(Issued on January 16, 2024in accordance with Decree No. 202 of the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality and put into force on April 1, 2024)

　　Article 1     These Measures are formulated in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, on the basis of the actual conditions of Nansha District and with a view to promoting and standardizing the registration confirmation system for market entities in Nansha District, so as to maintain a good market order and protect the legal rights and interests of market entities, thereby creating a market-oriented and law-based international business environment.

　　Article 2     Nansha District shall implement the registration confirmation system for market entities.

　　The term “registration confirmation system for market entities” herein refers to a registration system in which the registration authority, based on the independent declaration and credit commitment of the market entities, accredits the subject qualification and registration items of the market entities through formal examination in accordance with its statutory authority and procedures, and publicizes their legal effectiveness.

　　Article 3     These Measures shall apply to the establishment, change and cancellation of registration confirmation and related management and service activities of market entities within the administrative areas of Nansha District.

　　Article 4     The implementation of the registration confirmation system for market entities shall be based on free will, good faith, convenience, high efficiency, openness and transparency.

　　Article 5     The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality and the People’s Government of Nansha District shall strengthen the organizational leadership in implementing the registration confirmation system for market entities, establish a mature coordination mechanism, make an overall plan for advancing the reform of the registration confirmation system for market entities and promptly solve major problems encountered during the implementation of the registration confirmation system for market entities. The People’s Government of Nansha District shall be responsible for organizing the implementation of these Measures.

　　The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality and the People’s Government of Nansha District shall actively strive for comprehensive authorization and reform pilot projects of the state and Guangdong Province, support the pilot reform in direct registration for Hong Kong and Macao enterprises in Nansha District and take the lead in piloting more flexible policy systems and regulatory models.

　　Article 6     The municipal market regulation authority shall provide guidance to the implementation of the registration confirmation system for market entities in Nansha District, provide information-based support and improve relevant business systems for registration and information disclosure of market entities.

　　The authorities in charge of market regulation, administrative approval and comprehensive administrative law enforcement of Nansha District, town people’s governments and subdistrict offices shall be responsible for the management of registration confirmation affairs by market entities in the District in accordance with relevant regulations on the division of functions and powers of people’s governments at district and higher levels.

　　Relevant authorities in charge of, inter alia, development and reform, housing and urban-rural development, public security, human resources and social security, government service data management, taxation, commerce, planning and natural resources, industry and information technology and science and technology shall strengthen the sharing and application of information on market entities, and well manage affairs related to the registration confirmation system for market entities within the scope of their respective functions and duties.

　　Article 7     International talents shall be entitled to pre-establishment national treatment in accordance with the law when establishing technology-based enterprises. Technology-oriented enterprises founded by international talents who meet the permanent domicile conditions and obtain permanent domicile qualification in mainland China, if not engaging in production and business activities subject to special market access measures stipulated by the state and Guangdong Province, may be entitled to the same treatment as domestic enterprises in accordance with the law.

　　Article 8     The registration authority shall implement smart whole-process electronic registration, promote online acceptance, confirmation, issuance of licenses or issuance of electronic registration notices, keep electronic archives, share and publicize registration information and provide registration consultation, guidance and assistance to market entities in handling registration procedures.

　　Market entities may complete the registration of various items on line through the city-wide one-stop website for enterprises to access various government services, and independently apply for registration of their names, business scope, domiciles, business premises and the like.

　　Article 9     Market entities may independently inquire, verify and apply for registration of proposed names through the city-wide one-stop website for enterprises to access various government services.

　　The registration authority shall apply modern information technologies to automatically check whether the name under application is the same or similar to the registered name, and show the comparison results in real time. If the enterprise name under application does not comply with regulations, a prompt shall be given with the reasons clearly explained.

　　Article 10   Market entities shall independently choose business items and business scope in accordance with the Catalogue for Business Scope of Chinese Companies (“Catalogue”) issued by the national authorities for market regulation.

　　For new business forms and new industries that do not have corresponding entries in the Catalogue, market entities may propose personalized suggestions on business expressions by referring to the Industrial Classification for National Economic Activities and policy documents, industry habits or professional literature.

　　After receiving suggestions from market entities, the registration authority shall, in accordance with the law, report to the national authorities for market regulation level by level to add or modify relevant items, and update the Catalogue in a timely way.

　　Article 11    The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality shall prepare and promptly update a negative list of market entities failing to meet the commitment of applying for registration of domiciles and business premises independently.

　　The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality and the People’s Government of Nansha District shall establish and improve a standard address database that can be used as domiciles or business premises, further improving the smart comparison rate of the standard address database.

