SMPG GO D [2021] No. 4

Attention: all District People’s Governments, all Commissions, Offices and Bureaus (Administrations) of the Municipal People’s Government, and all relevant Units:

Upon the consent of the Municipal People’s Government, we hereby issue the Implementation Plan of Shanghai Municipality on Fully Promoting the Notification and Commitment System for Certification Matters to you, and request you to implement them conscientiously .

General Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government

February 19, 2021

Implementation Plan of Shanghai Municipality on Fully Promoting the 

Notification and Commitment System for Certification Matters

With a view to carrying out the arrangement of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the continuous reducing certification to create convenience, deepening the reform of streamlining administration, delegating powers, improving regulation and optimizing services, continuously forging a market oriented, law ruled and internationalized business environment, and fully promoting the notification and commitment system for certification matters, this Implementation Plan is formulated according to the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Fully Promoting the Notification and Commitment System for Certification Matters and Enterprise-related Business Licensing Matters and in the light of the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

I. Major Objectives

The notification and commitment system for certification matters shall be applicable to the application-dependent administrative matters, such as administrative licensing, administrative confirmation and administrative benefits (hereinafter referred to as “administrative matters”), which are handled by the administrative organs at various levels of this Municipality and the organizations with the functions of administering public affairs as authorized by laws and rules (hereinafter collectively referred to as “administrative organs”). With the clear notification by the administrative organs and the integrity and commitment by enterprises and the people as the focus, the formation of a governance model featuring open standards, fair rules, definite expectations, division of responsibilities and credit regulations shall be promoted to further resolve from the institutional level the problems in the excessive and difficult certification for enterprises and the people.

II. Major Tasks

1. Clarifying the Certification Matters Subject to the Notification and Commitment System

(1) Scope

For the purpose of this Implementation Plan, “certification” refers to the materials issued by the administrative organs or other institutions to describe objective facts or to show that specific conditions are met, and needed by the citizen, legal person or unincorporated organization to provide to the administrative organ when applying for handling administrative matters.

This Municipality shall fully implement the notification and commitment system for certification matters, except for the following matters:

1. the certification matters that directly involve national security, state secrets, public security, financial prudential control, ecological environmental protection, people’s health, life and property safety, important foreign-related matters and other matters of greater risks, higher costs for correcting errors and potentially irretrievable losses; and

2. the certification matters that are issued by the administrative organs of other provinces or cities or by other institutions but cannot be checked on-line during the interim and ex-post verification.

The certification matters that can be verified on-site through data sharing or are incorporated in the integrated digital certificates library of this Municipality shall not be subject to the notification and commitment system.

For any enterprise-related business licensing matters and matters about administrative approval that are subject to the notification and commitment system in this Municipality, if the notification and commitment system is also applicable to the licensing matters, the notification and commitment shall be made once and for all, and the matter shall be handled under the procedures of the notification and commitment system for enterprise-related business licensing matters and administrative approval.

(2) Forming a General Catalogue

All municipal competent departments shall comprehensively sort out the current certification catalogues for administrative matters in their own systems (including the municipal, district, sub-district and town/township levels, the same below), study and put forward their own catalogues for the certification matters to be subject to the notification and commitment system, and file those catalogues for the record with the Municipal Bureau of Justice. The Municipal Bureau of Justice shall, in collaboration with the Municipal Office for Administrative Approval System Reform, the Municipal Development & Reform Commission, the Municipal Big Data Center and other relevant departments and units, review those catalogues, form a general catalogue for certification matters to be subject to the notification and commitment system and report it to the Municipal People’s Government for review and approval, and then make it published by the Municipal Bureau of Justice. And simultaneously, a dynamic adjustment mechanism of the general catalogue shall be established, and implemented according to the relevant requirements and stipulated procedures, and in the light of the actual circumstances.

(3) Promoting the Notification and Commitment System in Batches in a Reliable and Orderly Manner

This Municipality shall promote the work on the notification and commitment system in batches. The first batch of certification matters subject to the notification and commitment system shall focus on household administration, market entry, qualification exams, social insurance, social aid and assistance, physical examinations, legal services and other aspects, which shall be implemented before the end of June, 2021. All the certification matters subject to the notification and commitment system shall be implemented before the end of June, 2022.

2. Determining the Applicable Target and Regulating the Working Procedure

The applicants may decide by themselves whether to make commitments to replace certification as to the certification matters subject to the notification and commitment system. If the applicant is unwilling or unable to make a commitment, the applicant shall submit certificates of proof accordingly. The applicant may, before the credit is restored, not be subject to the notification and commitment system if such an applicant has been listed as a serious violator of honesty or has ever made false commitments involving certification matters, enterprise-related business licensing matters or the notification and commitment in administrative approval.

All municipal competent departments shall revise and perfect the handling guidelines and working procedures, prepare the formatted texts for notification and commitment, and adjust and upgrade the handling systems for administrative matters according to the requirements of completeness and precision, clear division of responsibilities and powers, and easy accessibility. All municipal competent departments shall publish their certification matters subject to the implementation of the notification and commitment system and the handling guidelines through the Integrated Online Platform, mobile terminals, actual service halls, third-party Internet portals and other service channels to make the guidelines available, and prepare relevant manuals for the convenience of applicants to consult, fetch or download.

3. Strengthening the Interim and Ex-post Verification and Improving the Supporting Systems for Verification

All municipal competent departments shall administer the comprehensive risk assessment based on the characteristics of their own administrative matters subject to the implementation of notification and commitment system and the applicants’ credit status. For the lower-risk administrative matters, the administrative organ may omit special verifications, but strengthen the supervision through inspections by randomly selected inspectors of randomly selected entities and the public release of inspection results, and through the internet plus regulation. For those other than the lower-risk administrative matters, the administrative organ shall conduct special verifications. If online verifications are feasible, such online verifications shall apply to all the administrative matters; if not, the on-site verification or the verification with the assistance of other administrative organs shall be conducted.

