Regulations of Dongguan City on Optimizing the Business Environment
(Adopted at the 17th Session of the Standing Committee of the 17th Dongguan Municipal People’s Congress on December 14, 2023; approved at the 7th Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Guangdong ProvincialPeople’s Congress on December 28, 2023; promulgated on January 12, 2024 for implementation as from March 1, 2024)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Market and Government Environment
Chapter III Advanced Manufacturing Environment
Chapter IV Scientific and Technological Innovation Environment
Chapter X International Environment
Chapter VI Legal Environment
Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 For the purposes of continuously optimizing the business environment, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of market participants, stimulating their vitality and creativity, and promoting high-quality development, these Regulations are formulated in accordance with the realities of Dongguan City and the Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment and other laws and regulations.
Article 2 These Regulations apply to work related to optimizing the business environment within the administrative area of Dongguan City.
Article 3 In line with its urban positioning of sci-tech innovation and advanced manufacturing and to meet the needs of market participants, Dongguan City shall focus on transforming government functions and innovating systems and mechanisms to create a market-oriented, law-based international business environment.
The institutional mechanism for coordinating development in Dongguan city, and various towns and villages (communities) under its jurisdiction shall be improved; Coordination of major plans, platforms, programs, arrangements for people’s wellbeing, and major infrastructures shall be strengthened at the municipal level. Interests shall be further balanced; coordination and cooperation shall be strengthened to unleash the development momentum of towns and villages (communities), and improve their capacity for implementation.
Article 4 The municipal and township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall strengthen organization and leadership of relevant work, put in place a sound work coordination mechanism, and continue to improve pro-business environment policies. The government-business interaction and communication channels shall be smoothed so that major issues arising from related work can be coordinated and resolved timely.
The municipal development and reform department is the competent authority for optimizing the business environment, and is responsible for organizing, coordinating, supervising and guiding daily work. Other relevant departments shall properly fulfill their duties in optimizing the business environment.
The management committees of parks shall fulfill their designated duties in optimizing the business environment.
Article 5 The municipal people’s government shall proactively align their work with national development strategies, strive to be a national or provincial comprehensive authorization and reform pilot, explore creative measures conducive to a better business environment within the framework of rule of law, and to generalize, reproduce and promote the effective reform measures. Those who make mistakes or deviate in their exploratory work may, if meet relevant conditions, be exempted from or relieved of their liabilities according to the law.
Article 6 The municipal and township people’s governments shall organize publicities, interviews, investment attractions and services to inspire entrepreneurship and highlight the role of entrepreneurs. Government-business activities, special sessions for increasing legal awareness, policy sessions, and service consultations shall also be conducted to create a pro-business and enterprise-friendly social atmosphere in support of innovation, creation and entrepreneurship.
The environment for development of the private economy shall be optimized, by setting up the Dongguan Private Entrepreneurs Day, practising a fair competition system that removes market barriers, encouraging private enterprises to revitalize stock assets and recovered funds, optimizing the policy for converting individual businesses into enterprises at a reduced cost, and improving the market-based reorganization mechanism.
Chapter II Market and Political Environment
Article 7 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments, as well as the township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall fully implement the national negative list system for market access. All types of market participants shall have equal access in accordance with the law to areas not covered by the national negative list for market access.
The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall fully apply the pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management system. For areas outside the national negative list for foreign investment access, domestic and foreign investments shall be treated equally.
Article 8 The municipal market administration shall, in accordance with relevant national and provincial regulations, raise the efficiency of market participant registration by improving the registration process and reducing the processing time. All matters relating to the establishment of a market participant, including establishment registration, seal engraving, bank account opening, tax registration, social security registration, housing provident payment and registration, shall be handled on an integrated online platform, and collection shall be made via a single counter.
The enterprise name self-declaration system, system of one business license for multiple addresses and one address for multiple business licenses in market participant registration, and the notification commitment system for certification issues in domicile registration shall be implemented in accordance with the law.
The “one integrated license” reform shall be implemented, and a unified portal for obtaining enterprise licenses and permits shall be created. Throughout the life cycle of enterprises, including establishment, operation approval, change and deregistration, application for enterprise-related licensing items and business licenses shall be approved parallel within the specified time limit upon one-time application. The review results shall be displayed via a single QR code.
Article 9 The municipal market administration shall optimize the process for the deregistration of market participants, and promote data-sharing and collaboration with taxation, human resources and social security, ecological environment, and other departments for classified and simultaneous processing.
