Ministries respond to issues including electric vehicles, legal services

Several ministry-level departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Justice and the China Meteorological Administration, have responded recently to issues of public concern.

Electric vehicles under scrutiny

China will step up efforts to control the production capacity of low-speed electric vehicles, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Nov 8.

The ministry said in a notice jointly released with another five central government departments that a targeted campaign will be launched nationwide to step up the management of low-speed electric vehicles and auto rickshaws.

The increase in the production capacity of such vehicles will be put under strict control, the notice said.

The notice said the market of such vehicles has hugely expanded, with more than 100 producers nationwide and a total production volume of more than 1 million vehicles.

Such vehicles were responsible for 830,000 traffic accidents over the past five years, which resulted in the deaths of about 18,000 people and injured approximate 186,000 others, the notice said.

Authorities will step up quality checks for producers and sellers of such vehicles and ban products that fail quality standards from the market, it said.

Authorities will no longer make or release policies that encourage the development of such vehicles, and increase in the production capacity is disallowed.

A long-term oversight mechanism will be established, and more measures will be rolled out to encourage the replacement or abandoning of such vehicles, the notice said.

More observatories to be set up

More national observatories will be established in China to monitor climate change, an official with the China Meteorological Administration said on Nov 6.

With climate change a worldwide concern, it is necessary for China to conduct comprehensive observations of the climate system, said Zhang Zuqiang, director of the emergency relief and public service department of the administration.

The national observatories will function as integrated meteorological stations to carry out long-term, consecutive and all-around monitoring of the multilayered climate systems and the interactions among different layers, he said.

The administration will establish national climate observatories in 16 critical areas in the climate systems that are sensitive to interactions among distinctive layers and exchanges of mass and energy, Zhang said.

In 2007, five meteorological observation stations in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, Yunnan and Gansu had been chosen as the pilot areas for establishing the climate observatories.

Business environment improved

The Ministry of Justice has vowed to improve legal services and law enforcement in areas that are related to private companies as part of efforts to improve the business environment, a senior official said on Nov 11.

The ministry will push forward the revision and annulment of laws and regulations that have proved unfavorable to private businesses, thus enabling them to have equal access to government investment grants and subsidized loans, said Fu Zhenghua, minister of justice.

Suggestions by private businesses should be fully considered when drafting and reviewing laws and regulations concerning the interests of private businesses, he said.

The ministry has released a regulation requiring judicial organs at various levels to provide quality legal services and create a sound legal environment for private enterprises.

The regulation aims to reduce the burden on private businesses, create a fair competition environment, improve law enforcement and protect the legal interests of private businesses.

Fu said the ministry will conduct standardized and transparent administrative law enforcement, abandon arbitrary inspection, as well as overlapped examination and punishments targeting private businesses.

Online quality checks launched

China's market regulator stepped up quality checks of consumer products sold online prior to the Singles Day shopping gala on Nov 11.

The State Administration of Market Regulation said in a statement on Nov 10 that it has conducted random checks of 564 batches of products from seven categories, including rice cookers, electric water boilers and indoor heaters.

The quality check, covering 11 e-commerce platforms, including those owned by Alibaba and JD.com, found 44 batches of products that failed the country's compulsory quality standards, including 12 batches of toy products, 10 batches of baby clothes and eight batches of rice cookers, the authority said.