Yun-Zheng-Fa [2003] No 180
Opinions of The People's Government of Yunnan Province
On the Improvement of Investment Climate
To: People's Governments of All Ethnic Autonomous Prefectures and Municipalities, Administrative Offices of All Prefectures, All Commissions, Offices, Departments and Bureaus Directly under the Provincial Government
We hereby issue opinions on the improvement of the investment climate in Yunnan Province based on the proposal of Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in order to put the important thought of Three Represents into full practice, to carry out the spirit of the Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Third Plenary Session of the CPC's Sixteenth Central Committee, and to further transform government functions, create a favorable environment for investors from outside the province, accelerate the introduction and expand the size of external investments into the province as well as drive rapid economic growth through massive introduction of inward investment towards the realization of the great goal of building a well-off society in the province in tandem with all other parts of China. Your careful study and earnest execution of the opinions are hence expected.
I.Improve the awareness and sense of urgency and responsibility for attracting more investments into the province.
(I) Remarkable achievements made in attracting external investment. Since China's adoption of the reform and opening-up policy, all regions and sectors across the province have been proactive in opening up to the outside world and taken every possible measure to attract business and investments into the province, and these efforts have led to hard-won achievements in that field.
As of the end of 2002, approval had been granted to the establishment of 2277 foreign-funded enterprises in the province with US$1.49 billion foreign capital put into actual utilization.
As to the attraction of investment from other parts of China, 13595 cooperation projects had been implemented, with an amount of RMB£”č31.26 billion originating from outside the province. The external investment has played a positive role conducive to the reform and development of the province in that it has not only driven the development of some industrial sectors, but more importantly, has broken the enclosed and outdated mindset, brought advanced technologies and management into the province, and therefore generated major and far-reaching impacts on the acceleration of the province's reform and development.
(II) Problems existing in the attraction of external investments & their underlying causes. Compared with the national level and the situation in the more advanced provinces and regions, Yunnan province is faced with problems including low gross and small size of the external investment utilized, low registration level of contractual capital and low survival rate of foreign-invested enterprises. In 2002, the total amount of foreign investment utilized in the province only accounted for 0.33% of the nation's total and 2% of the province's total fixed asset investment, the foreign-funded enterprises in the province showed a low survival rate, and the province ranked the second from the last out of the six provinces in southwest China in terms of the total external investment. The key reasons underlying the limited external capital are outmoded mindset, slow government function transformation, red tape in administrative licensing, low efficiency and poor policy implementation, and so on. Therefore, it has become a must to solve the existing problems and further improve the investment climate.
(III) Significance of attracting external investment & opportunities facing the province. Improvement of the investment climate is of critical and profound significance to the province in terms of expanding the scale of external investment, stimulating the growth of the non-public sector economy, optimizating and upgrading industry structure and enhancing the international competitiveness of the province's economy, and sustaining its rapid growth. At present, the province is faced with major opportunities for further opening up to the outside world. The new round of international and interregional capital and industry transfer, China's implementation of the western development strategy and accession to WTO, the establishment of China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Free Trade Area and the nation's participation in economic cooperation in the Greater Mekong Sub-region have created rare opportunities for the province in promoting its cooperation with the outside world and attracting more external investments. We must firmly establish the awareness of grasping every opportunity, strengthen the sense of urgency and responsibility in our work, and take effective measures to create a good climate for attracting external investments on a massive scale.
II. Deepen the administrative licensing system reform and improve efficiency and service.
(IV) Sorting out and publicizing all external investment-related issues requiring administrative licensing. All external investment-related issues that require administrative licensing should be sorted out in accordance with the requirements of the administrative licensing system reform, and all those that do not conform to WTO rules and contradict to market opening and fair competition should be abolished. Issues subject to administrative licensing shall be amalgamated to the greatest extent, made known to the public and implemented.
(V) Fully reforming the external investment licensing system. Among all external investment projects, governments and other competent authorities shall only exercise review and approval formalities over those major ones that are related to economic security, possible impacts on environmental resources and the overall economic layout, and those of government investment nature or those falling under the category as restricted projects or industries; while all other projects shall be subject to registration only instead of the original review and approval procedure. The authorities in charge shall no longer review and approve project proposals, feasibility study reports, charters of contracts, and the investors can directly apply to the duly-authorized administrations for industry and commerce for registration of the projects, and go through formalities with appropriate authorities for permissions regarding land use, resources, environmental protection and safety, etc.
(VI) Continuously enhancing efficiency. The working style of "coordination in an integrated fashion" and the provision of "one-stop-shop" service should be further improved. The review and approval of external investment-related issues shall, in principle, be handled in the external investment service center. All competent authorities shall respectively appoint personnel in charge to work in the said service center, and all review and approval formalities are concluded in a "one-stop-shop" fashion. A public affairs transparency system shall be introduced, whereas the criteria, procedures, authority, responsibilities and time limits regarding review and approval of external investment projects shall be publicized in order to receive the supervision of all investors.
A case-by-case review and approval system shall be implemented for major projects. For each major project involving an investment amount of or above RMB£”č50million, the "joint-conference review system" may be exercised to define all issues subject to review and approval at only one such conference, and with all the review and approval formalities concluded within 15 working days.
In the event of disagreement during the joint review, the government leaders at the same level shall be responsible for coordination and shall sign and release the review comments for approval. A major investment project may be approved first depending on the credibility of the investor and the needs of industry steering, with other pertinent formalities to be fulfilled later.
An agent system shall be implemented. Agencies may be set up under government authorities in charge of external investment affairs to handle formalities on behalf of investors for permits of the construction projects they invest in the province, but the agencies shall not operate for profit-making. The said authorities shall work out specific measures and report the same to the government at the same level for approval for defining time limits for the handling of relevant formalities by such government organizations or agencies as environmental protection, land control, planning, city construction, fire prevention, and power, water and gas supply, etc.
The process for e-government should be expedited. An online network among relevant government authorities should be built as quickly as possible to bring greater convenience to external investors in the handling of matters like online application, registration, inquiry, annual inspection and complaints, etc.
(VII) Providing "full-process" services. The provision of follow-up services to key investing enterprises should be strengthened; endeavors should be made to offer good services before, during and after the introduction of investment into the province, and coordination for solving problems encountered by enterprises during their project establishment, construction, production and operation should be reinforced. For major investment projects, a service responsibility system should be introduced where government leaders are personally involved in facilitating such projects.
(VIII) Promoting professional intermediary service. Widely-known Chinese or foreign intermediary agencies should be introduced into the province and a number of intermediary institutions that comply with the international rules should be set up, the service in the fields of law, accounting, auditing, architectural design, finance, insurance, industry consultation and human resources should be upgraded so as to provide external investors with professional and high-quality services.
(IX) Instituting an accountability system over administrative nonperformance and malpractice. Staff in governments at all levels and in all government authorities shall work and handle relevant formalities in compliance with law. In the event of any administrative malpractice, investors shall have the right to lodge complaints thereagainst. Any government employee who is found of administrative nonperformance, procrastination, violation of regulations, dereliction of duty, abuse of power for personal benefits and bribery in different forms shall be subject to investigation and punishment by the disciplinary inspection authority at the same level, or be held liable for criminal charges if he or she is involved in a criminal case.
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