Country to further simplify process to open foreign-invested enterprises

China will further simplify the process to set up foreign-invested enterprises to promote its high-standard of liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, the State Council decided at an executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

One-stop service and a single required form will be needed to file and register a foreign-invested enterprise. The whole process will be conducted online and free of charge. This practice, which will take effect on June 30, is expected to significantly shorten the time required fto start a foreign-invested enterprise.

Real-time sharing and coordinated management of information on foreign-invested enterprises will be promoted among the banking, customs, taxation and foreign exchange authorities. Government inspection will also be strengthened to ensure that measures are fully implemented.

In the Government Work Report this year, Li said procedures to set up foreign-invested enterprises will be simplified and business filings and business registrations will be processed simultaneously together.

The premier said at the meeting that consolidating the filing and registration procedures for such enterprises is a matter of high significance. He called for all government departments concerned to fully collaborate and coordinate their work to make things easier for such enterprises.

According to the Commerce Ministry, over 35,600 foreign-invested enterprises were set up in 2017, up by 27.8 percent year-on-year. And foreign investment rose 7.9 percent from 2016, hitting a new high of 877.5 billion yuan ($137.6 billion).

Measures were also adopted at the meeting to establish a uniform e-platform for accessing government services and to have items that require an office visit to be done will be done in one place in a single visit.

All government services items will be put on this platform unless laws stipulate otherwise or to protect confidentiality. The government will remain committed to a unified e-platform for all government services and link separate networks. In principle, no department will be allowed to set up an independent information system.

“Government services are to serve public good and hence must be universally accessible. Current technologies have made it possible to do many things online,” Li said.

“What’s important is to introduce a unified e-platform for all government services by link the separate networks. This should especially be the case for the portal websites of central government departments,” he said.

The State Council also decided that the procedures for accessing government services will be further simplified. There will be no repeated requirement for materials that can be shared and reused. Related procedures will be amended promptly. Electronic licenses will be more widely introduced, and their reciprocal recognition will be further promoted.

A uniform data sharing and exchange platform will be established. Agencies that fail to link up government information systems at different levels will lose eligibility to apply for new projects or funding for technical maintenance.

At least 90 percent of the services items offered by provincial-level authorities and 70 percent by city and county-level authorities will be accessible online before the end of 2019.