actively promote foreign investment, and treat domestic enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises and all other kinds of market entities equally.
Article 7 People's governments at all levels shall strengthen the organization and leadership of work to optimize the business environment, perfect policy measures for optimizing the business environment, establish and improve relevant mechanisms for coordinating, promoting, supervising, urging and implementing work to optimize the business environment, and promptly coordinate and solve major issues in the work to optimize the business environment.
Relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with their division of responsibilities, effectively carry out relevant work to optimize the business environment. Local people's governments at or above the county level may, in light of their actual situations, define competent departments for optimizing the business environment.
The State shall encourage and support all regions and all departments to actively explore original and differentiated specific measures to optimize the business environment within the framework of the rule of law and in relation to their actual situations; those who make mistakes or deviate in their exploratory work but meet the prescribed conditions may be exempted from or relieved of their responsibilities.
Article 8 The State shall establish and improve a business environment evaluation system which is oriented towards the satisfaction of market entities and the public, and give play to the leading, supervising and urging role of business environment evaluation in optimizing the business environment.
Business environment evaluation shall be undertaken in a way which does not affect the normal work of all regions and all departments or the normal production and operation activities of market entities or increase the burdens of market entities.
No entity may take advantage of business environment evaluation to seek benefits.
Article 9 Market entities shall abide by laws and regulations, observe social morality and business ethics, be honest, trustworthy and fair in competition, fulfill their legal obligations in respect of safety, quality, protection of workers' rights and interests, protection of consumers' rights and interests, and follow prevalent international rules in international economic and trade activities.
Chapter II Protection of Market Entities
Article 10 The State shall adhere to the principles of equal rights, equal opportunities and equal rules and safeguard that economies of all kinds of ownership be protected equally by the law.
Article 11 Market entities shall be entitled to the right of autonomous operation according to the law. No entity or individual shall intervene in various matters that should be decided independently by market entities according to the law.
Article 12 The State shall safeguard the equal use of capital, technology, human resources, land use rights and other natural resources and other production factors and public service resources by all kinds of market entities according to the law.
Development support policies of the State shall equally apply to all kinds of market entities according to the law. The government and its relevant departments shall treat all kinds of market entities equally according to the law in terms of government fund arrangement, land supply, tax reduction and exemption, qualification licensing, standards formulation, application for projects, professional title assessment, human resources policies, and so on, and shall not formulate or implement discriminatory policy measures.
Article 13 Tendering, bidding and government procurement shall be open, transparent, fair and just, and market entities of all kinds of ownership and different regions shall be treated equally according to the law, and shall not be subject to any restriction or exclusion by way of unreasonable conditions or place of origin of products, etc.
Relevant departments of the government shall strengthen the supervision of tendering, bidding and government procurement, and correct and investigate illegal acts according to the law.
Article 14 The State shall, according to the law, protect the property rights and other legitimate rights and interests of market entities, and protect the personal and property safety of enterprise operators.
It is strictly prohibited to seal up, freeze, detain or take other administrative compulsory measures against the properties of market entities and the personal properties of enterprise operators in violation of the legal authorities, conditions or procedures; where it is really necessary to take the above-mentioned administrative compulsory measures according to the law, such measures shall be limited to the scope necessary.
It is prohibited to require market entities to provide financial, material or human resources for apportionment which are beyond the provisions of laws and regulations. Market entities have the right to refuse any form of apportionment.
Article 15 The State shall establish a punitive compensation system against infringement of intellectual property rights, promote the establishment of a mechanism of quick and collaborative protection of intellectual property rights, improve diversified mechanisms for the settlement of intellectual property disputes and mechanisms of assistance in safeguarding intellectual property rights, and intensify the protection of intellectual property rights.
The State shall continue to deepen the reform of trademark registration and patent application facilitation, and improve the efficiency of trademark registration and patent application reviews.
Article 16 The State shall strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors, perfect the mechanism of protection of such rights and interests, safeguard the right to know and the right to participate of small and medium-sized investors, and improve the convenience of small and medium-sized investors in regard to safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests.
