The executive meeting of the State Council held on February 2 confirmed that the approval time for engineering construction projects in pilot areas will be reduced by more than half this year, and that this goal will be achieved nationwide in the first half of next year.

How to implement this goal?

At the regular briefing on State Council policy held on May 7, Huang Yan, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction, introduced the latest situation of the reform of the examination and approval system for construction projects and came to know it together.

01

Pilot Reform of Circular Issuance

The Ministry of Housing and Construction, in conjunction with relevant departments, has studied and drafted the Notice on the Pilot Reform of the Examination and Approval System for Construction Projects (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), which was deliberated and approved by the Executive Meeting of the State Council on May 2 and will be officially issued in the near future.

The main task of this reform is to reform the whole process and coverage of the approval system for construction projects, and to achieve the goal of "halving the approval time for construction projects" by building a unified approval process, streamlining the approval links, improving the approval system and strengthening supervision and management. The region's experience will be extended to the whole country, and a unified national examination and approval and management system for construction projects will be basically established by 2020.

02

Five Measures to Streamline the Examination and Approval Links

One is "reduction", which cancels illegal, unreasonable and unnecessary examination and approval items and preconditions, such as canceling construction contracts and building energy efficiency design examination and filing.

The second is to "release" and expand the scope of matters for examination and approval by decentralized or entrusted subordinate organs.

The third is "merger", which integrates several approval items with similar management contents into one approval item in principle, such as the reform of incorporating fire protection, civil air defense and other design into the examination of construction drawing design documents.

Fourthly, the examination and approval organs can change the matters solved by soliciting the opinions of relevant departments into matters of cooperation within the government and implement the system of informed commitment.

Fifthly, "adjust", improve the corresponding system design, so that the examination and approval sequence is more in line with the actual work, "for example, in the past, the installation of plumbing and heating power, to wait until the completion of construction acceptance, a long time. Now the construction permit can be submitted after the issuance of the construction process, together with the construction process to do, equivalent to the reporting link to the front.

03

Informing that the commitment system will be implemented

Promoting the system of informed commitment is a highlight of this reform, which can effectively accelerate the speed of examination and approval, and make the project land early and start early.

Huang Yan explained that the notification commitment system means that the examination and approval department should publish the list of items and specific requirements for the implementation of the notification commitment system. If the construction unit makes a written commitment according to the requirements, the examination and approval department can make a decision directly. "But the notification commitment system is not a promise, nor is it a light promise, which tests the regulatory capacity of the government in particular. After examination and approval, the government should strengthen the supervision after the event and examine whether the construction units are building according to the content, requirements and standards of the commitment through supervision and examination.

04

How to supervise after the approval is relaxed?

Huang Yan said that while the examination and approval is relaxed, supervision should be in place, so a regulatory system should be established to adapt to the reform of the examination and approval system.

First, we should intensify supervision and inspection, and strictly investigate illegal and irregular acts.

Second, the implementation of the system of informed commitment to see whether the construction unit has fulfilled its commitments;

Thirdly, we should strengthen the construction of credit system, implement the "blacklist" system, and construct a joint punishment mechanism of "one breach of trust, all punishments are limited".

Fourth, we should improve the efficiency of administrative supervision by using some new means and "Internet +" supervision mode.

05

Process reengineering improves approval efficiency

Huang Yan said that the reform will improve the efficiency of approval by building a unified approval process, streamlining the approval process and improving the approval system, so as to achieve the goal of reducing the approval time of construction projects by half.

In view of the improvement of the examination and approval system, the circular requires that the examination and approval operation be standardized through "a blueprint" for overall project implementation, "a system" for unified management, "a window" for comprehensive services, "a form" for integration of declaration materials and "a set of mechanisms".

"For a long time, everyone did not know why the project could not be approved. In fact, the main reason why the project could not be approved was that the basic work was not in place, because everyone did not work on a map, and maybe the planning department approved it. Other departments felt it was not appropriate, so they had to do a"blueprint", which was useful for the project construction. Preliminary work in the field is crucial. Huang Yan said.