The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has recently issued the Opinions on Accelerating Construction of Credit System in Business Circle (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), in order to accelerate the construction of the integrity system in the business circle and build a business environment of honesty and faith. This is an important measure of the Ministry of Commerce to implement the Plan for Construction of Social Credit System (2014-2020) (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) released by the State Council.

The Opinions sets up the goal of establishing a credit system in the business circle, including strengthening enterprises’ sense of faithful operation and credit management ability, ensuring the standardized and healthy development of credit service industry, and promoting the scale of credit economy by a large margin.

The Opinions clarifies the work idea of following the principal line of implementing the Plan, taking commercial circulation enterprises as the subjects, the information share system of public administration guided by the government as the foundation, the enterprises comprehensive credit appraisal mechanism led by a marketized platform as the core, and a professional credit appraisal mechanism led by a third party institution as the support, in order to forge a favorable credit environment of “benefiting from keeping faith, and restricted by losing faith.”

The Opinions puts forward five major tasks: Firstly, we should promote the construction of an information share mechanism for public administration. The construction of a credit information system of commercial and trade circulation enterprises should be promoted, and sort management of enterprises credit should be carried out gradually. Use of credit information and credit report in public administration should be promoted. Secondly, we should guide the construction of a marketized comprehensive credit appraisal mechanism. In the sector of public consumption including retail, catering and neighborhood services, a credit appraisal mechanism based on transaction evaluation and social public comprehensive evaluation should be established and optimized. And in the sector of trade and circulation including wholesale and logistics, a credit appraisal mechanism to commercial tenants and upstream and downstream enterprises should be established. Thirdly, we should support the establishment of the professional credit appraisal mechanism of a third party. We should encourage credit insurance enterprises and commercial factoring enterprises to build a credit appraisal mechanism of business transaction centered on receivables, and organize some of industrial chambers of commerce and associations that have upstream and downstream relations to establish a credit information share mechanism. Fourthly, we should encourage the development of a commercial credit trading market. We should encourage trade circulation enterprises to expand the credit sales volume of domestic trade, standardize the development of the market of single-purpose prepaid cards and support the development of commercial factoring industry. Fifthly, we should take great pains to build a business environment with credibility culture.

To ensure the completion of the tasks, the Opinions stresses that local commercial departments should do support and guarantee work from five aspects: Firstly, overall planning should be strengthened. Secondly, institutional construction should be strengthened. Thirdly, demonstration and guidance should be intensified, and a batch of credit information systems and public service platforms taking management record, marketized comprehensive appraisal and a third-party professional appraisal as the subjects should be established as the pilot. Forthly, institutional guarantee should be enhanced. Fifthly, performance assessment should be reinforced.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)