At the executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on February 8, it was decided to further clear up and standardize charges regarding enterprises to continuously reduce the burden on real economy, make arrangement for deepening the reform in the construction industry for “streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels while strengthening regulation and optimizing services” to promote industrial upgrading and development, determine policies and measures to enhance the construction of high-standard farmland to lay a solid foundation for food safety, and adopt the Regulations on Pesticides Management (Amendment Draft).

 

It was pointed out that, to make great efforts to clear up and standardize charges regarding enterprises and optimize the environment for the development of real economy is an important measure for keeping in line with the keynote of seeking progress while keeping performance stable and promoting the supply side structural reform, and also a key step for further streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels. Since 2013, related departments of local governments have adopted a series of measures to reduce charges and fees regarding enterprises. At the central level, 496 governmental fund and administration fees regarding enterprises have been cancelled, waived, reduced or exempted; at local level, more than 600 charges have been canceled. Since 2015, a series of measures to reduce service charges regarding business operation and expenses of enterprises in social security have been adopted. However, it should be known that, there are still obvious problems due to excessive and irregular charges, which result in heavy burden on enterprises. For the next step, great efforts should be made to deeply understand these problems and explore potentials to solve the problems. The State Council should be more determined and take a lead to further clear up and reduce the charges. It should work out a series of institutional measures with long-term and substantial effect as soon as possible to enhance audit and supervision and firmly cancel unreasonable charges of public institutions. Illegal charges by intermediaries by making use of government influence should be completely eradicated. Industrial associations and chambers of commerce are not allowed to force enterprises to join them or charge enterprises in a way against relevant laws and regulations. The Charge List system should be established as soon as possible to substantially reduce the discretionary power for charges regarding enterprises. All these measures aim to substantial benefit the enterprises and the mass and inject new vitality to the market.

 

It was believed that, by deepening the reform in the construction industry for “streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels while strengthening regulation and optimizing services” and accelerating industrial upgrading, more job opportunities can be provided and therefore development of associated industries can be promoted, while great support can be provided for new-type urbanization. The first is to have a construction market featuring unified opening-up. It means to break the regional barriers and call off the unreasonable access restrictions of local governments and industries on construction enterprises beyond the laws and regulations and the stipulations of the State Council, and narrow down the scope of construction projects in need of public bidding and put the projects in need of public bidding on unified public resource exchange platforms to provide a fair market environment for construction enterprises. The second is to meet international advanced standards by improving architectural design and construction ability, popularizing smart and prefabricated buildings, improving organization mode for construction projects, accelerating extension of EPC mode, adopting better construction management mode for government-invested projects, and cultivating specialized training, consulting and construction enterprises. The third is to enhance management of contract execution and labor employment to take strict precautions against default on project payment. Lifelong accountability system for project quality should be adopted. All of these measures aim to build the “Constructed by China” brand.

 

It was pointed out that, to stably promote the construction of high-standard farmland plays significant role in developing modern agriculture, guaranteeing food safety and effective supply of major agricultural products and promoting a sustainable development of the rural areas. It was emphasized that multiple modes should be adopted to realize moderate scale operation, transform medium- and low-yield farmland, promote agricultural mechanization and extend deep ploughing and water-saving irrigation modes to carry out high-standard farmland construction. The first is to establish integrated planning and unified fund management system and level land, build irrigation and drainage canals and ditches as well as roads between farmland and carry out ecological protection in accordance with the requirements for concentrated and linked farmland and overall development. The second is to establish integrated follow-up management and protection mechanisms, including establishing unified national database and relying on remote sensing monitoring and other technologies to carry out whole-process monitoring and precise management of high-standard farmland. The third is to make greater government input to motivate social forces to participate in related investment, construction, management and protection processes.

 

At the meeting, the Regulations on Pesticides Management (Amendment Draft) was adopted, mainly for guaranteeing quality and safety of agricultural products. First, it calls for strict whole process management. Responsibilities that were originally shouldered by different departments should be put under unified management of the departments of agriculture to avoid repeated regulation and blind spots for regulation. License system should be adopted for pesticide production and marketing, and systems for check of marketed products, quality inspection and waste recycling should be established. In addition, great efforts should be made to encourage reduction of use of pesticides and enhance supervision of highly toxic pesticides. Second, it emphasizes the responsibilities of main players. It has clear definition of the responsibilities of the pesticide producers and operators for the safety and effectiveness of the pesticides. It proposes to establish an integrated quality management system and recall any severely harmful or dangerous pesticides in time. Third, it calls for severely punishing those who violate relevant laws and regulations. In addition to the original punishment measures, increased penalty and “blacklisting” measures will be adopted to deal with illegal activities such as unlicensed production and operation and production and marketing of fake and poor-quality pesticides. This is to provide legal guarantee for food safety.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, February 9, 2017