THE Central Government will do more to resolve the concerns of businesses, ensure full delivery of all pro-business policies and build a national Internet Plus regulation system to make government regulation smarter.

The decision was made at the State Council’s executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang yesterday, following the State Council’s inspection tour of businesses across the country.

The government places high importance on improving the business environment. Li pointed out that it is critical to deepen the reform of government functions in order to see notable improvement in the business environment, improve market exceptions and boost market confidence.

“We need to foster a market-driven, law-based business environment that meets international standards,” Li said. “The reform of government functions in the past several years has delivered real benefits to market entities. The international community also regards the improvement of our business environment as an important condition for cooperation with China.”

The government must redouble its efforts for a more enabling business environment by resolving the pressing concerns of businesses, delivering on all policy incentives and eliminating the obstacles to business development to bolster corporate confidence and competitiveness, the meeting decided.

Market access restrictions on private investors will be further eased. An updated version of the market access negative list will be released and fully implemented by the end of the year. All market access restrictions on foreign investors that are not on the negative list will be eliminated by March, creating a level-playing field for investors from both home and abroad.

The number of items subject to government approval will be cut. All existing items requiring government approval will be thoroughly reviewed, and a list of administrative review items will be released by the end of March when any administrative review conducted outside the list’s purview will be seen as a breach of regulation.

The reviewing procedures for corporate investment will be further streamlined. Measures for reforming the process of business registration cancellation will be formulated by the end of the year.

The meeting also urged for reducing the tax and fee burden on enterprises as well as their social security contribution rate. More concrete measures shall be formulated in these respects.

The government must enhance the efficacy of its services. These services must be standardized, the items subject to administrative penalty will be streamlined and measures to regulate the exercise of discretion will be formulated. No arbitrariness or a one-size-fits-all approach will be allowed in law enforcement.

“There is a direct linkage between the state of a business environment and efforts of the government,” Li said. “It is important that the government works out a law-based list of items subject to government approval. Issuance of a business license and that of administrative permits must be decoupled.” 

(Xinhua)