　　If the domiciles or business premises under application by the market entities are within the scope of the standard address database and do not fall under the circumstances listed in the negative list, they can be exempted from submitting proofs of property rights or lease contracts or other supporting materials for the use of the domiciles or business premises. Market entities shall make commitments that the ownership relationship, use functions and legal purposes of the domiciles and business premises under application are consistent with the facts.

　　If the domiciles or business premises under application by the market entities are not within the scope of the standard address database or if the business scope of the market entities involves business items listed on the negative list, legal and valid proofs for the use of the domiciles or business premises shall be submitted.

　　The registration authority shall utilize the real estate registration information shared by the authorities in charge of planning and natural resources, and strengthen the verification of the information on domiciles and business premises submitted by market entities through the city-wide one-stop website for enterprises to access various government services.

　　Article 12   Market entities may independently design and use customized articles of association and partnership agreements, and may also choose standardized articles of association and partnership agreements formulated and published by the registration authorities.

　　Market entities may choose to submit customized or standardized articles of association and partnership agreements as filing materials. The contents of customized articles of association and partnership agreements shall include the matters required by laws and regulations, and shall not violate mandatory provisions of laws and regulations or violate public order and good morals.

　　Article 13   Within 5 working days from the date of receiving the articles of association and partnership agreement submitted by the market entities, the registration authority shall include these articles of association and partnership agreement into the registration archives of the market entities for the query of citizens, legal persons or other organizations in accordance with the law.

　　In addition to the matters required by laws and administrative regulations, market entities may also incorporate confidentiality clauses in their articles of association and partnership agreements to place restrictions on trade secrets and other contents.

　　Article 14   Efforts shall be made to promote the establishment of a registration secretary system for market entities. Market entities may designate or entrust natural persons who reside in Guangzhou and have full capacity for civil conduct, or professional service institutions such as accounting firms and law firms, to serve as their registration secretaries. The registration secretary of a market entity may be served by its registration liaison who meets the aforementioned conditions.

　　The authorities in charge of administrative approval, market regulation and comprehensive administrative law enforcement may implement inclusive and prudent supervision over law-abiding market entities with integrity and low credit risks that have designated a registration secretary.

　　The market regulation authority of Nansha District shall, in conjunction with the authorities in charge of administrative approval, establish a credit management file for registration secretaries designated by market entities, and use information-based means to promptly collect information of registration secretaries on real name authentication, handling of registration procedures, submission of annual reports, acception of government sectors’ supervision and inspection and keeping phone numbers updated. By doing so, relevant information can be included in credit records and kept dynamic updates in a timely way via public credit information platforms at all levels.

　　The specific measures for management of registration secretaries of market entities shall be formulated separately by the People’s Government of Nansha District.

　　Article 15   The registration secretary designated by the market entity may, within the designed or entrusted scope, carry out the following services related to the registration of the market entity:

　　(1)Communicate with registration authorities on behalf of the market entity, and contact the market entity for registration, information disclosure and other related matters;

　　(2)Handle the registration and confirmation procedures for the establishment, change, or cancellation of registration of the market entity on its behalf;

　　(3)Receive or submit legal documents related to the registration and information disclosure of the market entity on its behalf;

　　(4)Submit annual reports on behalf of the market entity;

　　(5)Responsible for reviewing the authenticity, legality, validity, completeness and consistency of the market entity’s application materials and information to be submitted to the registration authority;

　　(6)Manage the registration application materials of the market entity;

　　(7)Accept inquiries from the registration authority in accordance with the law and provide timely responses;

　　(8)Other service matters agreed upon with the market entity.

　　Article 16   The registration secretary designated by the market entity shall not engage in any of the following behaviors:

　　(1)Provide false information and materials, and issue false reports, certificates or other supporting documents;

　　(2)Implement or assist or connive the market entity to implement false registration by such means as using identity information of others;

　　(3)Other behaviors prohibited by laws, regulations and rules.

　　Article 17  For a market entity that engages in such business activities as e-commerce, consulting and planning that does not require a fixed domicile, it may implement cluster registration and entrust a qualified registration secretary to handle the custody of the domicile and use the domicile and business premises of the registration secretary as the domicile of the market entity. Where there are other provisions in laws, regulations and rules, these provisions shall prevail.

　　The registration secretary shall establish systems for managing the register and archives of registered market entities, establish a custody service ledger, cooperate with relevant authorities in regulation of market entities, and urge market entities to fulfill relevant obligations. Any abnormality or illegal act of registered market entities found shall be promptly reported to the relevant authorities of Nansha District.

　　The specific measures for management of cluster registration shall be formulated separately by the People’s Government of Nansha District.

　　Article 18   When going through registration procedures, the market entity shall provide true and valid identity documents of its legal representative, main responsible person, shareholders, directors, supervisors and senior executives, registration secretary, registration liaison, designated representative or authorized agent and other relevant personnel as required by relevant laws and regulations.

