In pursuance to the statute no. 346 the Provisions on the Guidance to the Orientation of Foreign Investment of the State Council, as well as other relevant laws and regulations, in consideration of the actual situation in Yunnan province, the present Approving Work Procedure of the Foreign Investment in Yunnan Province has been formulated. Prefectures may refer to it in their actual work.

    1.The scope of approving foreign investment project at the provincial level

    In pursuance to the statute no. 346 the Provisions on the Guidance to the Orientation of Foreign Investment of the State Council, the scope of approval at the provincial level is: the checking, approving, and reporting for record of foreign investment project exceeding the stipulated capital amount, foreign investment project in the restricted category, as well as projects needed to be transferred to the relevant government agencies of the central government for approval.

    2. The content of approving at the provincial level and the work responsibilities of various relevant departments

    (1). Approval

    a. The approval of the project proposal and the project feasibility study of foreign investment project

    In pursuance to the Laws on the Business Operation of Sino-Overseas Joint Ventures and the Laws on the Business Operation of Sino-Overseas Cooperative Enterprises, the Provincial Development Planning Commission or the Provincial Economic and Trade Commission are responsible for the approval of the project proposal and the project feasibility study of foreign investment projects. The Provincial Development Planning Commission is responsible for the approval of projects on infrastructure construction, and the Provincial Economic and Trade Commission is responsible for the projects of technical renovation.

    b. The official reply on business contract and the articles of incorporation of foreign investment enterprises

    The Provincial Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation is responsible for the approval of the business contract and the articles of incorporation of the foreign investment enterprises, and for the issuance of the Permit of Foreign Investment Enterprises to the relevant enterprises.

    c. The issuance of Business License of Enterprises Legal Person to the foreign investment enterprise

The Provincial Administration of Industry and Commerce is responsible for the registration of foreign investment enterprises, and the issuance of Business License of Enterprises Legal Person to the approved enterprise.

    (2). Pre-checking and approving

    a. The Provincial Department of Land and Resources is responsible for the checking and approving of the land acquisition of the projects and projects to be engaged in the mineral resources development.

    b. The Provincial Department of Construction is responsible for being in charge of the pre-checking of the location selection of the project construction planning. The department coordinates the checking and issuance of the Suggestions on the Location of the Construction Project, the Permit of Land Acquisition of Construction Engineering, the Permit of Construction Engineering Planning, checks the technical qualification of foreign investment for market access, and approves its engineering qualification in construction works.

    c. The Provincial Environmental Protection Administration provides its preliminary opinion on whether it agrees to conduct environmental appraisal on the suggested plant location.

    d. The Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision approves and issues organization code certificate to those approved enterprises.

    e. Other related functional line departments are responsible for the checking and approving of foreign investment projects in their lines, and provide the opinion of the department in charge of the Chinese partner in the cooperation.

    f. The Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation is responsible for reporting to the Ministry of Commerce for approval of export licenses for those projects requesting export.

    3. The requirement of approval work

    a. The approving procedures will be completed by all the related departments which have dispatched working staff in the service building.

    b. The Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation is in charge of the joint meeting system for joint approval and coordination at the provincial level.
    c. The whole provincial approving process from the acceptance of application to the issuance of business license can be divided into 4 categories:

    (a). For those projects fit in the direct registration criteria, they can be directly registered in accordance with the relevant requirement;

    (b). For those projects which do not need overall coordination, they can be handled first at the window of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and then sent to other departments for joint approving;

    ( c ). For those projects needing overall coordination, the coordination has to be completed within 15 work days (including the convening of project coordinating meeting);

    (d). For those projects of greater difficulty in coordination, the provincial government will be requested to come up for coordination. Then the approving work will be conducted according to the spirit of the coordination meeting.

    4. Operation procedure

    (1). The acceptance of application: The working staff from the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation will reply questions related to the approving, and responsible for the receiving of the requested basic materials for project application processing.

    (2). The project preliminary checking: On the second work day after receiving the basic application materials, according to the necessity, the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation will initiate to convene the project preliminary checking meeting at the service building which will be attended by the departments related to the relevant approving work. In accordance with the principles and request of the meeting, the relevant departments will put forward their suggestions on whether to accept or not to accept the project application within one day time. The Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation will inform the enterprise on the decision of application acceptance and other related issues.

    (3). The official acceptance: Following the decision of the preliminary meeting, the applied enterprises will hand in 5 copies of complete application materials to the working staff of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in the service building, and receive the acceptance notice. This date is the date of acceptance. On the day of acceptance, DOFTEC will, according to the nature of the project, distribute the application materials to the representatives of the Planning Commission, the Economic and Trade Commission, the Industrial and Commercial Administration, and other relevant departments.

    (4). The approving:

    a. From the date the application was accepted, the Planning Commission, the Economic and Trade Commission, and other related line departments shall complete the checking and approving within their own fields of responsibility in 5 work days, and provide their reply document to the DOFTEC.

    b. After receiving the above related reply document on the project, the DOFTEC will, within 5 work days, complete the checking and approving of the enterprises’ business contract and the articles of in-corporation, and provide the reply document. Meanwhile, the Industrial and Commercial Administration will complete the company name pre-approval within 2 work days.

    c. After receiving the approval of DOFTEC on the business contract and the articles of in-corporation, the Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision will complete the process within 1 day of providing the organization code. After receiving the Business License of Enterprise Legal Person from the Provincial Administration of Industry and Commerce, the Bureau will complete the issuance of the Organization Code Certificate within 2 work days.

    d. After the completion of the above work, the DOFTEC will issue the Permit Certificate to the foreign investment enterprise in 1 work day.

    e. After receiving the Permit Certificate and the reply document on the business contract and the articles of in-corporation, from the date of official acceptance, the Provincial Administration of Industry and Commerce will within 3 work days complete the process of business registration and the issuance of business license.

    (5). The handling of different opinions:

    During the approving process, if there are different opinions emerging, according to point no. (2) of article no. 4 of this Work Procedure, coordination will be conducted. Important differences will be reported to the provincial government for coordination. The decision of the coordination meeting by the provincial government will be the final decision. Departments unable to attend the meeting must handle the related formalities in accordance with the meeting decision.

    5. The direct registration

    For those foreign investment projects meeting the relevant criteria in the Foreign Investment Acts of Yunnan Province, in pursuance to the stipulations of the Enforcement Regulations of the Direct Registration of Some Foreign Investment Enterprises of Yunnan Province, the Administration of Industry and Commerce will, after the presentation of required documents by the project applicants, complete the whole process of business registration in 5 work days before the handling of other related approving formalities.

    6. Supplement

    This work procedure is effective from the date of its publication. The Yunnan Provincial Government is responsible for the explanation of this procedure.