If an on-site verification is conducted, the information about the commitment shall be promptly and precisely delivered to the relevant supervisors to supply information backup for the front line supervision and law enforcement; if the assistance for verification is requested, the requested administrative organ shall perform the assistance obligation within five working days from the date of receiving the request for assistance, and must not prevaricate or refuse. A written explanation shall be given if such assistance is unable to be provided for due reasons. All municipal competent departments shall determine the methods, persons, time, mode and standards for verification based on their own characteristics of certification matters. The verification facts shall be recorded to form a verification recording book.

All municipal competent departments may achieve data sharing and service collaboration across regions, departments and levels and improve the supporting system for online verification through the national data sharing and exchange platform, the national credit information sharing platform, and the Integrated Online Platform of this Municipality. The Municipal Big Data Center, the departments which issue certificates and the departments which require certificates of this Municipality shall closely collaborate to realize the target of filing the certification information that should be filed and sharing the certification information that should be shared. If a verification requires the sharing of the data about national population, enterprises and social security contribution, the use of such data shall be applied for by the particular municipal competent department to the Municipal Big Data Center.

The administrative organ shall terminate the handling of administrative matters according to law, order the rectification within a prescribed time limit, revoke the administrative decision or impose an administrative penalty against the applicant who makes a false commitment, and incorporate the case into the credit records. If such a case is suspected of a crime, it shall be delivered to the judicial organ.

4. Strengthening Credit Supervision and Risk Prevention

All municipal competent departments shall strengthen the construction of credit administration system relevant to the notification and commitment system of certification matters, scientifically define the dishonest acts according to law, and establish and perfect the credit restoring and dispute solving mechanism. The credit information about notification and commitment shall be incorporated into the municipal public credit information catalogue to realize the enquiry function of applicant’s credit information and the uploading function of commitment letters and verification results into the system for handling administrative matters; and the said commitment letters and verification results shall, within 3 working days upon their delivery, be incorporated into the municipal public credit information service platform. The disciplinary punishment against dishonest acts shall be intensified, the dishonest acts shall be graded according to the social influence caused by the false commitment, and the disciplinary punishments shall be imposed accordingly. The personal information and commercial secrets shall be protected according to law.

All municipal competent departments shall organize, within their own systems, the intensification of the risk prevention measures. They shall strengthen the administrative guidance, and intensify their obligations in notifying and guiding the party concerned. The mechanism for withdrawing the commitment shall be established; the applicants may withdraw their commitment applications before the administrative matters are settled if they have sound reasons, and then the application may be handled by the original procedures. For the certification matters involving social public interests, third party interests or greater difficulty in verifying, the letter of notification and commitment shall be opened to the society for the social supervision according to the provisions on the government information disclosure. As for the matters involving higher economic value or greater difficulty in interim and ex post

verification, the introduction of the liability insurance system may be explored to reduce the risk of potential administrative compensation.

III. Organizational Guarantee

1. Strengthening Organizational Guidance and Collaboration

This Municipality shall establish a coordinating mechanism consisting of the Municipal Bureau of Justice, the Municipal Office for Administrative Approval System Reform, the Municipal Development & Reform Commission, and the Municipal Big Data Center, for the work on fully promoting the notification and commitment system for certification matters and to guide, coordinate, supervise and inspect the implementation of the work.

The Municipal Bureau of Justice shall be responsible for the organization and guidance over the notification and commitment system and file the catalogue of certification matters for the record. The Municipal Office for Administrative Approval System Reform shall be responsible for the administrative work such as revising and publicizing the handling guidelines, working norms and procedures involving the notification and commitment system for certification matters. The Municipal Development & Reform Commission shall be responsible for coordinating and promoting the collection and administration of the credit information relevant to the notification and commitment system for certification matters. The Municipal Big Data Center shall be responsible for managing the data sharing of relevant certification information.

All municipal competent departments shall do a good job in organizing the implementation of the notification and commitment system for certification matters within their own systems. The chief persons in charge of the municipal competent departments shall be the first responsible persons for fully implementing the notification and commitment system for certification matters in their own systems, promptly keep well informed of the work, study and resolve the encountered problems, and ensure that the work has a plan, the arrangement has a schedule, the progress has proper measures and that the achievement has valid assessments.

2. Strengthening Guarantee and Assessment Supervision

All municipal competent departments shall intensify support and guarantee in respect of human resources, technologies and others in their own systems, and strengthen the occupational training and publicity. The working funds of each department shall be incorporated into the fiscal budgets at the same level. This Municipality shall incorporate the promotion status of the notification and commitment system for certification matters into the indicator system for assessing the rule of law in Shanghai and the annual supervisory inspection of the construction of law-ruled government, and establish an supervisory inspection report system. The municipal competent departments shall be encouraged to actively explore, reform and innovate in the work of implementing the notification and commitment system for certification matters. If the reform or innovations has not achieved the expected goals, but the administrative organ and/or its staff have handled the matter according to the working norms and procedures and have verified according to the verification methods, and have neither obtained personal gains, they shall be exempted from the relevant responsibility according to law. If the administrative organ and/or its staff  have committed any violation of discipline or law, they shall be prosecuted for relevant liability according to relevant disciplines or laws.

This Implementation Plan shall be effective as of February 20, 2021 and be valid until February 19, 2026.