I. Background and Main Features

By seizing the major opportunity of building a national pilot city for business environment innovation, with the theme of cultivating and invigorating market entities, the Reform Version 5.0 is committed to striving to be the best and the first to make explorations, fully utilizing the state authorization, and comprehensively pushing ahead to streamline administration, delegate power, and improve regulation and services. The reform, taking institutional innovation as the core and aiming for breakthrough with digital technologies and application of user cases through collaboration, is targeted to advance streamlined administration, impartial supervision and service improvement throughout the whole chain, full process and entire cycle. Beijing is set to spend three to five years enhancing its international competitiveness and creating a world-class business environment consistent with the development needs imposed by the city's functions as the national capital. The Reform Version 5.0 embodies the following four features:

First, it is a comprehensive implementation of the decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. Consistent with requirements contained in 37 documents concerning the business environment issued by the state since last year, the reform implements the 92 tasks related to local powers comprising the key tasks of the State Council's reform to "streamline administration, delegate power, and improve services" launched this year. Beijing will comprehensively implement the tasks of the national pilot reform in accordance with the highest standards. According to the state requirements and the city's conditions, Beijing's pilot implementation plan proposes a total of 115 reform measures designed to overcome difficulties and deepen reform.

Second, it serves the capital's high-quality development. Based on the city's functions as the national capital and closely focusing on its five major plans, the reform proposes 53 opening-up measures, such as establishing a full life-cycle service system for science and technology-based SMEs and attracting more high-level foreign talent to help Beijing take the lead in integrating into a new pattern of development and achieving high-quality development.

Third, the reform emphasizes alignment with world-class business environments while highlighting Beijing's characteristics. In reforming the commercial system, streamlining the approval of private investment, and improving the exit system for market entities, Beijing has taken the China-wide lead in launching 62 valuable and highly-practicable innovative measures for the ongoing improvement of its institutional system. Beijing will play a guiding and demonstration role as an innovation pilot to achieve breakthroughs in ten areas including market access, the digital economy and digital government services, and create a set of replicable and adaptable reform experiences.

Fourth, the reform is problem-oriented, aiming to forge ahead in the "home stretch" of policy implementation. Beijing systematically planned the reform from the perspective of the production, operation, work and entrepreneurship of enterprises and individuals, summarizing and analyzing over 800 opinions and suggestions collected by the Municipal People's Congress, Municipal Political Consultative Conference, 12345 hotline, and other channels. Beijing held over 280 enterprise seminars and special scheduling meetings and formulated policies targeting pain points and long-standing issues to enhance the satisfaction of enterprises and individuals. Beijing has innovatively updated its reform implementation mechanism, and improved the integration of general measures and focuses, ensuring effective policy implementation. Beijing selected districts with good foundations as innovation demonstration zones, prioritized the implementation of reform tasks, and strengthened integrated reforms for overall effectiveness and exemplary practices. Lead-in reforms will be taken in key districts to drive improvements in the overall business environment.

II. Main Contents

1. Beijing is continuing to deepen the reform of its commercial system in order to permit more market entities to operate upon access approval. Based on a "notification commitment system", the Reform Version 5.0 promotes the streamlining of a wider range of enterprise-related approvals, and focuses on reducing licenses and certificates in addition to business licenses to further reduce the systemic transaction costs faced by enterprises. Beijing is promoting a "one permit for one sector" reform. Having carried out pilot reforms in 10 sectors including pharmacies and outpatient departments in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, the city has realized the issuance of permits upon business registration in five sectors, including bookstores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and catering businesses, with a drastic 70 percent reduction in processing time and application materials. Beijing will next roll out the "one permit for one sector" reform city-wide, and gradually expand its scope to over 20 sectors including hotels, cinemas, and beauty salons.

2. Beijing is striving to advance review and approval reform in the investment and construction field, allowing projects to be launched and put into production more quickly. The Reform Version 5.0 focuses on optimizing the review and approval of private investment. Given that safety can be guaranteed, Beijing is implementing a commitment system and comprehensive approval reform designed to eliminate the need to deal with multiple departments for approval purposes. Based on trials in Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City, Beijing Future Science City, and Beijing Economic-technological Development Area (the "Three Cities and One Area"), Beijing has implemented a reform model of "regional assessment + standard plot + commitment system + integrated government services" across the city. 20 projects have already benefited from the "start construction upon land acquisition" mode, with the project launch approval, planning permit and construction permit obtained in less than two days in the fastest case.