Article 10 The municipal government service and data management department shall put in place a standard government service system, and coordinate the creation of a comprehensive government service center at city and town (or subdistrict) level in accordance with the standards established by the province. All government services, taxes and fees reduction and exemption, as well as related utility services, administrative and institutional fees shall be processed centrally by classification at the government service hall. Based on their realities, the municipal and township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall integrate professional service counters set by various government departments into a comprehensive service counter. They shall work to ensure one-counter acceptance of government service items, i.e., comprehensive acceptance at the front desk, categorized review at the background, and unified delivery at the comprehensive counter.
A government service system that integrates online and offline services shall be established to meet the needs of market participants. The integrated government service platform of Dongguan City shall be relied upon to strengthen monitoring of government service capabilities and continuously improve the government service system.
Departments with administrative examination and approval functions shall promote the online filling, submission and review of government service items. Materials issued by the same level of government and relevant departments shall be exempted from submission; certificates and licenses shall be submitted electronically wherever possible, and materials collected during the previous processes shall not required to be submitted again.
The municipal people’s government shall monitor and inspect the inclusion of government service items into the government service hall and their integrated processing.
Article 11 The application of electronic certificates shall be fully implemented. A sound electronic certificate collection and application mechanism shall be established, and electronic certificates for enterprise-related administrative licensing items shall be collected and applied via the electronic certificate and other digital government public support platforms. The application of electronic certificates in areas such as engineering construction, real estate registration and public utility service shall be further promoted.
Electronic materials that meet legal requirements, such as electronic signatures, electronic seals, electronic certificates, electronic files, electronic contracts and electronic accounting documents, shall have the same legal force as the hard copies. In applying for government services and public utility services, market participants may choose to submit electronic materials and the departments concerned may not require them to submit hard copies instead.
Application of electronic seals in government services shall be promoted; market participants and social organizations shall be encouraged to use electronic seals in their social and economic activities.
Article 12 The notification commitment system for certification issues and enterprise-related operation licensing items shall be fully implemented in line with relevant national and provincial regulations. The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall compile a list of notification commitment items, and develop related work procedures, guidelines and format texts. Relevant information shall be published at the respective department’s external service site or government service center, as well as on the relevant website for easy browsing, view and download by applicants.
Relevant departments shall, within the time limit prescribed by the State and the province, verify the performance of the commitments. If, during such verification or daily monitoring, the applicant is found to have deliberately concealed the truth and made false commitments, relevant departments shall terminate the processing in accordance with the law, order the applicant to rectify within the prescribed time limit, cancel the administrative decision, or impose an administrative punishment. The verification results shall included as part of the applicant’s credit record.
Article 13 For engineering projects subject to public tendering in accordance with the law, relevant information and announcements shall be published on a unified municipal platform. Public resources trading activities, such as government procurement, tendering and bidding, shall be open, transparent, fair and just to ensure equal access by all market participants. Tenderees may not set unreasonable tendering conditions (such as performance criteria unrelated to the contract and clearly exceeds project requirement), create a list of pre-selected suppliers or contractors in violation of relevant provisions, or exclude or restrict potential bidders or suppliers in any other way.
For engineering projects included in the public resources trading center, the tendering and bidding process shall be fully electronized and handled online.
Tenderees of procurement and engineering projects shall be encouraged to stop collecting bid security completely or temporarily, and to replace bid security with a letter of guarantee. Bid security shall be exempted for government investment projects, and reduced for tendering projects other than government investment projects. For MSMEs with no records of dishonesty or bidders with good credit history, tenderees are encouraged to give them preferential treatment by reducing or exempting the bid security.
Article 14 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall improve the catalog list system of administrative and institutional fees, and clearly define the fee basis and standard. The charges shall be made only by the competent department, and no fees shall be charged outside the catalog list, in excess of the defined standard, or in a repeated way. The catalog list shall be disclosed to and supervised by the public.
Article 15 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall strengthen construction of the social credit system, and vigorously promote credit for the sake of the real economy. They shall enhance the credit infrastructure, integrate and share credit information, expand the application of credit information and reports, and continue to replace the certificates of legal compliance with credit reports.
Whole-process credit supervision shall be implemented through pre-commitment, classified on-processing supervision, and post-event rewards and punishments in accordance with the law. Credit information shall be used to bring convenience and benefits to enterprises and the people. Promise-keeping incentives and credit innovation services shall be provided.
Article 16 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall enhance the protection on minority investors, improve the protection mechanism on the rights and interests of minority investors, make it more convenient for minority investors to protect their legitimate rights and interests, and safeguard the rights of minority investors to information, participation, voting, dividends and supervision.
Article 17 Market participants shall be encouraged to establish industry associations and chambers of commerce, and regulate the development of all types of industry associations and chambers of commerce. Industry associations and chambers of commerce shall strengthen industrial self-discipline, voice industry demands, and provide members with information consulting, publicity, technical training, dispute resolution, and other services in accordance with laws, regulations and their respective constitutions. The competent department in charge and registration administration department shall strengthen their guidance of industry associations and chambers of commerce, and regulate and supervise the charging, comparison-based evaluation, certification and other conduct of industry associations and chambers of commerce pursuant to the law.
