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Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on July 3, 2015

Updated: Jul 3,2015 5:12 PM     english.gov.cn

The State Council holds the weekly policy briefing on July 3, focusing on advancing reforms to build the three-in-one certificate registration system. [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

Hu Kaihong (host):

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the policy briefing of the State Council. Recently, the State Council General Office has issued the guidelines regarding advancing reforms to build the three-in-one certificate registration system. For a better understanding of this issue, we have invited Liu Yuting, deputy chief of State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). He will brief about the policy measures regarding the reform and answer your questions.

Liu Yuting:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Today I will address issues related to the registration system reform. The reform is a major policy decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and is an important part for deepening the commercial system reform, and is one more vital reforming measure following the one concerning advancing subscription to corporate registered capital. It is of great significance toward streamlining administration and delegating power, facilitating entry into the market, encouraging investment and entrepreneurship and adding dynamism into the market.

Since 2014, some regions have piloted initiatives and seen positive progress in this regard. After fully summarizing the piloting experiences at some localities, on June 29, the State Council General Office issued the guidelines about the registration system reform, and required a speeding up of the reform. It combines three paper forms - business license, organization code Certificate and the tax registration certificate issued respectively by the industry and commerce bureau, quality supervision and taxation authorities. The new registration paradigm introduces “One License Plus One Code” - a business license with a unified social credit code. The organization code certificate and the tax registration certificate will not be issued anymore. Enterprises can directly manage their taxation registration and banking accounts with their business licenses. This is what we call a “three-in-one”.

Liu Yuting:

The guidelines clearly stated the reform, the goal of the registration paradigm as well as steps for implementation, requirements and auxiliary measures. All the localities and departments are required to view this reform with an eye to the big picture, boost awareness, and strengthen coordination. They are required to follow the principle of “ensuring convenience and high efficiency, subscribing to standards and a unified code, and proceeding under overall planning” and press ahead with various related tasks to make sure the new registration paradigm is implemented nationwide as of the end of 2015.

Currently, the SAIC and relevant departments are following requirements to strengthen coordination and collaboration between them, integrate relevant paperwork for applications, further regulate the procedure for registration, upgrade the systems, boost information sharing, and re-examine and perfect laws and regulations. Efforts are being made to make sure the results could be recognized mutually, the planning is orderly and the transition is smooth. We plan to start the “One License Plus One Code” registration work for enterprises nationwide on Oct 1. We believe such a reform will be achieved smoothly and benefit the country and the public.

Hu Kaihong:

Thanks for Mr Liu’s brief introduction. Now it is time for questions.

China Central Television:

The State Council General Office has issued a document on pushing forward reform on the 3-in-1 certificate registration system. It demanded that the registration model of “3-in-1 certificate” and the “one certificate plus one code” should be implemented nationwide before the end of 2015. We want to learn the status quo of the pilot programs.

Liu Yuting:

This is a very good question. The policy of the “3-in-1 certificate” can be interpreted through two angles:

First, it is an issue that emerged in the business registration system reform. Before the reform, people had to get approval from many institutions to start a business, so the problems of the coexistence of three certificates was not a major problem. Now, due to reform efforts, many items that had to be approved before the establishment of a business in the past can be applied for after the business has been set up. So the problem of three certificates has become more pressing.

Second, the “3-in-1 certificate” reform should been seen as a process.

In the past, after getting the business license, people had to apply for an organization code certificate at quality supervision institutions and a tax registration certificate at the taxation institutions. So they had to go to three government bodies to fill in three documents, which are largely the same. As the reform takes shape, some local governments have now set up executive service centers. The administration for industry and commerce takes all the documents and send them to other corresponding government bodies and give it back to the applicants together after they are all finished. We had pilot programs for this in various places, including Shanghai and Shenzhen. That is the first phase of the reform.

Liu Yuting:

Since last year, some local governments started to explore “one certificate with three codes”. That means to put the business license codes, organization codes and tax registration codes on one business license. That is the second phase of the reform.

Our aim is to finally realize “one certificate plus one code”. That is to use only one code instead of the three codes. The unique code can be recognized by all local governments and all departments. Now 27 provinces have implemented the “one certificate plus three codes” policy, while the Fujian free trade zone and Suqian city in Jiangsu province have realized “one certificate plus one code”. That is the status quo of the reform nationwide. The pilot programs have helped to meet the demands of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and laid a good foundation for the implementation of the “one certificate plus one code” policy across the country.

China Radio International:

Premier Li Keqiang has on many occasions asked for efforts to accelerate the process of the 3-in-1 certificate. Why? And what’s the significance of this work?

