In 2014, the Ministry of Commerce sincerely implemented the spirit of the Third and the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, strengthened supervision both in and after the process according to law, reorganized and standardized the market order, and further improved the law-based business environment.
I. Phased progress made in eliminating regional blockades and breaking trade monopolies.
1. A series of regulations that hampered fair competition was cleaned up intensively. About 235,721 government regulations, normative documents and other documents were examined in the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, among which, 476 were amended, abolished or announced invalid. At least 27 local favorable documents concerning tax which were against relevent regulations were abolished or amended. Related departments were coordinated to clear bidding regulations comprehensively, and 33 administrative and institutional fees at the central level and 314 at the provincial level were canceled and exempted.
2. A batch of cases of limiting competition through abusing administrative power was investigated. The Ministry of Commerce, playing the leading role, organized and coordinated related law-enforcing departments, investigated and dealt with 128 cases of limiting competition of public enterprises and other operators that have monopolistic status according to law. Related departments dispatched more than 40 working teams consecutively, conducting a thorough investigation and strictly prohibiting unauthorized penalty, charge, and impeding and restricting nonlocal goods transport vehicles to drive in and out.
3. Tax and financial policies that affected competition environment were optimized. Beijing issued the opinions on promoting trans-district moving and ensuring the normal flowing of enterprises among districts, and approved that 14 trans-district chain enterprises could declare and pay added-value tax by their head offices. Shanghai issued the Methods on Financial Resources Allocation of Large Commercial Chains, supporting the trans-district development of chain enterprises.
II. Supervision on law enforcement was strengthened, and fair competition in the market was promoted.
1. The special campaign to rectify TV shopping achieved obvious effect. Over 50,000 enforcement personnel were dispatched, more than 770,000 advertisements were monitored, 691 cases that violated laws and rules were dealt with, 316 enterprises and broadcast organizations were punished, 265 websites violating laws and rules were punished, 16 illegal TV shopping channels were closed, and 7,803 advertisements breaking laws and rules were forbidden. After the special campaign, the number of illegal TV shopping advertisements dropped 83.9%.
2. The transaction behaviors of market subjects were more standardized. The Ministry of Commerce strengthened supervision on retail and supply transactions, and investigated the charging problems of Beijing Wumart, Beijing Jingkelong and Jinan Suning. Management of commercial prepaid cards was strengthened. A special inspection was carried out to urge local registered enterprises to strictly implement the business report system and the safeguard measures on pre-collection funds. At present, at least 4,503 enterprises which issue single-use cards have finished registration.
3. Capacity of supervision on law enforcement was further strengthened. With the support of central financial funds, the Ministry of Commerce continued to implement the project of the public service system of market supervision, supporting commercial departments at the city and county levels to carry out comprehensive administrative enforcement of law, and establish enforcement teams and 12312 report and complaint platforms. We also implemented the Opinions of the State Council on Promoting Fair Competition and Maintaining Normal Order in the Market (No. 20), and took the lead in promoting share of information on law enforcement supervision among departments.
III. Industrial management was enhanced, and the level of security was further improved.
1. Construction of the circulation traceability system achieved initial results. At least 15 provinces and municipalities were newly added to the list to carry out the pilot of the circulation traceability system of meat and vegetable and traditional Chinese medicinal materials, benefiting more than 400 million people. The 35 cities of the first three batches have constructed and operated the traceability system in more than 10,000 enterprises, reporting over three million pieces of data daily and realizing the information traceability management of 30,000 tons of products in 300 varieties. The Ministry of Commerce held the achievements show of the circulation traceability system of meat and vegetable, expanding its social influence.
2. The medicine circulation industry enjoyed a healthy development. Together with five departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Notice on Promoting Service Level and Work Efficiency of Drug Circulation (No. 705), completed the mid-term evaluation of the 12th five-year planning outline of drug circulation, and guided the construction of the modern logistic system of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Industrial standards including the Management Standards of Warehouses of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials and the Technical Manual of Warehouses of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials were issued and industrial foundation work like statistic analysis and personnel training were strengthened.
IV. Business credit construction was deepened and the integrity environment was created.
1. The plan of key promoting of business credit construction was implemented. The Ministry of Commerce implemented the Planning Outline of Social Credit System Construction (2014-2020) (No. 21), and issued the Opinions on Promoting the Work of Business Credit System of the Ministry of Commerce (No. 772). The key promoting plan was implemented, and 87 enterprises and institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong were chosen as the first batch of key promoting units of business credit construction.
2. Development of credit trading and service industry was promoted. The project of awarding small and medium-sized enterprises credit insurance for domestic trade was implemented, with subsidy funds of 98.62 million yuan covering 23 provinces. The subsidy covered all sectors of the national economy, and effectively supported small and medium-sized enterprises to expand credit sales. Business factoring industry flourished, and factoring agencies have been widely set up in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Zhejiang and Beijing.
3. The social atmosphere of integrity and self-discipline was stronger. Together with seven departments including the Ministry of Civil affairs, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Opinions on Promoting the Work of Integrity and Self-Discipline Construction of Industrial Associations and Chambers of Commerce. Themed at “making joint efforts to strengthen our country through integrity”, the Ministry of Commerce held the 2014 Publicity Month of prospering business through integrity together with 18 departments including the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. We continued to guide industrial chambers of commerce and associations to conduct industrial credit evaluation, and there have been 181 chambers of commerce and associations that gained the rating quality and 1,786 enterprises were accepted in 2014.
