Laws of the People's Republic of China

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Information Industry, the State Administration of Taxation, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the National Bureau of Statistics

Circular of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Information Industry, the State Administration of Taxation, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the National Bureau of Statistics Concerning Relevant Questions about Software Export

JiFa [2002] No.680 of MOFTEC

January 4, 2001

The commissions (departments, bureaus) of economic and trade of various provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, municipalities separately listed on the State plan, the departments (bureaus, offices) of information industry, the state taxation bureaus, the local taxation bureaus, the bureaus of foreign exchange, the statistics bureaus, Guangdong branch of the General Administration of Customs, all customs directly under the General Administration of Customs, Xinjiang corps of production and construction, all offices of commissioners and chambers of commerce of mechanical and electrical products:

In order to carry out Circular of the State Council Concerning the Publishing and Distribution of Several Policies on Encouraging the Development of Software Industry and IC (Integrate Circuit) Industry (GuoFa [2000] No.18), and encourage Chinese enterprises to make the most of both international and domestic resources, to develop both international and domestic markets and to promote software export, relevant questions are hereby notified as follows:

1.

Relevant Policies on Software Export

1)

"Software export" means that legal persons and other organizations, which engage in foreign trade and economic activities according to the Law of the People's Republic of China on Foreign Trade, export software products to foreign countries and provide relevant services by means of going through customs formalities or transmission through Internet, including:

i.

Transfer or license of software technology;

ii.

Computer software, information system or built-in software on equipments provided to consumers, or computer software provided when offering integration of computer information system, applicable service and other technology service;

iii.

Service trade related to information data. Including: time sequence and data processing of data development, storage and net connection; tabulation and data processing service counted by time (hour), managing relevant equipments continuously for others, hardware consultation and software installation; designing, developing and writing program systems according to the requirements of consumers, maintaining computers and edging equipments; and other software processing service;

iv.

Software export affiliated to equipments export and other forms of software export.

2)

Software enterprises with registered capital of more than 1 million RMB (including 1 million RMB) may enjoy the right of self-management of export.

3)

Software export enterprises may apply to departments in charge of foreign trade and economic cooperation for small- and medium-size enterprises and funds for international market development in order to promote software export and develop international market.

4)

Software export enterprises that need to go through authentication of Quality Assurance System of GB/T19000-ISO9000 Series and CMM (Capacity Maturity Model) may apply to departments in charge of foreign trade and economic cooperation for authentication financial aid. Circular Concerning the Publishing and Distribution of Measures (for trial implementation) for the Administration of Funds for International Market Development of Small- and Medium-Size Enterprises (CaiQi [2000] No. 467) shall apply to the authentication financial aid for Quality Assurance System of GB/T19000-ISO9000 Series and CMM.

5)

Software export shall be brought into the business scope of the Import and Export Bank of China and enjoy credit support of preferential interest rate; and state insurance institutions of export credit shall provide export credit insurance.

6)

After exportation if the drawback rate doesn't reach the taxation rate of the software products of software export enterprises, drawback may be conducted based on the taxation rate with the approval of the State Administration of Taxation.

7)

Foreign exchange income of regular items of software export enterprises may be settled and entered into account directly at banks based on relevant documents. All Chinese software enterprises with the right of self-management of export, which are acknowledged as honorary enterprises by the examination of collecting and verifying export proceeds in foreign exchange, may open exchange clearing accounts, and the limitation shall be 15% of the gross export value of the enterprise of last year. The Circular Concerning Permitting Chinese Enterprises Keeping Some Limited Amount of Foreign Exchange Income (YinFa [1997] No. 402) shall still apply to the implementation of Chinese software enterprises with the right of self-management export, the annual export value of which is more than 10 million dollars and the registered capital of which is more than 3000 RMB.

8)

Software enterprises with the right of self-management of export that meet requirements may apply to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation for establishment of branches in foreign countries.

2.

Administration of Software Export

1)

In order to carry out various policies and measures of the state concerning software export, and in the light of the characteristics of software export, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, along with the Ministry of Information Industry, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Statistics Bureau and the Import and Export Bank of China, shall set up special Administration Center of On-line Registration of Software Export Contracts on the MOFTEC website of the E-Commerce Center of China to perform on-line registration and administration of software export contract.

2)

After concluding software export contracts with foreign countries, software export enterprises shall go through registration procedures of contracts at the Administration Center of On-line Registration of Software Export Contracts, to provide basis for check when administrative departments of the state coordinate and administer software export and carry out relevant policies of the state on software export.

3)

When research and developing center are established with a view to undertake software design and service for foreign consumers in software gardens supported by the state, the customs shall transact customs formalities of import equipments, which are to be used in emulating consumer environment, as that of provisional import goods.

4)

Relevant provisions of Measures for the Administration of Limit of Technology Export and Rules on the Examination of Export of Secret Technology of the State shall apply to computer technology that are forbidden or limited to export by the state and to computer technology within the range of secret technology of the state.

5)

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, along with the State Statistics Bureau, the Ministry of Information Industry and the General Administration of Customs, shall conduct statistics and analysis of software export and bring them into relevant statistics of the state.

6)

The Chamber of Commerce of Mechanical and Electrical Products of China and Association of Software Industry of China are jointly responsible for coordinating and maintaining the operation order of software export.

7)

Software export enterprises that abide by state provisions voluntarily may enjoy preferential policies set by the state for the development of software industry on investment, financing, taxation, industry policy, import and export. Software export enterprises that make a false report of software export business, fail to register on-line, have record of bad deeds or fail the annual examination of software associations shall not enjoy relevant preferential policies. Those violate provisions of state laws and regulations shall be investigated for relevant responsibility.

8)

Specific measures for the administration of exits and entrances of software exported by direct transmission through Internet shall be provided by separately.

This is hereby the notification.