The competent departments of commerce of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities under separate state planning and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps,

In light of the requirements of the State Council for simplifying the administrative examination and approval system and for the purpose of simplifying the procedures for examining the contracts and articles of association of foreign-funded enterprises, improving efficiency and accelerating the absorption of foreign investment within the sector of service trade, we hereby circulate a notice on the relevant issues as follows on entrusting the competent departments of commerce of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities under separate state planning and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (hereinafter referred to as the competent departments of commerce at provincial level) and the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones to examine and administrate the foreign-funded designing enterprises for construction projects:

I. The competent departments of commerce at provincial level and the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones are entrusted to examine and administrate the foreign-funded designing enterprises for construction projects.

II. All the entrusted departments and institutions shall strictly enforce the relevant standards for the qualification of foreign-funded enterprises, earnestly carry out the relevant examination on the application for the establishment or alteration of foreign-funded designing enterprises for construction projects in accordance with the Provisions on the Administration of Foreign-funded Designing Enterprises for Construction Projects ([2002] No. 114 of the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) as well as other laws and regulations on foreign investment, and handle the relevant matters according to the procedures and requirements as prescribed in the aforesaid provisions upon soliciting the opinions of the competent administrative department of construction. The entrusted departments and institutions shall report the problems as arising in the process of examination and approval, if any, to the Ministry of Commerce in a timely manner. In the case of any rule-breaking examination and approval in the duration of entrustment, the Ministry of Commerce shall circulate a notice of criticism or even withdraw its entrustment in light of the real situation.

III. All the entrusted departments and institutions shall be capable of getting connected to the Ministry of Commerce through the network so as to issue the Approval Certificate for Foreign-funded Enterprises thereon and carrying out an joint online annual examination and shall a good job in the examination and approval, archival filing and statistical work through the network-based certificate issuance system for foreign-funded enterprises. The relevant statistical data shall meet the relevant requirements so that the Ministry of Commerce may get informed of the relevant situation and strengthen its supervision. The Ministry of Commerce will carry out trainings on the local competent departments of commerce as well as the administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones in the near future and clarify the specific issues in the process of examination and approval.

IV. The entrusted administrative commissions of national economic and technical development zones shall adopt a simple and efficient administration system in pursuant to the Circular of the General Office of the State Council on Forwarding Several Opinions of the Ministry of Commerce and Other Departments on Promoting the Further Development of National Economic and Technical Development Zones (Guo Ban Fa [2005] No. 15). After the national economic and technical development zones go through the archival filing of administrative system, personnel trainings and networking inspection and acceptance, the Ministry of Commerce will separately handle the relevant formalities for entrustment in a batch-by-batch manner.

V. The present Entrustment shall come into force as of March 31, 2006.