Industry associations and chambers of commerce shall be encouraged to build industrial matchmaking and exchange platforms, hold influential industry events, and engage in investment attraction, talent introduction and related work.
Article 18 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall support the development of intermediary service agencies, strengthen credit supervision and supervision over service fees, and regulate the behaviors of these service agencies and their staff members.
Intermediary service agencies shall clarify the conditions, process, time limit, and fee standard for services related to statutory administrative examination and approval items, and disclose such information to the public.
Article 19 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall publish on their official websites all the policies and measures released by the same and higher level of government. The shall provide integrated service for enterprise-related policies, compile and publish a list of enterprise-related policies, establish the mechanism for simultaneous policy release, interpretation and publicity, and improve policy transparency as well as responsiveness to policy consultation. The government service implementation agency shall include its policy implementation service as a public service item for centralized management. Such services shall be available at Dongguan’s integrated government service platform and comprehensive service counter to provide enterprises and the public with convenient and efficient enterprise-related consulting and other services.
Dongguan shall encourage that enterprise-related preferential policies be enjoyed without prior declaration. Through information-sharing between departments and other methods, enterprises that meet the requirements shall be exempted from declaration in enjoying relevant preferential policies.
Article 20 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall practice the service concept of “being responsive to requests without making any unnecessary intervention”. Existing information of relevant government departments involving administrative examination and approval, preferential policy declaration, and other government services shall be interconnected and mutually recognized. To lighten the burden on market participants, the “multiple reports in one” annual report system covering social security, market administration, taxation and customs shall be adopted.
The market administration shall improve relevant systems for the convenience of the people, such as the system for online search of market participants’ registration and management files.
Article 21 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall establish a dynamic analysis, evaluation and feedback mechanism for emergencies. For industries, enterprises, facilities and premises vulnerable to risks, a security protection and emergency plan shall be developed and included as part of the contingency plan.
If a market participant runs into operation difficulty due to natural disasters, public health incidents or other emergencies, the municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall increase procurement from and financial support to such market participant, or make timely reductions or compensations, or take other bailout measures in accordance with the law.
Chapter III Advanced Manufacturing Environment
Article 22 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall, based on Dongguan’s functional orientation, development planning, and relevant provisions on ecological environment safety, formulate industry guidance policies according to the prescribed authority and procedures, and disclose such policies to the public.
The municipal people’s government shall formulate incentive policies to advance the strategic emerging industry, advanced manufacturing industry, and modern service industry, support all kinds of market participants to set up headquarters, regional headquarters and R&D centers in Dongguan, and cultivate and develop high-quality scientific and technological innovative enterprises.
The municipal people’s government shall encourage key industries and enterprises to meet the requirement of green and low-carbon development, and provide support to enterprises that promote green and low-carbon technology innovation and application, as well as the utilization of renewable energy.
Article 23 The municipal natural resources department shall strengthen overall planning and land support to secure the implementation of major projects, and establish an urban renewal mechanism characterized by government guidance, market-based operation and public involvement. Various means of land supply including flexible lease term, lease before transfer, and combination of lease and transfer, shall be encouraged to meet the needs of enterprises at different stages of development.
The municipal and township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall prepare contiguous industrial land, build modern industrial parks, expand the supply of high-quality and low-cost industrial spaces, encourage the upgrading of existing industrial land and the practise of “industry upstairs”, and ensure order in the industrial premises lease market. With these measures, they shall strive to provide necessary space for high-quality development of the manufacturing sector.
The management model that combines state-owned industrial land transfer contract with project investment agreement, compliance supervision agreement or benefits agreement shall be promoted. The access requirements shall be included in the relevant agreements; the successful candidate shall sign an effective investment agreement with the competent government before entering into a land transfer contract.
Article 24 The municipal people’s government shall lay down policies and measures for facilitating high-quality development of town and village-level industrial parks, and establish the mechanism for benefit-sharing and balancing in land utilization between Dongguan city and various towns and villages under its jurisdiction. A sound discussion and coordination mechanism shall be established to address major issues arising during the construction and development of town and village-level industrial parks.
The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall support town and village-level industrial parks in terms of production factor supply, development and operation, investment attraction, sci-tech innovation, and infrastructure construction. An industrial land use efficiency system shall be created to evaluate land use efficiency of town and village-level industrial parks, and improvement shall be made accordingly. State-owned enterprises, chain leaders, and industrial estate operators shall be encouraged to participate in developing, constructing, operating and managing town and village-level industrial parks, and to upgrade such parks from solely production-oriented parks to comprehensive production service ones. The township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall be encouraged and guided to integrate scattered small industrial parks within their scope of administration, so that idle, inefficient land are recycled and revitalized.
