Laws of the People's Republic of China

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the General Customs Administration, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange

Circular on the Relevant Work of Annual Joint Examination of Enterprises with Foreign Investment of 2003

WaiJinMaoZiFa [2002] No.591

February 24, 2003

The commissions (departments, bureaus) of foreign trade and economic cooperation, economic and trade commissions (economic commissions), departments (bureaus) of finance, state tax bureaus, local tax bureaus, administrations for industry and commerce, administrations of foreign exchange of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities separately listed on the State plan, Guangdong Sub-administration of Customs and the customs directly under the General Administration of Customs:

Through the efforts of recent years, the annual joint examination of enterprises with foreign investment has played an important role in improving the soft environment for investment, alleviating the enterprises' burden and strengthening the communication and coordination between the government departments. For successful progress of the annual joint examination of enterprises with foreign investment of the whole country in 2003, and to keep on implementing the spirits of the Circular on the Implementation Scheme on Annual Joint Examination of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (WaiJinMaoZiFa [1998] No.938, hereinafter referred to as the Circular), the relevant issues are hereby notified as follows:

I.

The period from March 1 through May 31, 2003 is the work time of the annual joint examination of enterprises with foreign investment. The localities shall organize the annual joint examination of enterprises with foreign investment strictly in accordance with the requirements of the Circular, and the departments shall actively participate in the examination.

II.

The localities shall enhance the publicity of annual joint examination of enterprises with foreign investment, and strive to have more enterprises participate in the examination. For those failing to declare for annual examination, failing to make faithful reports in the annual examination or committing law-breaking or rule-breaking acts in production or business operations, the departments of annual joint examination shall dealt with the punish the offenders pursuant to the laws and regulations.

III.

The localities shall promptly correct the acts not in line with the guidance of the Circular, prohibit those participating the examination in other's name, strengthen the direction for basic-level annual joint examination, inspect the progress of the examination work and the implementation of the Circular, get to know and coordinate the settlement of the problems arising in the examination in a timely manner, and guarantee the successful progress of the annual joint examination of their respective localities.

IV.

The departments of annual joint examination shall strengthen the communication and coordination between themselves. The departments shall take the examination as an opportunity to change their administration methods, and shall stress the role of integrated coordination and administration between the departments. The departments shall strengthen the coordination of the annual joint examination under the leadership of the people's governments at corresponding levels. The localities with necessary conditions shall have the departments carry out the annual joint examination together, and the local finance shall give support. The departments shall exchange opinions through joint work and conference, earnestly carry out the provisions of the Circular and improve the level of annual joint examination.

V.

The localities shall strengthen the administration of intermediary agencies, regulate the acts of the intermediary agencies e.g. accounting firms etc, formulate specific regulations on the services that need to be provided by intermediary agencies, and impose heavier punishment on those intermediary agencies with rule-breaking operations. The problems of accounting firms and other intermediary agencies found out during the annual examination shall be passed on to the departments in charge in a timely manner.

The ˇ°Form of Foreign Exchange Paymentˇ± in the Circular on Adjustment of the ˇ°Form of Foreign Exchange Contentˇ± in the Annual Examination of Foreign Exchange of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (HuiFa [2002] No.124) jointly distributed by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the Ministry of Finance shall still be filled in by registered public accountants.

VI.

The relevant departments of annual joint examination shall cooperate closely, sort out, nullify and revoke the enterprises that have no capital, site and structure. The number of the enterprises that have been deprived of the approval certificate in the current year and the accumulative number of such enterprises shall be counted, and the information about sorting out, nullification and revocation shall be indicated in the summary of the annual joint examination.

VII.

According to the Circular, the departments of annual joint examination may not add new charges, except that the administrations for industry and commerce may take the charges according to the original standards. The departments shall firmly sort out and stop those that, in violation of the provisions, take charges from enterprises or do so in disguised forms by the chance of annual joint examination, or conduct annual examinations over enterprises with foreign investment without approval of the State Council, thus increasing the enterprises' burden by taking arbitrary charges or imposing random examinations.

VIII.

In order to improve the efficiency of annual joint examination and alleviate the enterprises' burden, pilot projects of on-line annual joint examination of enterprises with foreign investment will be carried out in Anhui, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen etc, and will be spread to other regions of China with the necessary conditions.

IX.

The departments shall strengthen the training of the functionaries of annual joint examination, enhance their sense of service and operation quality, to provide open, transparent and normative services to the enterprises. And annual joint examination consultation and complaint agencies shall be set up to accept the inquiries and complaints filed by enterprises with foreign investment.

X.

In order to guarantee the quality of the data gathered through the annual joint examination, the data of the localities shall go through the preliminary joint review on a regional basis before being submitted, and the departments in charge of foreign trade and economic cooperation of the localities shall make good preparations for the joint review.

XI.

The localities shall strengthen the statistics and analysis of the annual examination data, use the information and materials obtained through the examination to analyze in depth the production and business operations and the general problems of enterprises with foreign investment, and to carry out wide-range survey, study and communication.

This is hereby the notification.