Laws of the People's Republic of China

Ministry of Commerce

Circular of the Ministry of Commerce on Entrusting the Administrative Departments of Commerce at Provincial Level to Examine, Approve and Administrate the Foreign-invested Construction Enterprises

Shang Zi Han [2005] No. 90

To the administrative departments of commerce of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning, and the administrative department of commerce of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp.,

In light of the requirements of the State Council on simplifying the administrative examination and approval system and for the purpose of simplifying the procedures for the examination and approval of the contracts and articles of association of foreign-funded enterprises, enhancing the efficiency and accelerating the work relevant to the drawing of foreign capital in the field of service trade, we hereby issue a notice on entrusting the administrative departments of commerce of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning, and the administrative department of commerce of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (hereinafter referred to as the provincial administrative departments of commerce) and the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones to examine, approve and administrate the foreign-funded construction enterprises as follows:

I.

The administrative departments of commerce at provincial level and the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones are entrusted to examine, approve and administrate the foreign-funded construction enterprises.

II.

All the entrusted departments and institutions shall rigorously enforce the standards, seriously examine and approve the establishment or alteration of foreign-funded construction enterprises, and conduct the relevant matters after soliciting the opinions of the construction administrative department according to the Provisions on the Administration of Foreign-funded Construction Enterprises (No. 113 [2002] of the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) and other laws and regulations on foreign investment. The entrusted departments and institutions shall report all the problems encountered in the examination and approval to the Ministry of Commerce, and in case that any illegal examination and approval act occurs during the course of entrustment, the Ministry of Commerce may circulate a notice of reprimand or even take back the entrustment according to the actual situation.

III.

All the entrusted departments and institutions shall have the conditions for connecting their own networks to the network of the Ministry of Commerce for issuing the documents on approval of foreign-funded enterprises and carrying out the joint online annual inspection, and shall manage the work relevant to the examination and approval, archival filing and statistics by making use of the network certificate issuance system for foreign-funded enterprises. All the relevant statistical data shall conform to the requirements and be convenient so that the Ministry of Commerce may know the conditions and strengthen the supervision. The Ministry of Commerce will conduct trainings on the local administrative departments of commerce and the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones so as to clarify the specific issues during the course of examination and approval in the near future.

IV.

All the entrusted administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones shall apply the simple and efficient administrative system in accordance with the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Forwarding Some Opinions of the Ministry of Commerce and Other Departments on Further Enhancing the Development Level of National Economic and Technical Development Zones (No. 15 [2005] of the State Council). After the archival filing of administrative systems, personnel trainings and networking check conducted by the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones are accepted qualified after examination, the Ministry of Commerce shall separately handle the corresponding entrustment formalities by batches.

V.

This Entrustment shall come into force as of March 31, 2006.

Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China

January 22, 2006