The township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall strengthen governance of production safety, fire safety, and ecological environment in town and village-level industrial parks.
Article 25 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall provide market participants with services in talent introduction, employment consultation, occupational guidance, and labor dispute mediation. An employment early warning mechanism shall be set up as well.
The municipal human resources and social security department shall guide relevant enterprises to meet their employment needs, support those in need to explore new employment modes such as shared and flexible employment, and improve the efficiency of human resources allocation by bringing surplus labor to need areas. An occupational skills training system shall be established to encourage and support employers to train more skilled talents. A robust mechanism shall be created for introducing, cultivating, utilizing, evaluating, stimulating and providing guarantee to skilled talents, which will help raise the technical and skill level of the workers, and eventually build a skill-based society. Enterprises shall be encouraged and supported to build an occupational skill grading system, evaluate skilled talents, build the pathway for skilled talents to grow, and promote joint grading of occupational skills by enterprises and relevant social organizations. A long-term mechanism for regulating the human resources market shall be established and improved. Grading of human resources service agencies and labor dispatch agencies shall be conducted, and the grading results shall be used publicly. Violations of relevant laws and regulations shall be investigated and punished so that the human resources industry can grow in a healthy and ordered manner.
Article 26 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall work to improve the local financial ecological environment. To this end, a mechanism shall be created to promote efficient and accurate information matchmaking between government, financial institutions and enterprises; a competitive pro-financial agglomeration system shall be set up to ease financing by market participants and allow full play to the role of financial sector in serving the real economy.
The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall encourage and guide financial institutions to develop and market financial products that benefit MSMEs, open up green service channels for them, simplify relevant loan procedures, increase credit to MSMEs and support for medium and long-term loans and credit loans, and reduce financing costs to make financing easier for MSMEs.
The municipal people’s government shall support the creation of a sound comprehensive credit service platform for enterprise financing, and provide financial institutions with enterprise-related credit information on market supervision, customs, judicial, taxation, real estate registration, utility, housing provident fund, and social security. The municipal people’s government shall expand the application of credit data in financial scenarios, launch creative financial products and services, ensure that more credit resources are provided to MSMEs, and raise the efficiency of corporate financing.
Article 27 The industrial parks shall strictly follow national and provincial policies on power transfer and supply, and publish the details of electricity payments (no extra charges shall be made) to the end users every month.
The municipal power department shall better play its role in coordination and overall planning, and work with the municipal industry and information technology department and the township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) to upgrade and enhance the power supply environment in industrial parks. The industrial parks shall be encouraged to install separate metering devices for each end user. For end users that can be switched to straight power supply, reconstruction shall be made by the power enterprise so that direct meter reading at each user can be achieved.
The market administration shall strengthen supervision over potential or disguised markups of electricity fee by power transfer operators, and keep the complaint and report channels unblocked to crack down on illegal behaviors.
Article 28 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall, in accordance with relevant national regulations, optimize the approval process for engineering construction projects (other than special projects and major projects in the fields of transportation, water conservancy and energy), streamline the approval procedures through parallel review, joint review of multiple drawings, and joint acceptance inspection, and enhance the approval efficiency. The practice of separating administrative examination and approval from technical review shall be encouraged. Before planning & site approval of construction projects, or review or licensing decision on major projects by the planning and licensing department, a qualified unit may be entrusted (by way of service procurement by government) to perform technical review simultaneously, and confirm the results that meet the requirements. Verification of items shall be made in advance at the counter to improve review efficiency.
The notification commitment system and parallel examination and approval during planning and construction shall be fully implemented. The design unit undertakes to prepare the construction drawing design documents according to the plan approved by the planning department and the planning permission conditions, and verify conformance of the construction drawing design to the planning indicators and engineering information; the construction unit undertakes to carefully review the construction drawing design documents and be responsible for the authenticity, completeness and compliance of the contents thereof. At the same time, the construction unit may apply for issuance of the construction engineering planning permit and review of construction drawing. For housing construction projects that meet the land and planning conditions, after the general contractor for construction has been determined in accordance with the law, the construction unit may apply for construction license in stages based on the sequence of construction (i.e. foundation ditch and foundation works), provided that the quality and safety of the project is guaranteed.
Article 29 The municipal natural resources department shall work to accelerate the examination and approval of state-owned construction land projects and industrial investment projects, and implement parallel review during planning adjustment, land use application and approval, and engineering approval of major projects. Integrated approval shall apply for the upgrading of existing industrial land. During land supply, cadastral survey shall be conducted and support shall be given to such work as land supply, initial land registration, and obtaining of the real estate ownership certificate immediately upon land transfer.
