Streamlined market supervision to facilitate business

"As an important part of administration reform, the random checks are an innovation for market supervision," said Ma Zhengqi, deputy director of the State Administration for Market Regulation, at a policy briefing on June 8 following the latest State Council executive meeting.

The random checks will involve two aspects: one is the random choosing of inspectors, another is the random choosing of inspection targets. The mechanism is aimed at standardizing law enforcement in market supervision, relieving the burden on enterprises, increasing supervision efficiency and optimizing the business environment.

"There are in total 54 departments with law enforcement power, so it's quite annoying for enterprises that all of the departments conduct checks repeatedly," said Ma.

In China, there are 100 million market bodies, among which are 31 million enterprises. The inspection targets and inspectors will be decided through lottery from their respective lists, and the inspection should be conducted according to a checklist.

The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System will serve as the platform for publicizing the inspection results. It is an official website that includes enterprises' registration information, administrative approvals, honors and penalties.

The online platform will also post the information about inspections under each company, such as whether the company has been chosen, the problems found and penalty decisions. It's like a billboard to impel companies to stay honest.

The public can search for information on both computers and mobile phones, by inputting the company's name.

The check results will be published within 20 days after the inspection is over, according to Ma.

The ratio of enterprises being randomly checked is around 5 percent every year, thus honest companies can operate without disturbance most of the time.

But that does not mean it is easier for illegal business activities to dodge inspections. As long as there is whistle-blowing or complaints, inspectors will be dispatched.

"Problems such as fake advertisements and commodities will receive harsh punishment," Ma added. "It is for restraining companies from infringing on rules, to achieve 'good money drives out bad money'."

The newly established State Administration for Market Regulation will incorporate the management of most products, the deputy director said.

In the next stage, the administration will spend more efforts on work streamlining, including single-window services for business certificates and administrative permits, one team for law enforcement in market regulation, one team in charge of monopoly, one for credit, one for complaints, one for rights protection and one for advertisement regulation.

To aggregate various supervision items, the original supervision list will be expanded as much as possible, absorbing food, medicine and intellectual property rights, which is expected to be issued by the end of the year.

Moreover, the State Administration for Market Regulation will make a list of supervision items under other departments in order to cooperate with them in joint inspections to prevent repetitive efforts.

The lottery will be conducted at the provincial level, and the inspections delegated to lower market supervisors.

"As Premier Li Keqiang required the State Administration for Market Regulation to unite other departments in market supervision, we will spare no efforts to spread random checks in other areas such as tax administration," Ma said.