NDRC: Revised investment list ready this year

The government will bring forward the revision of a key investment approval catalog, a move that will lower barriers to corporate investment, a senior official said on Thursday.

Li Pumin, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner, told

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reporters that the document - which specifies what kind of investment projects require government approval - was originally intended to be completed in 2015.

Now, it will be finished this year.

Officials and analysts said the move is part of a broad campaign under Premier Li Keqiang to streamline administrative approval procedures and give the market more autonomy.

The current investment approval catalog was released last December by the State Council, the cabinet. The catalog covers only 13 sectors, but these affect virtually every industry from agriculture to energy, information technology, transportation and foreign investment.

The catalog changed the status of 10 items that previously required approval to ones that merely require notification, delegated 20 items to lower authorities and transferred 10 to other regulators.

Now, the NDRC has promised to ease more.

"Revision work started in May, and we aim to submit our proposal to the State Council around September," said Huang Min, director of the fixed-asset investment department of the NDRC.

For years, onerous requirements for project approvals have been a major problem for China's entrepreneurs, who complain that the process has hindered and even derailed their plans.

Li Shufu, chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, in 2010 bought Volvo Car from Ford Motor Co. But he had to wait nearly three years before Liu Tienan, then vice-chairman of the NDRC, approved his request to launch joint ventures with Volvo in China, domestic media have reported.

Last year, Liu was investigated for taking bribes. The high-profile Liu case rocked the NDRC and prompted it to reflect on rampant rent-seeking associated with the investment approval system.

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