Administrative Regulations on the Approval and Record-filing of Enterprise Investment Projects

Order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No.673

November 30, 2016

The Administrative Regulations on the Approval and Record-filing of Enterprise Investment Projects, adopted at the 149th executive meeting of the State Council on October 8, 2016, are hereby issued for implementation as of February 1, 2017.

Premier Li Keqiang

Administrative Regulations on the Approval and Filing of Enterprise Investment Projects

Article 1 The Administrative Regulations on the Approval and Record-filing of Enterprise Investment Projects (these "Regulations") are formulated in order to regulate the approval and record-filing of enterprise investment projects by the government, speed up the shift of the government's investment management functions and realize the investment autonomy of enterprises.

Article 2 The enterprise investment projects (the "projects") mentioned hereunder refer to fixed assets investment projects invested in and developed within the territory of China by enterprises.

Article 3 Projects concerning state security, or involving significant national productivity layouts, the development of strategic resources or major public interests, among others, shall be subject to the administration by approval. The specific scope of the projects and the approval authorities and their powers shall be as specified in the Catalogue of Investment Projects subject to Government Approval. The Catalogue of Investment Projects subject to Government Approval, developed by the competent investment department under the State Council together with other relevant departments under the State Council, shall be implemented upon approval by the State Council and be adjusted when appropriate. Where the State Council has any other provisions, such provisions shall prevail.
Projects other than those stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall be subject to the administration by record-filing. Except otherwise stipulated by the State Council, the projects subject to the administration by record-filing shall be filed based on the principle of territoriality. The record-filing authorities and their powers shall be specified by the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities specifically designated in the state plan.

Article 4 The approval and record-filing of projects, except projects involving state secrets, shall be processed via the online project regulation platform established by the State (the "online platform").
The approval authorities, record-filing authorities and other relevant departments shall uniformly use the project reference codes generated by the online platform to process the relevant procedures.
The competent investment department under the State Council shall, together with the relevant departments, formulate the measures for the management of the online platform.

Article 5 The approval authorities and record-filing authorities shall, via the online platform, state the industrial policies relating to the projects, disclose the procedures and time frames for project approval and provide enterprises with relevant consulting services.

Article 6 When going through project approval procedures, an enterprise shall submit a project application to the approval authority concerned; for a project to be approved by the State Council, the project application shall be submitted to the competent investment department under the State Council. The project application shall include the following contents:
1. the profile of the enterprise;
2. project information, including the project name, the place, scale and contents of construction;
3. an analysis of the resources to be used by the project and an analysis of its impact on ecological environment; and
4. an analysis of the effect of the project on economy and society.
The enterprise shall be responsible for the truthfulness of the contents of the project application.
If any law or administrative regulation prescribes the completion of relevant procedures as the precondition for the approval of a project, the enterprise shall submit proof for the completion of the relevant procedures.

Article 7 The project application shall be prepared by an enterprise at its own discretion. No entity or individual can compel an enterprise to engage an intermediary service agency to prepare the project application.
The approval authorities shall develop and publish sample texts of the project application and expressly state the requirements on the preparation of the project application.

Article 8 For a project to be approved by a relevant department under the State Council, an enterprise may have its project application forwarded by the relevant department under the people's government of the province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government or city specifically designated in the state plan at the location of the project (the "relevant department under the local people's government"), such relevant department under the local people's government shall forward the project application to the competent approval authority within five working days after receiving it.
In the case of a project to be approved by the State Council, if an enterprise has the project application forwarded through the relevant department under the local people's government, such relevant department under the local people's government shall forward the project application to the competent investment department under the State Council within the time limit prescribed in the preceding paragraph. After review, the competent investment department under the State Council shall submit the said application to the State Council for approval.

Article 9 An approval authority shall examine a project in the following aspects:
1. whether the project endangers economic security, social security, ecological safety and other state security;
2. whether the project conforms to relevant development and construction plans, technical standards and industrial policies;
3. whether the project rationally develops and effectively utilizes resources; and
4. whether the project has any adverse impact on vital public interests.
Where a project involves the duty of a relevant department or the people's government at the location of the project, the approval authority shall seek written opinions from such department or people's government, which shall in turn respond in writing in a timely manner.
Where an approval authority engages an intermediary service agency to evaluate a project, it shall define the key points of evaluation; except for complicated projects, the period of evaluation shall not exceed 30 working days. Evaluation expenses shall be borne by the approval authority.

Article 10 An approval authority shall, within 20 working days after accepting an application, make a decision on whether to approve the project or not; if the project is complicated or there is need to seek the opinions of relevant bodies, the period of approval may be extended upon approval by the main person in charge of the approval authority, provided that the extended period shall not exceed 40 working days. If the approval authority engages an intermediary service agency to make an evaluation of the project, the evaluation time shall not count against the period of approval.
If the approval authority approves the project, it shall issue an approval document to the enterprise concerned; if it does not approve the project, it shall notify the enterprise of the reasons in writing. In the case of a project to be approved by the State Council, the competent investment department under the State Council shall, subject to the decision of the State Council, issue the approval document or a written notification of non-approval to the enterprise concerned.

Article 11 Where an enterprise intends to change the construction place of an approved project or make a relatively big change in the construction scale, construction contents or other aspects, it shall make an application for such change to the relevant approval authority. The approval authority shall make a written decision on whether to approve the change within 20 working days after accepting the application.