　　The registration authority shall use the existing information technologies and other means to verify the authenticity of the identities of the above-mentioned personnel, for which the market entity shall give cooperation.

　　Article 19   When going through registration procedures, the market entity shall be responsible for the authenticity, legality, validity, completeness and consistency of the submitted documents and materials, submit a credit commitment for its implementation of registration confirmation system to the registration authority, and bear corresponding responsibilities for making false commitments and breaching of commitments in accordance with the law.

　　The registration authority shall include the credit commitment in the registration files of the market entity, and release it through public credit information platforms and other platforms in accordance with the law to accept social supervision.

　　Article 20   A market entity that has made a commitment when going through the registration procedures and has caused its legal representative, main responsible person, shareholders, investors and other relevant interested parties to make confirmation of the registration items may be exempted from submitting procedural documents proving its establishment, cancellation of registration or change of relevant items in accordance with the law.

　　Market entities shall keep properly the procedural documents exempted from submission as stipulated in the preceding paragraph for future reference.

　　Article 21   The registration authority shall proactively provide query services on market entities’ registration files. And citizens, legal persons or other organizations may lawfully query and use market entities’ registration files through online and offline means.

　　If the content of the registration file query involves state secrets, trade secrets or personal information, it shall be handled in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

　　Article 22   Nansha District shall seek to establish a market entity delisting system. For market entities included in the list of companies with abnormal operations or marked as abnormal operation status that have not made tax declaration in the past two years, the market regulation authority of Nansha District may mark them as delisted status in the national enterprise credit information publicity system and the electronic business license platform. If a market entity is lawfully removed from the list of companies with abnormal operations or gets rid of the abnormal status, the delisted status shall be lifted.

　　Article 23   The authorities in charge of market regulation and comprehensive administrative law enforcement shall include the credit commitments of the market entities and their fulfillment in the credit records of the market entities, implement graded and classified supervision based on the credit risk status of market entities, conduct inspections through written inspections, on-site inspections, online monitoring and other methods, and include the filed documents, commitment matters and contents of market entities in the scope of oversight through “inspections by randomly selected inspectors of randomly selected entities and the public release of inspection results”, increase the proportion and frequency of oversights on the fulfillment of credit commitments by market entities, and promptly release the results of supervision and inspection to the public.

　　The authorities in charge of market regulation and comprehensive administrative law enforcement shall establish a key supervision list system. For high-risk market entities with multiple complaints and reports, those included in the list of companies with abnormal operations or those included in the list of serious dishonest offenders, such methods as increasing the frequency of spot checks and conducting special inspections shall be adopted for key supervision.

　　Article 24   The market regulation authorities shall take full advantages of such modern information technologies as artificial intelligence, IoT perception, big data and blockchain to improve the level of information-based supervision, promote the establishment of information push and feedback channels between administrative authorities and market entities, and achieve remote supervision.

　　Article 25   For adding business premises within the administrative areas of this Municipality other than the registered domicile or business premises, the market entity may apply for registration of branch offices or file multiple business premises with the registration authority. According to the principle of territorial management, the local market regulation authority shall be responsible for the supervision of branch offices and added business premises.

　　If there are other provisions in laws, regulations and rules, these provisions shall prevail.

　　Article 26   Where a market entity completes its registration by submitting false materials or using other fraudulent means to conceal important facts, the comprehensive administrative law enforcement authority of Nansha District shall impose punishment in accordance with the Rules for Implementation of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on the Administration of Registration of Market Entities.

　　For the registration secretaries designed by market entities and other intermediary institutions or personnel that knowingly or should have known that the applicant submits false materials or uses other fraudulent means to conceal important facts for registration but still accept the entrustment to handle the registration on behalf of the applicant or assist the applicant in carrying out false registration, the comprehensive administrative law enforcement authority of Nansha District shall impose punishment in accordance with the provisions of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on the Administration of Registration of Market Entities and the Rules for Implementation of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on the Administration of Registration of Market Entities.

　　The person directly responsible of the market entity practicing false registration shall not apply for the registration within 3 years from the date of revocation of the registration as a market entity. The authorities in charge of administrative approval and market regulation of Nansha District shall, within the scope of their respective functions and duties, release registration information of market entities through the national enterprise credit information publicity system.

　　Article 27   Where a relevant administrative authority and its staff, in violation of these Measures, fails to perform its/his/her duties according to law, the competent authority shall order it/him/her to make corrections and impose punishment on the person in charge responsible and other persons directly responsible; if a crime is constituted, criminal liabilities shall be investigated and affixed according to law.

　　Article 28   These Measures shall come into force on April 1, 2024.