l  Latest Hot Spot

The General Office of State Administration for Market Regulation, the Office of State Statistics Bureau and the General Office of Ministry of Commerce of PRC Jointly Carrying out Special Law Enforcement Inspection on Foreign-related Investigations

l  New Law Express

1.17 Departments Jointly Issuance of Several Opinions regarding Perfecting the Supporting System of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development

2.State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s Issuance of Guideline for Foreign Exchange Business under Current Accounts (Draft for Comments)

3.The Supreme People's Court Issuance Jointly with 2 Departments of Opinions regarding Providing Judiciary Services and Safeguards to Accelerate and Perfect the Socialist Market Economy System in the New Era

【Latest Hot Spot】

The General Office of State Administration for Market Regulation, the Office of State Statistics Bureau and the General Office of Ministry of Commerce of PRC Jointly Carrying out Special Law Enforcement Inspection on Foreign-related Investigations

On July 27, 2020, The General Office of State Administration for Market Regulation, the Office of State Statistics Bureau and the General Office of Ministry of Commerce of PRC jointly issued Notice regarding Special Law Enforcement Inspection on Foreign-related Investigations (hereinafter referred to as 'Notice') to elaborate 3 key working points of carrying out comprehensive diagnostic screening, key investigations and punishments on non-approved foreign-related investigating agencies and priority examination on the implementation of special administrative measures of foreign investment access.

The overall goal of this special inspection is to grasp foreign-related investigation market situation comprehensively and accurately, crack down on illegal foreign-related investigation activities resolutely and regulate the market order of foreign-related investigations in accordance with the laws.

Hereinto, the Notice specifies that its focus shall be on verifying the implementation of special administrative measures of foreign investment access and whether foreign-invested enterprises are engaged in illegal social investigations. As to the foreign-invested enterprises engaged in market investigations, it shall be verified whether they are sino-foreign joint ventures or sino-foreign cooperatively operated, among which the foreign-invested enterprises involving radio and/or television acoustic and/or visual investigations shall be verified whether they are under control of Chinese shareholders.

(Sourced by: Official Website of State Administration for Market Regulation)

【New Law Express】

17 Departments Jointly Issuance of Several Opinions regarding Perfecting 

the Supporting System of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development

On July 24, 2020, seventeen departments, including Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC and National Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued Several Opinions regarding Perfecting the Supporting System of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development (hereinafter referred to as 'Opinions') to call for full implementation of negative list system for market access, full implementation of fair competition inspection system as well as strengthening and improving law enforcements for anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competitions.

Meanwhile, the Opinions called for perfecting the laws, regulations and policies with regard to intellectual property protection, establishing and perfecting the punitive compensation system and increasing the amounts of statutory damages; implementing the legal measures such as suspension, reduction or exemption of enterprise income taxes and value-added taxes for eligible small and micro enterprises; simplifying the procedures of tax collection and administration; encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises to align with the capital market via mergers & acquisitions or reorganization; steadily promoting the reform of the New OCT Market and perfecting the mechanism of transferring listed companies on the new board.

(Sourced by: Official Website of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC)

State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s Issuance of Guideline for Foreign Exchange Business under Current Accounts (Draft for Comments)

On July 24, 2020, State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued Guideline for Foreign Exchange Business under Current Accounts (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as “ Guideline”) to solicit public opinions until August 7, 2020.

In the light of the principle of conciseness, clarity and convenience, the Guideline integrates the existing laws and regulations with regard to foreign exchange business under current accounts, realizes one-for-all access to foreign exchange business under current accounts and simultaneously repeals 30 statutory documents.

The Guideline is mainly for streamlining part of the documents and optimizing part of the business flows, uninvolving substantial change or adjustment of the existing policies. It consists of eight chapters, twenty-two sections and 190 articles in total, covering the foreign exchange business under current accounts for the market entities such as enterprises, individuals, financial institutions, payment institutions, etc.

(Sourced by: Official Website of State Administration of Foreign Exchange)

The Supreme People's Court Issuance Jointly with 2 Departments of 

Opinions regarding Providing Judiciary Services and Safeguards to 

Accelerate and Perfect the Socialist Market Economy System in the New Era

On the morning of July 22, 2020, The Supreme People's Court and National Development and Reform Commission jointly hosted a press conference and issued The Supreme People's Court and National Development and Reform Commission’s Opinions regarding Providing Judiciary Services and Safeguards to Accelerate and Perfect the Socialist Market Economy System in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as' Opinions ').

As the starting point and stance of promoting high-quality economic development and establishing a high-standard market system, the Opinions put forward thirty-one implementative opinions from seven aspects of market entities, property right protection, fair trading, market order, people's livelihood security, service opening and efficient solutions to disputes.

In order to promote market-based allocation of factors of production, the Opinions put forward specific suggestions from five aspects of respecting covenants, promoting financial services for entities, expanding the scope of guarantee contracts, standardizing Internet transactions and promoting optimal allocation of labor factors, which include promoting financial and private capital services for the real economy, revising and consummating the judicial interpretation on private loans, sharply decreasing the upper limit of judicially protected private loan interest rate and resolutely denying the validity of usurious loans and illegal loans.

At present, the Supreme People's Court is amending the judicial interpretation of private loans in accordance with the latest provisions of PRC Civil Code, of which adjusting the upper limit of judicially protected private loan interest rate is an important part. The general principle of the said amendment is to balance both the reform of interest rate marketization and the safeguard of normal financial order as well as to serve the development of the real economy, as stipulated in the Opinions.

(Sourced by: Official Website of the Supreme People's Court)

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