The integrated service model shall be fully adopted relying on the municipal construction project approval platform. For new industrial projects with social investment, after the enterprise has made relevant commitments upon acquiring the land and meeting the conditions for starting construction work, the municipal natural resources, housing and urban-rural construction, and other departments shall issue, upon application, the planning permit of construction engineering, and the report on starting construction.
The municipal people’s government shall establish a positive and negative list system for joint fire control review of existing buildings upon a change of use function. While ensuring building and fire safety, relevant fire control acceptance & filing procedures shall be optimized based on local conditions.
The municipal housing and urban-rural construction department and relevant departments shall deepen joint acceptance service for major municipal projects. By advancing services to earlier stages, and allowing early decoration and equipment installation, project approval, construction and acceptance shall be integrated with decoration, installation of production equipment, and other production processes to speed up the operation process.
Article 30 The competent municipal departments in charge of housing and urban-rural construction, transportation, water conservancy, and energy shall, together with the departments of development and reform, and natural resources, strengthen the approval of engineering construction projects based on risk categories and levels, and the supervision of quality and safety based on risk levels. The risk classification criteria sand risk levels of different construction projects shall be clarified, and differentiated approval and supervision shall be implemented.
The engineering project assistance and agent services shall be optimized. An agent service network characterized by division of work, as well as collaboration and linkage between the city and various towns shall be established, with the citizen service center as the hub. The agent service area (point of service) shall rely on the same-level government service center to serve market participants through the comprehensive agent service counter and the special section online.
Article 31 The municipal and township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall form a new type of cordial and clean relationship between government and business, establish a regular and efficient enterprise service specialists mechanism and mechanism for soliciting opinions of market participants, smoothen the channels for quick exchange of information, timely listen to and respond to the reasonable feedbacks and demands of market participants in different ways, and coordinate and resolve difficulties and problems encountered by market participants in their production and operation.
The municipal government service and data administration, and the municipal industry and information technology department shall continue to improve and better manage such channels as the “12345 government service hotline” and the “Qi Guan Jia” one-stop service platform for enterprises, establish a robust mechanism for rapid response to the requests of market participants, and provide them with consultation, guidance and coordination services.
Article 32 The municipal people’s government, as well as relevant departments, shall establish and improve an intelligent tiered response mechanism for emergency supply chain, and provide market participants with services in human resources, facility and equipment, supply and demand, intellectual property protection, and policy information based on the emergency response level, market developments at home and abroad, and industrial restructuring needs of its administrative area.
Market participants shall be supported to build digital platforms of industrial supply chains, create early warning and response mechanisms for industrial supply chains, and strengthen collaboration with upstream and downstream enterprises along the supply chain.
Chapter IV Scientific and Technological Innovation Environment
Article 33 The municipal People’s government shall thoroughly implement the innovation-driven development strategy, fully participate in the construction of the International Science and Technology Innovation Center and Comprehensive National Science Center in the GBA, and foster a whole-chain, whole-process and all-factor innovation ecosystem that ranges from source innovation to technological innovation, achievement transformation, and enterprise cultivation.
Market-oriented allocation of sci-tech innovation resources shall be promoted. With a focus on the needs of industrial development and innovation, both the industrial chain and innovation chain shall be reinforced to improve the responsiveness of innovation resource allocation to market changes.
Article 34 The municipal people’s government shall strengthen the strategic planning and construction of national science and technology innovation platforms (such as the Songshan Lake Science City), and rationally and orderly deploy major technology infrastructure, high-level laboratories, new-type research institutions, and other major research platforms and sci-tech support service platforms.
The municipal people’s government shall support scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the Songshan Lake Science City to conduct system and institutional innovation, pilot efforts in basic research, technological breakthrough, achievement transformation, development of sci-tech finance, and talent support, strengthen the supply of technological innovation sources, and boost the emerging and future industries.
Article 35 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall optimize the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, improve the policies and measures for market participants to innovate and start a business, build innovation and entrepreneurship clusters and public innovation platforms, develop various types of innovation and entrepreneurship carriers such as high-tech business incubators, innovation and entrepreneurship complexes and maker spaces, improve the supporting services, and support innovation, entrepreneurship and creation by scientific researchers, entrepreneurial teams and entrepreneurs.
Article 36 The municipal science and technology department shall support the public sharing of scientific and technological R&D resources, and improve the platform for sharing scientific research instruments and equipment. Service agencies, instruments and facilities shall be gathered to offer multi-level instrument and equipment sharing service. Resources of large devices and platforms shall be shared to reduce the R&D costs of market participants.
