The State Council recently issued Decision on the Cancellation of Administrative Licensing Items in the Third Batch in Designated Places of the Central Government (hereinafter referred to as the Decision) signed and approved by Premier Li Keqiang.

As the Decision says, the State Council will further abolish 39 administrative licensing items in the designated places of the central government on the basis of the cancellation of 230 examination and approval items in the first two batches. The State Council will propose that relevant laws and regulations on another 14 administrative licensing items subject to relevant laws be revised from the NPC Standing Committee in accordance with legal procedures.

In terms of related departments, the canceled items are related to 21 operational guidance departments of the central government. In terms of the contents, most items involve enterprise production and management as well as personal employment and entrepreneurship. The cancellation will benefit both the enterprises and individuals in alleviating burdens and stimulating the market vitality. In terms of its implementation scale, a large number of items are implemented by province, municipality and county tri-levels respectively, covering widely and direct correlating with the masses. The cancellation will facilitate the simplification of administrative procedures and power delegation to the lower levels, while benefitting the masses.

The Decision publishes not only the items to be canceled, but specific measures to strengthen the administration beforehand and afterwards after the cancellation of the examination and approval. It fully shows that the simplification of administrative procedures and power delegation to the lower levels will not be simply realized by the cancellation of relevant approvals. The government is still controlling it, but in another management method that is more effective with regulatory measures beforehand and afterwards. Additionally, it is also the supervision on the government departments, which helps supervise related departments to implement the regulatory measures.

The Decision stipulates that all districts and departments shall facilitate the implementation and follow-up work of the regulatory measures beforehand and afterwards, define the liability subject and working methods and effectively improve the systematization, synchronization, pertinence and effectiveness of the administrative approval reform.