Experts say credit law needed urgently

Deputies to the National People's Congress and legal experts called for the establishment of a national credit law as soon as possible to accelerate the country's economic development and improve the rule of law.

In September, the NPC Standing Committee, the country's top legislative body, said it had included legislation on a credit system into its work plan in the next five years, although it is not an urgent item and has no specific timetable.

The legislature added it would do more research and consider reviewing it if the study was favorable.

"I think now is the best time. We should start writing the law as quickly as we can," said Zhao Hongmei, a professor who specializes in economic and commercial law at China University of Political Science and Law.

"We have better legal support for the legislation, such as blacklists of dishonest companies and punishments for those who don't carry out court rulings," she said. "It's time to integrate these legal documents and make them a national-level law, as the current articles are not strong enough to threaten dishonest people, let alone to improve more residents' awareness of being honest."

Shi Xinzhong, a law professor at Capital Normal University, said the articles regarding the credit system now are scattered in civil, economic, administrative and criminal laws, "which is neither effective to punish the dishonest nor to build China's credibility through the rule of law".

Liu Junhai, another law professor at Renmin University of China, said making a credit law will play a big role in improving market exchanges.

"Our governments, enterprises and consumers, I believe, will trust more in international deals if we have such a law, because every businessperson wants transactions to be guaranteed by law," he said.

Moreover, he added, the law will also contribute to ensuring the transparency of market exchanges, maintaining transaction security, lowering costs and improving the business environment.

"The call for legislation hasn't stopped over the past decade," he said.

As of Sept 30, the Supreme People's Court had disclosed more than 12 million cases in which people failed to carry out court verdicts.

China Central Television reported recently that economic losses caused by bad credit was more than 600 billion yuan ($8.7 billion).

In March, Zheng Jie, an NPC deputy and chairman of China Mobile's branch in Zhejiang province, submitted a proposed statute to the top legislature. He said it was necessary to tidy up the disordered documents and urgently establish a unified credit information sharing platform among banks, government departments, judicial authorities and companies.