Article 37 The municipal people’s government shall ensure the input of scientific and technological funds, optimize the structure of sci-tech innovation inputs, improve the investment and financing system for scientific and technological innovation, and form a diverse, multi-channel funding system with government input as the guide, input by market participant as the mainstay, and extensive participation by social capital.
The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall formulate innovative R&D support policies, broaden the sources of venture investment through multiple channels, encourage market participants to increase investment in sci-tech innovation, research and development, and enhance their scientific and technological R&D capabilities.
Article 38 The municipal science and technology and other relevant departments shall focus on better organizing breakthroughs of core and key technologies in major industries and major issues of social development in Dongguan, and improve the efficiency of key and core technology breakthrough.
Leading scientific and technological enterprises are encouraged to undertake major research projects. Industry market participants are supported to form R&D platforms, industrial technology innovation alliances, and innovation consortia with universities and scientific research institutions, to jointly make breakthroughs in key generic technology.
Article 39 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall rationally plan and build proof of concept centers and pilot bases, and provide intermediate test conditions for large-scale production to facilitate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.
Cooperation between market participants and institutions of higher learning and research institutions shall be encouraged to facilitate collaborative innovation between government, enterprises, universities and research institutes, and promote the transfer and application of scientific and technological achievements.
Article 40 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall implement a more open and convenient policy for the introduction of high-level skilled talents, continue to broaden the channels for attracting talents, and accelerate the construction of an attractive and internationally competitive talent system. More consistent policies shall be introduced to provide convenience to talents in terms of household registration, health care, children’s schooling, spouse employment, and housing security. Once-stop services covering qualifications recognition, treatment implementation, start-up services and quality life shall be provided to create a high-level international talent community.
The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall develop a talent development plan and a list of talents in urgent need to ensure accurate attraction of talents based on needs. Market participants shall be assisted to establish relationships with domestic and foreign universities and research institutes, and to create joint talent training mechanisms with universities and vocational colleges.
Article 41 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall improve the financial support system for scientific and technological innovation, and promote the integrated development of science and technology, industry and finance. Listing guidance to enterprises shall be strengthened to help high-quality enterprises get listed for financing. Financial institutions shall be encouraged to develop diverse sci-tech financial products and new ways of providing financial services, and offer financial products suitable for technology-based and growth enterprises.
The municipal and township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) may initiate or participate in the establishment of entrepreneurship and investment guidance funds in accordance with the law, guide social capital to invest in start-up enterprises and projects, and promote the rapid growth of enterprises.
Article 42 Independent research, development and innovation by market participants shall be encouraged and supported. Market participants shall be supported to make intellectual property arrangements in China and overseas, and to increase investment in this respect. Market participants shall also be guided to conduct in-depth cooperation with universities and institutions in intellectual property transformation and application, promote the commercialization of intellectual property achievements, and improve the ability of enterprises to apply, manage and protect intellectual property.
Financial innovations such as intellectual property securitization and intellectual property pledge financing shall be supported to provide intellectual property financial support for innovative enterprises throughout their life cycle.
Article 43 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall continue to improve the intellectual property (IP) rights protection system, build a robust IP rights protection mechanism, put in place a multi-department joint enforcement mechanism, better coordinate administrative and judicial protection of IP rights, and strengthen IP enforcement collaboration across regions to better protect IP rights.
Supervision over IP credit shall be tightened. An information-sharing mechanism for IP rights protection, as well as a joint punishment mechanism for dishonest market participants shall be put in place. For the protection of IP rights, information on administrative law enforcement, judicial litigation, and arbitration and mediation shall be linked for supervision. Using modern technological means such as source tracing, real-time monitoring, and online recognition, protection of independent brand innovations, and innovations in new types of business and new areas shall be strengthened.
Article 44 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall foster new industries, new forms and new models of the digital economy, support the creation of standardized data development and application scenarios in production and living, transportation and urban governance, and guide the in-depth integration of the digital economy and the real economy.
Relevant departments shall make overall planning and policies relating to such application scenarios, publish the list of application scenario projects for key areas, enhance the service capability of industrial internet platforms, and push forward digital transformation, IT application and intelligent production of enterprises. Leveraging digital technologies and internet platforms, enterprises shall be encouraged to collaborate closer with their peers in the industry and supply chains to create a digital economy ecosystem.
Chapter V International Environment
Article 45 The municipal people’s government shall, in line with national arrangements, deepen exchanges and cooperation with countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” in policy coordination, facility connectivity, unimpeded trade, and financial integration, strengthen contacts with foreign consulates in Guangdong, and publicize and promote Dongguan’s business environment.