Article 17 Unless otherwise provided for in laws and regulations, market entities shall have the right to decide themselves whether to join or exit industry associations, chambers of commerce and other social organizations, and no entity or individual may interfere.
Unless otherwise provided for in laws and regulations, no entity or individual may force or force in disguised form market entities to participate in comparison-based appraisal, standards reaching, commendation, training, assessment, examination or similar activities, nor shall they charge or charge in disguised form market entities under the pretext of the aforementioned activities.
Article 18 The State shall promote the establishment of a national unified rights safeguarding service platform for market entities to provide efficient and convenient rights safeguarding services for market entities.
Chapter III Market Environment
Article 19 The State shall continuously deepen the reform of the commercial system, unify the norms of enterprise registration business, data standards and platform service interfaces, and adopt unified social credit codes for registration management.
The State shall promote the reform of "separation of license from certificates", continuously streamline enterprise-related business licensing items, adopt according to the law such methods as directly abolishing examination and approval, changing examination and approval to record-filing, implementing notification and commitment and optimizing examination and approval services to carry out categorical management of all enterprise-related business licensing items, and provide convenience for enterprises to conduct relevant business activities after they have obtained business licenses.
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Order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No.722
October 22, 2019
The Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment were adopted at the 66th Executive Meeting of the State Council on October 8, 2019, and are hereby released. These Regulations shall take effect on January 1, 2020.
Premier: Li Keqiang
Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 These Regulations are formulated for the purpose of continuously optimizing the business environment, constantly liberating and developing social productive forces, accelerating the construction of a modern economic system and promoting high-quality development.
Article 2 "Business environment" as mentioned in these Regulations refers to the institutional mechanism factors and conditions involved in the market economic activities of enterprises and other market entities.
Article 3 The State shall continue to deepen the reform of streamlining administration, delegating powers and optimizing services, minimize the direct allocation of market resources by the government and the direct intervention of the government in market activities, strengthen and regulate in-process and ex-post supervision, strive to improve the ability and raise the level of government services, effectively reduce institutional transaction costs, and further stimulate market vitality and social creativity, and enhance development drivers.
People's governments at all levels and their departments shall adhere to the openness and transparency of government affairs, take openness as the normal and non-openness as the exception, and comprehensively push forward the openness of decision-making, implementation, administration, services and results.
Article 4 The business environment shall be optimized with adherence to the principles of marketization, the rule of law and internationalization, by taking the needs of market entities as the orientation and deepening the transformation of government functions as the core, innovating systems and mechanisms, strengthening collaboration and linkage, perfecting the safeguard of the rule of law and benchmarking against the internationally advanced level, so as to create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable favorable environment for the investment and business development of all kinds of market entities.
Article 5 The State shall speed up the establishment of a unified, open modern market system with orderly competition, promote the free flow of various factors of production according to the law, and ensure the fair participation of various market entities in market competition.
Article 6 The State shall encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public economy and stimulate its vitality and creativity.
The State shall further expand the opening up of the country to the outside world, actively promote foreign investment, and treat domestic enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises and all other kinds of market entities equally.
Article 7 People's governments at all levels shall strengthen the organization and leadership of work to optimize the business environment, perfect policy measures for optimizing the business environment, establish and improve relevant mechanisms for coordinating, promoting, supervising, urging and implementing work to optimize the business environment, and promptly coordinate and solve major issues in the work to optimize the business environment.
Relevant departments of people's governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with their division of responsibilities, effectively carry out relevant work to optimize the business environment. Local people's governments at or above the county level may, in light of their actual situations, define competent departments for optimizing the business environment.
The State shall encourage and support all regions and all departments to actively explore original and differentiated specific measures to optimize the business environment within the framework of the rule of law and in relation to their actual situations; those who make mistakes or deviate in their exploratory work but meet the prescribed conditions may be exempted from or relieved of their responsibilities.
Article 8 The State shall establish and improve a business environment evaluation system which is oriented towards the satisfaction of market entities and the public, and give play to the leading, supervising and urging role of business environment evaluation in optimizing the business environment.
Business environment evaluation shall be undertaken in a way which does not affect the normal work of all regions and all departments or the normal production and operation activities of market entities or increase the burdens of market entities.