Article 12 If the construction of a project does not start within two years after the relevant approval authority approved the project or a change to the project and needs to be postponed, the enterprise concerned shall apply for postponement of the start of construction to the approval authority at least 30 working days before the expiry of the two-year period. The approval authority shall make a decision on whether to approve the postponement within 20 working days after accepting the application. The start of construction can be postponed once only and for one year at most. Where the State has any other provisions on the postponement of the start of construction, such provisions shall prevail.

Article 13 For a project subject to the administration by record-filing, an enterprise shall inform the relevant record-filing authority of the following information via the online platform before the start of construction:
1. the profile of the enterprise;
2. the project name, place, scale and contents of construction;
3. the total investment amount of the project; and
4. the statement that the project conforms to industrial policies.
The enterprise shall be responsible for the truthfulness of the project information filed.
The receipt by the record-filing authority of all the information set out in the first paragraph of this article shall be deemed as the filing of the project for the record; if the information provided by the enterprise is incomplete, the record-filing authority shall instruct the enterprise to supplement it.
If the enterprise needs a proof of the record-filing, it may request the record-filing authority to issue it or print it via the online platform by itself.

Article 14 Where there is a relatively big change in the information of a project already filed, the enterprise concerned shall promptly inform the relevant record-filing authority.

Article 15 Where a record-filing authority finds that a project already filed with it is prohibited from investment and construction by industrial policies or is subject to the administration by approval, it shall promptly notify the enterprise concerned to make corrections or go through the approval procedures in accordance with the law, and also notify the relevant department.

Article 16 The approval authorities, record-filing authorities and other relevant departments legally responsible for supervising and regulating the projects shall strengthen interim and ex post regulation, perform regulatory duties based on the principle that whoever approves a project shall be responsible for regulating the project and whoever has jurisdiction over a project shall be responsible for regulating the project, and step up supervision and inspection of project implementation by means of online monitoring, on-site checks and other means.
An enterprise shall truthfully submit the basic information on the start of construction, construction progress and completion of construction via the online platform.

Article 17 The approval authorities, record-filing authorities and other relevant departments legally responsible for supervising and regulating the projects shall establish a project information sharing mechanism and realize information sharing via the online platform.
The illegalities of enterprises during the process of project approval, record-filing or implementation and the information on the handling thereof shall be made public to the society via the national social credit information platform.

Article 18 In the case of a project subject to the administration by approval, if an enterprise starts construction without going through the approval procedures pursuant to these Regulations or does not carry out construction in conformity with the place, scale or contents of construction or other matters as approved, the approval authority concerned shall order it to stop construction or suspend business and impose on it a penalty of not less than 1‰ but not more than 5‰ of the total investment amount of the project; as well as impose a penalty of not less than CNY20,000 but not more than CNY50,000 on the main persons-in-charge directly responsible and other persons directly liable, and if such a person is a government employee, he shall be subject disciplinary sanctions in accordance with the law.
Where an enterprise obtains approval documents for a project by improper means such as deception or bribery, if the project has not yet started construction, the approval authority concerned shall revoke the approval documents and impose a penalty of not less than 1‰ but not more than 5‰ of the total investment amount of the project on the enterprise; if the project has started construction, the enterprise shall be subject to penalties as per the preceding paragraph; if the act concerned constitutes a crime, it shall be investigated for criminal liability in accordance with the law.

Article 19 In the case of a project subject to the administration by record-filing, where an enterprise fails to notify the relevant record-filing authority of the project information or any change in the information of project already filed as required by these Regulations, or provides any false information, the record-filing authority shall order it to make corrections within a prescribed time period; if the enterprise fails to make corrections on time, it shall be subject to a penalty of not less than CNY20,000 but not more than CNY50,000.

Article 20 Where an enterprise makes an investment in or carries out the construction of a project prohibited from investment and construction by industrial policies, the competent investment department under the relevant people's government at the county level or above shall order it to stop construction or suspend business and make restitution, and impose on it a penalty of not less than 5‰ but not more than 10‰ of the total investment amount of the project; as well as impose a penalty of not less than CNY50,000 but not more than CNY100,000 on the main persons-in-charge directly responsible and other persons directly liable, and if such a person is government employee, he shall be subject to disciplinary sanctions in accordance with the law. Where there are any other provisions under any law or administrative regulations, such provisions shall prevail.

Article 21 Where an approval authority or a record-filing authority or any of its employee neglects duties, abuse powers or engages in malpractices for personal gains in the process of approval or record-filing of a project, the responsible leaders and the persons directly liable shall be subject to disciplinary sanctions in accordance with the law; and if a crime is constituted, investigation for criminal liability shall be carried out.

Article 22 Except those arranged under government budget, fixed assets investment projects invested in and developed within the territory of China by public institutions, social organizations and non-business organizations shall be governed by these Regulations.

Article 23 The administrative measures for the approval and record-filing of fixed assets investment projects invested in and developed within the territory of China by national defense science and technology industrial enterprises will be separately formulated by the administrative department for national defense science and technology industry under the State Council based on the principles of these Regulations.

Article 24 These Regulations shall come into effect as of February 1, 2017.