3. Beijing is comprehensively improving its fair competition system and maintaining normal market order. The Reform Version 5.0 comprehensively improves the fair competition system, which is compatible with a high level of market standards, and is intensifying reform efforts concerning cleaning up invisible barriers, enforcement of anti-monopoly law, and public resource transactions. Beijing is promoting a full-coverage fair competition inspection, and covering all policies and measures to be inspected at the municipal and district levels by integrating those concerning economic activities of market entities, such as market access, industrial development, government procurement, and bidding and tendering. Beijing is exploring an innovative independent fair competition inspection model designed to achieve centralized and professional inspection of fair competition issues. It is promoting more regulated and transparent public resource transactions, establishing an integrated, unified transaction center for the city's public resources, and a unified platform for public resource services, transactions, and regulation, while steadily advancing the digitalization of the bidding and tendering process and comprehensively eliminating requirements for filing and review of documents before bidding.

4. Beijing is vigorously promoting integrated services in order to establish an efficient, convenient government service system. The Reform Version 5.0 strengthens the concept of "government as a whole", deeply integrating systems and service resources, optimizing and rebuilding office processes, and emphasizing the offering of integrated services for specific matters. Focusing on the two "full life cycles" - enterprises from entry to exit, and individuals from birth to death - Beijing has launched integrated services for key areas and frequently-requested matters such as business start-up, births, and compulsory education and school enrollment, to provide convenient services for enterprises and individuals, e.g. applicants informed of all requirements at one time, filling one unified application form, requiring one set of materials, one-stop acceptance, online processing, and unified channels for issuance. Beijing has increased its efforts to address the difficulty and time-consuming issues in real estate registration, and has built new real estate registration halls in Dongcheng, Chaoyang, Shijingshan, Mentougou, Tongzhou and other districts, adding over 50 registration service desks. Beijing is the first city in China to provide real-time home purchase eligibility query service for individuals, i.e. the "green code for home purchase eligibility".

5. Beijing has comprehensively bolstered its level of technological empowerment to build a first-class digital business environment. The Reform Version 5.0 focuses on setting up smart government services, supervision, ports, taxation, and courts, thereby securing the provision of higher-level administrative services, such as the whole-process online service, city-wide service at any location, and getting things done at one time. For example, Beijing has built a comprehensive application platform for digital services, regulation and business, along with a whole-chain digital government service system covering approval, services, regulation, law enforcement, and credit management. Beijing is working to promote online application, intelligent distribution, automated transfer, and getting things done at one time, and has realized whole-process online service for more than 95 percent of administrative matters at the municipal level and more than 90 percent at the district level. Beijing continues the promotion of specific favorable policies for eligible enterprises without their application and expands the scope of such policies in terms of tax, subsidy, and services, so as to realize automatic identification and precision delivery to all eligible enterprises in an efficient manner. Beijing is vigorously promoting the use of license/certificate for all administrative services so that enterprises or individuals may present their licenses or identity cards to handle frequently requested matters such as business permits, tax payment, social security, health insurance, civil affairs, and old-age insurance. Beijing has updated its E-services (e窗通) platform for registration of enterprises, and the platform now provides one-stop service for individual business owners. Beijing has broken down regional restrictions and information silos, promoting city-wide service at any location in such areas as business registration, tax payment, and real estate registration, and gradually achieving the provision of all administrative  services at any office across the city. Beijing has set up "cross-province processing" service desks at all levels of administrative service centers, adding 74 cross-provincial processing administrative service items including cross-regional medical treatment registration and settlement, social security card application and issuance, and household registration transfer.

