China's top economic planning agency has issued detailed rules aimed at standardizing the process of approving investment in the production of mobile phones and wireless telecom systems.

Companies planning to make switching equipment, base station equipment, and mobile phones that support the GSM, CDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA standards in China must receive approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the agency said in a notice posted on its Web site.

Previously, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) implemented a strict examination and approval system for mobile phone production in China, according to a report in the China Securities Journal on Monday.

Under the NDRC rules, firms applying to make mobile phones or mobile terminal products must have registered capital of at least 200 million yuan (US$24.15 million), while applicants aiming to make wireless telecom system equipment must have no less than 300 million yuan in registered capital.

Applicants should be companies specializing in research, development, production and sales of electronic information products that have been established for more than three years, the NDRC said. The firms should also have relatively strong financial capability and be able to set up effective after-sales security systems, it said.

Applicants aiming to make mobile phones must also set up a research and development center capable of certain types of hardware design and software development, the notice said.

The NDRC said it would consult with the MII after receiving applications.