China to further streamline administrative approval procedures

BEIJING - China's State Council decided Wednesday to further remove some of its administrative approval procedures or delegate the power to lower levels of governments.

It also pledged to push forward reforms on its project approval system, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

To boost market vitality, the country will remove 25 administrative approval items and delegate the power of six others to lower levels of governments.

It was decided at the meeting that the country will roll out reforms on its project approval system nationwide on pilot schemes and halve the time for project approval to within 120 working days during the first half of this year.

The country will step up efforts to solicit opinions from enterprises and industry associations or chambers of commerce while formulating and implementing relevant regulations.

It vowed to make formulation and implementation of its regulations more open and transparent, avoid black-box operations, enhance retrospective evaluation and make adjustments in a timely manner.

According to a decision made at the meeting, the country will promote the development of the household service industry, a significant move to address the trend of rapid aging and facilitate implementation of the two-child policy, which will help boost consumption and employment.

The country will encourage the development of online household services and intermediary agents, enhance vocational training and unveil policy incentives such as reduction or exemption of taxes and fees for small players and government purchasing of household services.