No entity may take advantage of business environment evaluation to seek benefits.
Article 9 Market entities shall abide by laws and regulations, observe social morality and business ethics, be honest, trustworthy and fair in competition, fulfill their legal obligations in respect of safety, quality, protection of workers' rights and interests, protection of consumers' rights and interests, and follow prevalent international rules in international economic and trade activities.
Chapter II Protection of Market Entities
Article 10 The State shall adhere to the principles of equal rights, equal opportunities and equal rules and safeguard that economies of all kinds of ownership be protected equally by the law.
Article 11 Market entities shall be entitled to the right of autonomous operation according to the law. No entity or individual shall intervene in various matters that should be decided independently by market entities according to the law.
Article 12 The State shall safeguard the equal use of capital, technology, human resources, land use rights and other natural resources and other production factors and public service resources by all kinds of market entities according to the law.
Development support policies of the State shall equally apply to all kinds of market entities according to the law. The government and its relevant departments shall treat all kinds of market entities equally according to the law in terms of government fund arrangement, land supply, tax reduction and exemption, qualification licensing, standards formulation, application for projects, professional title assessment, human resources policies, and so on, and shall not formulate or implement discriminatory policy measures.
Article 13 Tendering, bidding and government procurement shall be open, transparent, fair and just, and market entities of all kinds of ownership and different regions shall be treated equally according to the law, and shall not be subject to any restriction or exclusion by way of unreasonable conditions or place of origin of products, etc.
Relevant departments of the government shall strengthen the supervision of tendering, bidding and government procurement, and correct and investigate illegal acts according to the law.
Article 14 The State shall, according to the law, protect the property rights and other legitimate rights and interests of market entities, and protect the personal and property safety of enterprise operators.
It is strictly prohibited to seal up, freeze, detain or take other administrative compulsory measures against the properties of market entities and the personal properties of enterprise operators in violation of the legal authorities, conditions or procedures; where it is really necessary to take the above-mentioned administrative compulsory measures according to the law, such measures shall be limited to the scope necessary.
It is prohibited to require market entities to provide financial, material or human resources for apportionment which are beyond the provisions of laws and regulations. Market entities have the right to refuse any form of apportionment.
Article 15 The State shall establish a punitive compensation system against infringement of intellectual property rights, promote the establishment of a mechanism of quick and collaborative protection of intellectual property rights, improve diversified mechanisms for the settlement of intellectual property disputes and mechanisms of assistance in safeguarding intellectual property rights, and intensify the protection of intellectual property rights.
The State shall continue to deepen the reform of trademark registration and patent application facilitation, and improve the efficiency of trademark registration and patent application reviews.
Article 16 The State shall strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors, perfect the mechanism of protection of such rights and interests, safeguard the right to know and the right to participate of small and medium-sized investors, and improve the convenience of small and medium-sized investors in regard to safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests.
Article 17 Unless otherwise provided for in laws and regulations, market entities shall have the right to decide themselves whether to join or exit industry associations, chambers of commerce and other social organizations, and no entity or individual may interfere.
Unless otherwise provided for in laws and regulations, no entity or individual may force or force in disguised form market entities to participate in comparison-based appraisal, standards reaching, commendation, training, assessment, examination or similar activities, nor shall they charge or charge in disguised form market entities under the pretext of the aforementioned activities.
Article 18 The State shall promote the establishment of a national unified rights safeguarding service platform for market entities to provide efficient and convenient rights safeguarding services for market entities.
Chapter III Market Environment
Article 19 The State shall continuously deepen the reform of the commercial system, unify the norms of enterprise registration business, data standards and platform service interfaces, and adopt unified social credit codes for registration management.
The State shall promote the reform of "separation of license from certificates", continuously streamline enterprise-related business licensing items, adopt according to the law such methods as directly abolishing examination and approval, changing examination and approval to record-filing, implementing notification and commitment and optimizing examination and approval services to carry out categorical management of all enterprise-related business licensing items, and provide convenience for enterprises to conduct relevant business activities after they have obtained business licenses.
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