The municipal people’s government and relevant departments, as well as the township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall work harder to promote Dongguan’s fine traditional culture (such as the dragon boat, Guanxiang, Cantonese opera, Kylin, lion dance), and its urban image as the “cradle of China’s modern history”, “famous international manufacturing city”, “trendy Dongguan” and “basketball city”, so as to enhance its international influence and appeal.
Article 46 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall, in line with their respective duties, provide the following services for market participants to develop foreign trade and participate in overseas investments:
(1) Build the exchange platforms for foreign trade and overseas investments;
(2) Provide information on the policies and regulations of the export/investment destinations, as well as relevant international practices;
(3) Inform about major risk information of related countries and regions affecting international trade, and provide guidance on how to deal with such risks;
(4) Organize trainings on foreign trade, overseas investment, responding to trade frictions, and intellectual property protection;
(5) Provide other services relating to foreign trade and overseas investments.
Article 47 The customs, commerce, transport and other departments shall, in accordance with relevant State provisions, enhance the process and efficiency of customs clearance, improve such declaration modes as early declaration and two-step declaration, as well as the declaration deficiency tolerance mechanism and disclosure deficiency tolerance mechanisms, and introduce various measures to facilitate customs clearance and reduce costs.
Article 48 More efforts shall be made to promote the application of the national and provincial international trade “single counter” platforms, increase the coverage of major application modules (including cargo declaration, manifest declaration and conveyance declaration), and ensure that relevant operations, including cargo declaration, manifest declaration, conveyance declaration, cross-border e-commerce, market purchasing and international exhibition, are done via such “single counter” for foreign trade.
Cooperation and information-sharing shall be boosted between regulatory authorities, import and export enterprises, shipping companies, shipping agents, and freight forwarders, to ensure the integration and linkage of port clearance and logistics services.
Article 49 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall energetically promote coordinated development of industry innovation systems in the GBA area, support the formation of cross-regional, multi-level industry cooperation & coordination mechanism, and ensure industrial complementarity and reasonable distribution of industries. Industry innovation platforms and industry technology alliances shall be established through partnership with market participants, universities, and research institutions in the relevant GBA cities to boost collaborative industrial innovation.
Article 50 Explorations shall be made to form a commercial dispute settlement mechanism aligned with international trade and investment rules and practices.
Notary agencies, arbitration organizations and law offices shall be encouraged to provide legal services in Hong Kong and Macao. The development of foreign commercial mediation organizations shall be supported. Exchanges and cooperation in commercial mediation, arbitration, and foreign-related notarization in the GBA area shall be increased to help market participants resolve commercial disputes. Legal service agencies shall cooperate with each other in arbitration, notarization, mediation, and legal investigation to raise the level of foreign-related legal services.
More work shall be done to cultivate foreign-related arbitration talents, build platforms for foreign exchanges and cooperation, and facilitate international exchanges as well as exchanges among foreign-related legal talents. Efforts shall also be made to cultivate a team of highly qualified international commercial arbitrators and enhance their mediation capabilities.
Chapter VI Legal Environment
Article 51 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall maintain policy consistency and continuity in development planning, project investment, and preferential treatments, and fulfill the policy commitments made and the contracts and agreements signed in accordance with the law.
A sound honesty responsibility system for relevant government departments shall be established. For public-private partnership projects, the responsible person at the government side, along with his/her duties of honesty during project preparation, tendering and bidding, government procurement, financing and implementation, shall be clearly defined.
Article 52 In drafting local laws, rules and regulations, normative documents and other policies and measures that are closely related to the economic activities of market participants, fair competition review shall be conducted in accordance with relevant provisions.
Where the drafter is suspected of having failed to conduct a fair competition review or having issued policies in violation of the related review standards, any unit or individual may report the violation to such drafter or the higher authorities, or to the market administration at the same or above level. The participation of third party in fair competition review is encouraged.
Article 53 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall create a new regulation mechanism based on credit supervision. The industry regulator shall, based on the comprehensive public credit evaluation results and the results of industry credit evaluation, manage the market participants according to their risk categories. Such management shall be integrated with the regulation model featured by random inspection and timely disclosure of the inspection results. Differentiated regulatory measures shall be taken in terms of regulatory frequency, and credit rewards and punishments.
The credit repairing system shall be practised. Market participants with dishonesty records are encouraged to repair their credit by voluntarily performing their obligations, correcting dishonest acts, and eliminating the adverse impacts.
Article 54 The administrative law enforcement organs shall set up a robust law enforcement system, improve the enforcement procedures, standardize administrative discretion, and enhance the level of law enforcement. The principle of combining punishment with education shall always be respected, so that in case of slight and occasional dishonesty, enterprises can be guided to fulfil their duties and correct their errors.
