To implement the guiding opinions of the State Council on accelerating the standardization, normalization, and facilitation of government services (Guofa [2022] No. 5) and the opinions of the General Office of the State Council on further optimizing the business environment and reducing institutional transaction costs for market entities (Guobanfa [2022] No. 30), accelerate the standardization, normalization, and facilitation of approval for housing construction, urban infrastructure, and other engineering construction projects, further improve approval service efficiency, better meet the service needs of enterprises and the public, and speed up project implementation, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently issued a notice to promote the standardization, normalization, and facilitation of approval for engineering construction projects.

The main contents of the notice are as follows:

Vigorously promote the standardization and normalization of approval

(1) Strengthen the management of approval matters.In accordance with the State Council's requirements for the list management of administrative licensing matters and government service matters, and in light of local realities, further optimize and improve the list of approval matters for engineering construction projects, ensure proper alignment with the list of investment approval matters, and include in the list all matters involved in the entire process of engineering construction projects, including administrative licensing, administrative confirmation, administrative filing, third-party institution review, and municipal public utility installation and connection, so as to ensure that there is no approval outside the list. Promote the unified implementation standards of matters. Based on the implementation standards for administrative licensing matters formulated by relevant State Council departments, revise and improve item by item the service guides, application forms, and other materials for approval matters of engineering construction projects in the region, clarify application conditions, application materials, handling procedures, and processing time limits, refine and quantify acceptance and review standards, and make them public, so as to accelerate the realization of nondiscriminatory acceptance and same-standard handling of the same matter.

(2) Improve the level of approval services.Strengthen business training for staff at engineering construction project approval windows, enhance service awareness at the windows, strictly implement systems such as first-question responsibility, one-time notification, and handling within a time limit, and encourage the provision of personalized services such as assisted handling, agency handling, and appointment handling. Approval shall be carried out strictly in accordance with the published handling procedures and implementation standards, and no additional or disguised additional processing steps, application materials, or the like may be added. Implement list-based management for technical review, on-site inspection, hearings and demonstrations, and other matters involved in approval, establish a time-limited completion mechanism, and make it public. Continue to rectify the problems of "external circulation" and "hidden approval," and strictly prohibit acts such as adding pre-review before application, designating institutions for prior review, or offline pre-review with online supplementary entry. All localities shall establish and improve supervision and management mechanisms for approval of engineering construction projects, implement division of responsibilities, clarify non-compliant situations and problem-handling mechanisms, conduct regular supervision of approval behavior through various means such as supervisory spot checks and electronic monitoring, promptly analyze and assess problems existing in each link of approval, and promote their resolution.

(3) Standardize the time required for approval services.Sort out and make public the processing time for all approval service matters in the entire process of engineering construction projects in the region from project initiation to completion acceptance and municipal public utility installation and connection, clarify the start and end points, timing rules, and other details, including the time for administrative licensing and the time for technical review, expert review, meeting review, on-site inspection, and other matters organized, entrusted, or purchased by approval departments. It is not permitted to "superficially" reduce approval time through methods such as "external circulation" approval, improperly suspending the approval clock, or circumventing the rules for calculating approval time limits.

Continuously improve the convenience of approval

(4) Deepen regional assessment.Regional assessment results shall be made public promptly after confirmation by the relevant competent departments and provided to construction units for free use. Clarify the specific circumstances and rules for simplifying the corresponding approval procedures for individual projects based on regional assessments. Encourage the implementation of the "land use list system" reform for social investment projects. Before land supply, relevant departments may carry out assessments such as geological hazards, seismic safety, mineral resources beneath the land, climate feasibility, water resources demonstration, flood control, and archaeological investigation, exploration, and excavation, and conduct status surveys of cultural relics, historical buildings under protection, ancient and famous trees, civil air defense projects, and underground pipelines, forming a list of assessment results and survey opinions to be delivered together with the land to the land user, so as to avoid repeated demonstration by the land user after acquiring the land.

(5) Optimize and streamline approval links by category.Further optimize the approval process for matters such as construction project planning permits (design scheme review), uniformly standardize the circumstances and time limits for meeting deliberation, and reduce unnecessary government meeting review procedures. In light of actual conditions, optimize the approval process for urban renewal projects such as the renovation of existing buildings, renovation of old residential communities, and renewal and renovation of municipal pipeline networks. For those that do not require construction drawing review or construction project planning permits, the project types and specific conditions shall be specified in detail.

(6) Promote integrated joint handling.Further optimize the coordinated mechanism for parallel approval at each stage and promote the integrated handling of more approval matters that are highly related and in high demand. Further optimize the joint review mechanism for construction drawings. After the review institution issues technical review reports on fire protection, civil air defense, technical prevention, and other matters, the relevant approval departments shall no longer conduct technical review. Encourage joint handling of construction permits, quality supervision, civil air defense quality supervision, fire protection design review, and other matters. Further optimize the method of joint acceptance. Matters for which projects may not be put into use without acceptance (such as planning verification, civil air defense filing, fire protection acceptance, fire protection filing, completion filing, and archive acceptance) shall in principle be included in joint acceptance. Supervision of project quality completion acceptance may be included in the joint acceptance stage and carried out simultaneously. The lead department shall uniformly accept acceptance applications, coordinate specialized acceptance departments to carry out joint acceptance within a time limit, and issue acceptance opinions uniformly. On the premise of meeting the overall project quality and safety requirements and reaching safe use conditions, joint acceptance may be carried out separately for unit projects that meet functional use requirements.

