Reporters learned today that the Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment in Fujian Province was voted and passed as a key legislative project of the Standing Committee of Fujian Provincial People’s Congress this year and will come into force on May 1, 2022. The Regulations are divided into seven chapters: General Provisions, Market Environment, Government Services, Regulation and Law Enforcement, Legal Guarantee, Legal Responsibilities, and Supplementary Provisions, with a total of 68 articles, providing a relatively comprehensive specification for optimizing the business environment.

The Regulations summarize the achievements of reform and innovation in building the business environment in Fujian Province. The first is to encourage pioneering and innovation, and set up exemption clauses. With a focus on encouraging all localities and departments to make bold innovations and breakthroughs in optimizing the business environment, exemption circumstances are listed to exempt or reduce liability in the Regulations. The second is to deepen major reforms. Major reform matters being promoted by the State are strengthened through legislation. For example, reform objectives such as classified management and simplified approval and registration have been added in the “separation of operating permits and business licenses” reform. For the reform of the integrated administrative law enforcement system, it is required that a sound coordinated response and collaboration mechanism for law enforcement should be established, and integrated administrative law enforcement should be conducted. Concerning reforms in the public resources trading sector, reform requirements are proposed, including the implementation of directory list management, electronic transactions, and full-process online supervision. Flexible regulations should be explored, and inclusive and prudent regulations of new technologies, industries, business models and modes are proposed to be implemented, with emphasis on the need to ensure quality and safety while allowing enough room for businesses to grow. The main responsibilities are clarified. It is stipulated that the main person in charge of local people’s governments at all levels is the first person responsible for the work in the administrative region, and the establishment of a mechanism for coordinating and promoting the work on the business environment is put forward to coordinate and address major problems in optimizing the business environment.

The Regulations sort out and respond to the concerns of enterprises and the public. In order to address the bottlenecks, difficult problems and pain points in the construction of the business environment in Fujian Province, the solutions will be clearly defined through legislation. For instance, to solve the difficulties of enterprises in employing workers, it is proposed in the Regulations to innovate the mechanism for cultivating talents and the model of employing workers in enterprises, and to explore the new way of “shared employment” and independent evaluation of skilled personnel by enterprises. To address financing difficulties for enterprises, it is set out to improve the supervision assessment and incentive mechanism of financial institutions, and increase credit for private enterprises, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. In response to the problems in sharing government data, it is emphasized that data sharing and business collaboration should be promoted, and a government data collection and sharing platform should be established in accordance with unified standards, for the purpose of ensuring data security. In terms of the difficulty in implementing policies to benefit enterprises, it is proposed that market players should be widely consulted before policies are formulated, and all departments are required to strictly implement policies and measures to reduce the burden on enterprises. Concerning the multiple-authority approvals for market access, it is set out to promote the integration of government services, explore the reform of the “one license for one industry” approval model, and integrate multiple licenses involved in industry access into one comprehensive license for the industry. In response to the need to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, it is proposed to build a rapid and coordinated protection mechanism for intellectual property rights, a collaborative mechanism for law enforcement, a diversified dispute resolution mechanism and a mechanism for assistance in the protection of rights, and to implement a punitive compensation system. To prevent the emergence of “new officials ignoring old debts”, it is put forward to establish a disciplinary and punitive mechanism for defaulting on payments through budget management, audit supervision, and performance assessment, etc. To regulate intermediary services, it is proposed to formulate and improve the norms and standards for administrative approval intermediary services, and establish a disciplinary and withdrawal mechanism for administrative approval intermediary services.