The municipal people’s government shall put in place a unified fault-tolerant mechanism for market administration, and develop a list of trivial violations of laws and regulations by market participants to be exempted from administrative punishment and coercion. If the illegal act is trivial and corrected promptly with no harmful consequences, no administrative punishment shall be imposed; If the illegal act is obviously trivial or of insignificant harm, compulsory administrative measures may not be required.
Reform of comprehensive administrative law enforcement shall be deepened. The right of administrative punishment shall be exercised in a concentrated manner to reduce the number of law enforcement subjects involved. The township people’s governments (subdistrict offices) shall consolidate law enforcements forces, and centrally exercise the authority of administrative penalty, as well as related right of administrative inspection and of administrative coercive measures.
Article 55 The municipal people’s government and relevant departments shall increase legal publicity and awareness on optimizing the business environment in the principle of “the one who enforces the law popularizes the law”, and create an enabling environment for this purpose.
The building of a modern public legal service system shall be accelerated, and public legal service resources such as lawyer service, notarization, legal aid, judicial expertise, mediation and arbitration shall be integrated. In such fields as labor dispute, intellectual property, eco-environment protection, finance and commerce, innovations shall be made in the form, content and supply of public legal services to improve both the quality and efficiency of public legal services.
Commercial mediation organizations shall be fostered and supported to become professional, international and market-oriented. Mediators shall be professionalized with specialized skills. A complete set of commercial mediation rules shall be formulated, and publicity shall be strengthened to raise awareness in this respect. Commercial mediation organizations shall be supported to seek rapid and standard development, and their professional talent advantage shall be brought into play. The arbitration secretary shall be professional and specialized, and arbitration institutions’ ability to resolve disputes shall be elevated.
Article 56 A robust, diversified dispute resolution mechanism shall be boosted to achieve the integration of and complementarity between notarization, mediation, review, litigation, and arbitration. Ongoing and positive efforts shall be made to improve notarization and relevant extended services, participate in addressing commercial disputes, and provide effective and convenient means of dispute resolution for market participants.
Monitoring and pre-warning of commercial disputes shall be increased to prevent and reduce commercial dispute incidents. Parties to a commercial dispute shall be encouraged and guided to first resort to non-litigation means such as commercial mediation, and commercial arbitration. More information technology means shall be utilized in the settlement of disputes through diverse means. Online consultation, evaluation, mediation and confirmation shall be promoted in case of commercial disputes so as to resolve the dispute online.
Article 57 The people’s courts shall ensure full and equal protection of market participants’ legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law, improve the quality and efficiency of case trials, and enhance the transparency of judicial decisions.
The people’s courts shall accelerate the construction of an online litigation service platform, simplify online case-filing procedures, strengthen electronic delivery, further the reform of separating complicated and simple bankruptcy cases, and provide intelligent, convenient and efficient litigation services for market participants.
Article 58 The municipal people’s government and the people’s courts shall establish a coordination mechanism for enterprise bankruptcy-related work, and support and cooperate with the people’s courts in making bankruptcy adjudications. Matters involved in enterprise bankruptcy, such as tax coordination, staff resettlement, information sharing, property disposal, credit repair, financing support and risk prevention, shall be pushed forward in an coordinated way. Relevant problems arising during enterprise bankruptcy shall be promptly coordinated.
The people’s courts shall improve the bankruptcy process to make the trial of bankruptcy cases more efficient. A sound mechanism for the exchange and sharing of enforcement and bankruptcy information shall be created, to ensure the coordination of enforcement and bankruptcy work in an orderly way. Bankruptcy rescue mechanisms such as reorganization recognition and pre-reorganization shall be explored, and a sound market participant rescue and exit mechanism shall be created.
Article 59 The municipal people’s government, or township people’s government shall report its work on optimizing the business environment to the municipal People’s Congress and its Standing Committee, or the township People’s Congress, together with the government work report and special work report. The municipal People’s Congress and its Standing Committee, and the township People’s Congress, in return, shall strengthen supervision of relevant work within its respective administrative area.
Article 60 Where State organs and their functionaries violate the provisions of these Regulations and damage the business environment, the competent authorities shall order them to make corrections; If the circumstances are serious, the relevant responsible persons shall be punished in accordance with the law; If the violation constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated accordingly.
Enterprises, public institutions, trade associations, chambers of commerce, and intermediary service agencies that violate the relevant provisions of these Regulations and damage the business environment shall be ordered by the relevant departments to make corrections within the specified time limit and be investigated for legal responsibilities in accordance with the law.
For any other violations of these Regulations for which laws and regulations have provided for legal liabilities, such provisions shall prevail.
Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions
Article 61 These Regulations shall be implemented as from March 1, 2024.