Liu Yuting:

The Premier has attached great importance to this. He has mentioned in this year’s Government Work Report that administrative streamlining will still be the priority of reform, and efforts will be continued in deepening commercial registration reform and realizing the three-in-one certificate.

The Premier has also stressed at recent meetings of the State Council the importance of streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels, as well as providing better services.

During a visit to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Premier required efforts to speed up the three-in-one certificate reform and make sure that a unified social credit code will be issued in one business license within this year.

Liu Yuting:

I think the reason that the Premier valued this reform is because commercial registration reform undertakes an important role in this year’s reform. It will be conducive to promoting the administrative streamlining and improve the efficiency of government services. Moreover, it will help to reduce the cost of investment and starting business, and boost mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

It is also helpful for maintaining transaction security. After the three-in-one certificate is introduced, every individual enterprise will have only one subject identification number, which helps to eliminate a blind zone of regulation.

At last, this reform will facilitate supervision over tax revenues. Statistics have shown that enterprises that apply for an organization code and tax registration are less than the number of company business licenses issued. The reason is, some enterprises have started business as soon as they’ve got the business license, but they didn’t apply for an organization code certificate or tax registration certificate.

Once the 3-in-1 certificate is implemented, these two certificates will be issued immediately when the enterprises are issued a business license. This will have a profound impact on improving the social credit system.

I think, the influence of reform measures such as the 3-in-1 certificate on improving social credit system will be increasingly obvious when they are put in place.

China Central Television:

We know that Premier Li Keqiang visited the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on March 20. At that time, some people reflected to the Premier that “3-in-1” business license and “one license plus one code” were two of the most difficult issues in the reform of the commercial system. Why is this the case and what are the difficulties? Are there any measures in place to deal with these difficulties before Oct 1?

Liu Yuting:

The State Council decided that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce should take the lead to handle the registration reform work.

The business license, the organization code certificate and the tax registration certificate had to be applied for and issued separately in China. This kind of situation is caused by historic conditions and the then laws and regulations. The reform is to sort out and adjust the three systems - so it involves the unification of understanding, transformation of concepts, sharing of information, and the upgrading of computer systems.

The reform of the “3-in-1’’ business license also involves other departments such as banks. When enterprises open accounts at banks, or when some banks collect information of clients, they will still need to type in the previous three codes. With the promotion of the reform, those who need to use the licenses also need to adjust. The reform of the “3-in-1’’ business license involves various fields and departments. The difficult thing is to make the whole society reach a consensus and change the mechanism and system. The good thing is that the related departments are becoming increasingly unified. With the coordination of each department, we believe that we can carry out the reform smoothly and meet the requirements of the State Council.

China National Radio:

What changes does the 3-in-1 certificate bring to applicants?

Liu Yuting:

The main change lies in the number of certificates they need to apply for. In the past, applicants had to apply for a business license, the certificate of organization codes and the certificate of taxation registration from three departments. Now, all three certificates are integrated into one. Applicants only need to apply once and prepare one set of forms and materials. The industry and commerce bureau, the quality inspection department and the taxation agency can share all the applicant’s information internally and optimize the approval procedure to keep redundant methods to the minimum. So the highlight of the 3-in-1 certificate reform is to simplify the procedures and shorten the waiting times. According to statistics collected from our pilot areas, it took one month to get the three certificates approved in the past while now it only takes three working days to get one unified certificate.

Economic Daily:

Please elaborate as to which market entities the 3-in-1 certificate will apply and why it does not apply to individual business owners?

Liu Yuting:

According to current regulations, it applies to various kinds of enterprises and specialized farmers’ cooperatives. It doesn’t apply to individual businesses owners because they just do not need to apply for an organization code certification and only need to apply for business licenses and tax registration certificates.

Phoenix Television:

As we know, there has been a “5-in-1 certificate’’ and even a “many-in-one certificate’’ in some places like Shenzhen. Will the State Administration for Industry and Commerce think about it on a nationwide scale?

Liu Yuting:

Experiments concerning the “3-in-1 certificate” have been carried out nationwide, but “4-in-1 certificates”, “5-in-1 certificates” or “3 certificates plus 1 stamp” have appeared in some regions. Of these, the business license, the organization code certificate and the tax registration certificate are the most basic and are unique to an enterprise - even if the enterprise ceases to operate, codes on the certificates can’t be given to other enterprises. We will gradually push forward the business reform in the fields such as easy cancelation of the enterprises and electronic registration in an effort to provide better services to market entities.

Hu Kaihong:

Today’s policy briefing is over. Thank you.