6. Beijing is focusing on in-process supervision, and implementing integrated comprehensive regulation. The Reform Version 5.0, committed to coordination of development and safety, is improving regulation and services to secure the delegation of power to continuously enhance regulatory effectiveness. On the one hand, Beijing has strengthened the ex-ante/in-process/ex-post supervision and regulation of the entire business process and established unified lists, rules and standards to use a "unified checklist" for supervision and regulation. Beijing has established a whole-process supervisory and management system to strengthen the supervision of regulators. Beijing is implementing full-process, full-coverage regulation in key areas such as food, medicine, and public health to ensure the public confidence in daily life. Beijing is emphasizing "risk + credit" classification and regulation, implementing differentiated and precise regulation based on the risks and credit ratings of enterprise and their industry features, reducing the proportion and frequency of inspection for market entities with low risks and good credit, while intensifying such inspection for market entities with high risks and poor credit. Combining punishment and education purposes, Beijing has established the penalty exemption lists in such areas as fire control and emergency response, ecological environment, and urban management. Beijing is strengthening the development of integrated law enforcement capabilities, improving the level of regulation and law enforcement at subdistrict and township levels, and prevent random inspections to keep law-abiding enterprises from pointless disturbance. On the other hand, Beijing is emphasizing the "delivery of integrated services". It starts with digitalization, scenario-based regulation and collaboration, and has taken the lead in the establishment of a "6+4" integrated regulatory system. Specifically, Beijing is coordinating the use of six regulatory means: risk, credit, grading and classification, technology, cross-departmental collaboration, and social co-governance, and implementing scenario-based comprehensive regulatory measures, e.g. "one list, same form, unified inspection and evaluation for one industry", in nine key sectors with more service requests from enterprises, such as catering, medical care, and elderly care. It aims to make regulation a ubiquitous service, with which Beijing will effectively improve regulation, build a fair, safe and vibrant business environment, and create more space for streamlined administration and better services.

7. Beijing has improved the intellectual property (IP) protection system and is strengthening whole-chain IP protection. Reform Version 5.0 focuses on IP creation, application, protection, management and services, and comprehensively strengthens IP protection. The city has built a sub-center of the China (Beijing) Intellectual Property Protection Center with a high standard, providing enterprises with comprehensive services such as patent pre-examination support and rapid rights protection. Beijing is also exploring the establishment of an IP assessment service platform to provide enterprises with various IP value assessment tools and resolve problems related to the IP's value evaluation, commercialization and transaction. Beijing has implemented a system to categorize IP administrative enforcement cases based on complexity. Cases with simple facts, clear illegality, and in which the parties admit their mistakes and accept penalties, are investigated and handled quickly, reducing the time period for processing cases by over 20%. Beijing is strictly enforcing the punitive compensation system, refining and clarifying the conditions of its application and the definition of the compensation base. This has significantly increased the cost of infringement, bringing the deterrent effect of punitive compensation into full play.

8. Beijing is actively promoting innovation in the market player exit system to optimize resource allocation and improve resource efficiency. And it is seeking to resolve major difficulties concerning corporate bankruptcy and the withdrawal of market players. Beijing is further improving the regulations on the whole process to protect bankruptcy administrators during the performance of their duties in accordance with the law. It allows the holders of relevant rights to recommend a bankruptcy administrator, and allows administrators to make online inquiries concerning relevant property information in accordance with the law, and to unseal and dispose of bankrupt enterprises' property. Beijing has established a bankruptcy credit repair mechanism and a timely system for modifying the equity of reorganized enterprises. It allows the bankruptcy administrator to apply for lifting of a freeze on equity and for registering changes with legal documents issued by the court. This creates conditions permitting potential investors to participate in restructuring, promoting the successful restructuring of troubled enterprises. Beijing is also facilitating the establishment of a system of business interruption records. Eligible market players will be able to independently decide to suspend operations, thereby reducing their costs of survival.

9. Beijing is focusing on improving the quality and efficiency of trial execution and deepening the reform of the trial execution system for civil and commercial cases. And it is continuing to classify simple and complicated cases, and to expand the scope of application of summary procedures and the system of single-judge proceedings, significantly reducing trial times. In the appraisal process, Beijing has strengthened the standard management of appraisal institutions, which should now inform their clients of the materials to be submitted at one time. Measures may be taken, such as interviews and rectifications for appraisal institutions that do not fulfill identification specifications and requirements. In the execution process, Beijing has formulated guidelines for the implementation of property preservation, and strictly controls the time required for claiming, withdrawing and depositing, and distributing case-related money. Eligible case-related money will be distributed within 20 days to protect the rights and interests of successful parties in cases.

10. Beijing is aligned with international economic and trade rules of high standards and is improving investment and trade liberalization and facilitation. And it is building the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)+" pilot demonstration zone and service center to trial rules on investment, talents, data, finance, etc. It has established an "RCEP+" service center to provide RCEP trade and investment services to enterprises. Beijing has established a list system of accredited international professional qualifications and criteria for identifying high-grade, top-notch, and sought-after foreign human resources to attract more high-level foreign talents. In addition, Beijing is further upgrading Single Window services(comprehensive one-stop services), focusing on expanding cross-border e-commerce service functions such as the sharing of data from overseas warehouses.