(7) Optimize municipal public utility services.Vigorously promote joint application and connection for water, electricity, gas, heating, and communications, implement "one-stop" centralized and proactive services, further optimize the application and connection service process, streamline application materials, make service standards and service fees public, strengthen service supervision, and improve service efficiency. Establish a coordinated mechanism for municipal supporting facilities and promote municipal public utility units to proactively provide technical guidance in advance during the project planning and generation stage and confirm connection locations. For construction project planning permits, urban green space and tree approval, road excavation and occupation permits, and other matters involved in municipal public utility connection projects, implement parallel handling throughout the entire process.

Further optimize online approval service capabilities

(8) Enhance the depth of online service handling.Deepen the application of the engineering construction project approval management system (hereinafter referred to as the engineering approval system) and continue to promote online approval throughout the entire process of engineering construction projects. By the end of 2023, achieve full coverage of the engineering approval system in all counties (districts), and fully incorporate fire protection design review and acceptance into the engineering approval system. Further improve the functions of the engineering approval system to better support the business needs and work characteristics of approval departments, promote auxiliary application methods such as online intelligent guidance and intelligent customer service, and improve the convenience for enterprises in consultation, inquiry, filling, feedback, and other handling matters. Launch integrated services such as joint application for municipal public utilities and approval of external connection projects in the engineering approval system, expand mobile applications, and accelerate the transformation from online availability to full online handling and easy, convenient handling.

(9) Strengthen data sharing and application.Further improve the information sharing and collaborative application mechanisms between the engineering approval system and systems for investment, planning and land use, ecological environment, municipal public utilities, and others, and resolutely eliminate the problems of repeated login and repeated entry. Vigorously promote the digital application for construction throughout the entire process of engineering construction projects, accelerate the collection and sharing of electronic signatures, electronic seals, electronic licenses, electronic materials, and electronic archives in the online handling process, and promote the realization that materials issued by government departments are all exempt from submission and that physical licenses are all exempt from submission where electronic licenses can be provided.

(10) Promote intelligent auxiliary review.Promote digital management throughout the entire process of engineering drawing design, construction, change, acceptance, and archive transfer, and realize "one map" management and collaborative application throughout the entire engineering construction project. Encourage regions with conditions to adopt building information modeling (BIM) result submission and intelligent auxiliary approval in design scheme review, construction drawing design document review, completion acceptance, and archive transfer, and strengthen the application of BIM in building lifecycle management.

Other requirements for strengthening in-process and post-event supervision

(11) Promote linkage between approval and supervision.Improve the mechanism for connecting approval and supervision. For regions implementing reform of relatively centralized administrative licensing power, all localities shall clarify item by item the responsibilities and boundaries of approval and supervision, strengthen coordination and cooperation, and accelerate the real-time sharing of approval and supervision information. It is necessary to clarify the work procedures and supervision rules for approval matters under tolerance-based acceptance and notification and commitment systems, inspect the correction of materials and the fulfillment of notification and commitment within the prescribed time, and, where false commitments, breach of commitments, or fraud are found, order correction within a time limit or revoke the administrative approval decision in accordance with the law, and pursue the corresponding responsibility of the applicant.

(12) Innovate supervision methods.Improve the classified supervision mechanism based on engineering risk, determine project risk levels according to factors such as project type, scale, technical complexity, personnel density, and participating units, and reasonably determine the proportion and frequency of key inspections and random spot checks according to risk levels. Strengthen credit supervision, enhance the collection of credit information of market entities related to engineering construction projects, expand diversified credit information query channels, and realize automatic verification and feedback of credit information during the approval process. Vigorously promote "Internet plus supervision," accelerate the establishment of a coding, code assignment, and code use mechanism for individual housing buildings, promote interconnection and collaborative application between the engineering approval system and systems such as the construction market public service platform, quality and safety supervision platform, smart construction sites, and housing safety management, and establish a digital supervision mechanism for the entire lifecycle of engineering construction project design, construction, acceptance, operation, and maintenance. Accelerate the sharing of engineering project data and information from the engineering approval system to the qualification approval system for construction engineering enterprises.

Guarantee measures

(13) Strengthen organization and coordination.All localities shall fully understand the important significance of the reform of the engineering construction project approval system for promoting investment and construction and optimizing the business environment, strengthen organizational leadership, enrich work forces, and continue to promote the continuous deepening of reform. The lead departments for the reform of the engineering construction project approval system at all levels shall take the initiative, strengthen coordination with relevant departments, improve working mechanisms, improve supporting systems, promptly coordinate and resolve contradictions and problems in the process of advancing reform work, and form a synergy for reform. Encourage all localities to carry out pilot projects for standardized approval of engineering construction projects. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will promptly summarize and promote typical experience and innovative practices formed in various localities.

(14) Strengthen publicity, promotion, and supervision evaluation.All localities shall strengthen publicity of reform policies, provide the public with timely and easy-to-understand policy interpretations through various forms, and enable enterprises and the public to understand reform policies in a timely manner. Strictly implement the government service "good and bad review" system to facilitate timely evaluation of approval services by enterprises and the public. Strengthen the promotion and application of the national engineering approval system's mini program "Suggestions and Complaints on the Reform of the Engineering Construction Project Approval System," improve the mechanism for handling complaints and reports regarding engineering construction project approval, and handle and reply promptly.