China Media Group:

In 2020, The CPC Central Committee and the State Council made more arrangements and deepened reforms to streamline administration, delegate authority, improve regulation, and optimize services. They also improved the business environment and brought out the vitality of market entities. So, can you specify what work the SAMR has done to improve the business environment? Thank you. 

Gan Lin：

Thank you for your question. Improving the business environment, especially by enhancing market regulation, is an important responsibility of the SAMR and an important task for the national system of market regulation. In 2020, we firmly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The SAMR drew up opinions on the implementation of the regulations on improving the business environment. Being fully dedicated to the continued improvement of the business environment, the national system of market regulation pushed forward reforms through innovative measures with the aim to streamline administration and delegate authority, improve regulation, and optimize services. We mainly carried out tasks in the following five aspects:

First, we deepened business system reform and fully realized that procedures for setting up a business can be handled online. The average time needed for setting up a business has been shortened to within four working days. We pushed for the closing of a business to also be handled online and widened the pilot reform to simplify procedures for closing a business. We trialed reforms in separating permits from business licenses in 18 different pilot free trade zones with full coverage. We pushed for the experiences of pilot projects to be duplicated and implemented more widely. We carried out the simultaneous issuance of electronic business licenses and electronic seals, promoted the use of electronic signatures for business licenses and "electronic business licenses plus electronic license information." We have continued to expand the scenarios where electronic business licenses can be used. 

Second, we eased production access. We delegated the approval of manufacturing licenses to provincial-level market regulation authorities for five categories of products, namely, concrete iron for construction use, cement, equipment for radio and TV transmission, counterfeit RMB banknote discriminating devices, and simply supported beams used on prestressed concrete bridges. We advanced reforms relating to qualification certifications of institutions for inspection and testing. We also trimmed the directory for compulsory certification. 

Third, we advanced progress in resuming work and production. Together with relevant departments, we introduced ten measures to support the resumption of work and production, offered guidance for increased aid and assistance to self-employed individuals, put forth more than 700 policies to offer help, and released the national standards for a health QR code. We strengthened the comparison of domestic and foreign standards for anti-pandemic supplies, streamlined compulsory certification procedures for export-oriented commodities to be sold at home, conducted verification and calibration works for enterprises across 18.54 million measuring instruments, and tested 350,000 batches of anti-pandemic supplies. We made efforts to manage fees related to enterprises and pushed for a total of 5.2 billion yuan of overcharged fees to be returned to enterprises. 

Fourth, we conducted competition-related law enforcement with strict measures. We bolstered law enforcement against monopolistic practices and unfair competition. We filed cases in accordance with the law to investigate enterprises that ran internet platforms and had been allegedly involved in monopolistic practices. We investigated and dealt with several major and typical cases including the monopoly of active pharmaceutical ingredients and false transactions. We seriously handled cases where enterprises that ran various platforms had failed to offer prior notification of concentration of undertakings according to law and cases involving unfair pricing. We concluded 108 monopoly-related cases, 7,371 unfair competition cases, 473 cases involving the investigation of concentration of undertakings, and we also investigated and dealt with 20,000 price offenses. We fully implemented the review system for ensuring fair competition and organized a thorough clean-up of policies and measures issued before 2019. As a result, we cleaned up 1.07 million policy items, and abolished and revised nearly 6,000 among them. 

Fifth, we improved regulatory practices. Working with 15 departments, we researched and formulated the List of Items for Joint Spot Checks by Market Regulation Departments, covering 74 items in 35 fields. We built the national enterprise credit information publicity system and put it into operation, conducting joint punitive actions on 982,000 companies that committed serious illegal and dishonest acts. 

We work to pursue a better business environment and there is no end to our work. Market regulators will step up efforts to build a market environment that is easier to have access to, fair and orderly for competition, and safe and trusted for consumers. We will work to make contributions to accelerating the building of a high-level market system, improving the socialist economic system, and creating a business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized. Thanks.