Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council presided over an executive meeting of the State Council on June 6. The meeting decided to comply with the voices of enterprises and the masses and comprehensively sort out various certification matters.

The first is to immediately stop the implementation of the certification items set by the State Council regulations and regulatory documents, etc., which can be directly canceled, and promptly revise or abolish the regulations and documents. Before the end of the year, cancel a batch of certification items, such as the proof of fund availability, which needs to be submitted when applying for a construction permit.

The second is that there are regulations on laws and regulations, but the certification items that can be covered or replaced by statutory licenses, written notifications, and inter-governmental inspections, etc., must be submitted to the law to be canceled based on information sharing and credit systems.

The third is that the certification items set by each locality should be canceled before the end of the year at the latest, except for local regulations.

Fourth, all regions and departments must promptly announce the list of certification items for cancellation and retention, and itemize the setting basis and handling guidelines for those that really need to be retained. Outside of the list, government departments, public utilities, and service organizations are not allowed to request certification.

In the field of engineering construction, the State Council is currently undergoing drastic reforms, especially the recently issued Question No. 33 [2018] of the State Council, which greatly streamlined the approval process:

On May 18, 2018, the General Office of the State Council officially announced the "General Office of the State Council Regarding the Development of Projects" The Notice on the Pilot Reform of the Construction Project Approval System (Guobanfa [2018] No. 33) will greatly streamline the approval process, including:

Cancellation of construction contract filing, building energy-saving design review filing and other matters. For socially invested housing construction projects, the construction unit can independently decide the method of contracting.

Incorporate technical reviews such as fire protection design review and civil air defense design review into the review of construction drawing design documents, and relevant departments will no longer conduct technical reviews.

Combine the project quality and safety supervision procedures with the construction permit. Planning, land, fire protection, civil air defense, archives, municipal public utilities and other departments and units implement joint acceptance inspections within a time limit, unified completion acceptance drawings and acceptance standards, and uniformly issue acceptance opinions. For the surveying work involved in acceptance, "one-time commission, unified surveying and mapping, and results sharing" are implemented.

The design plan shall be reviewed when the construction project planning permit is issued. The permit issuing department shall solicit the opinions of relevant departments and units, and other departments will no longer conduct independent review of the design plan. Promote a unified organization by the government to implement regional assessments for earthquake safety assessment, geological disaster risk assessment, environmental impact assessment, and energy conservation assessment.

Implement the requirements for canceling decentralized administrative approval items. Evaluation items such as environmental impact assessment, energy conservation evaluation, and seismic safety evaluation are not considered as project approval or approval conditions. The seismic safety evaluation can be completed before the engineering design, and other evaluation items are before the construction permit. That's it.

The pre-examination opinions of the land use can be used as the land use certificate to apply for the construction project planning permit, and the land use approval procedures can be completed before the construction permit.

The installation of municipal public infrastructure such as water supply, power supply, gas, heat, drainage, and communication shall be processed in advance after the issuance of the construction permit. The construction of relevant facilities shall be completed during the construction phase of the project, and the connection shall be handled directly after the completion and acceptance.

The notification and commitment system shall be implemented for the approval items that can correct behaviors that do not meet the approval conditions through in-process and post-event supervision and will not have serious consequences.