By Gao Taishan, Ma Xiaobai & Liu Xiaoxi, Research team on “Business Environment Improvement”, Enterprise Research Institute, DRC

Research Report, No.138, 2021 (Total 6203) 2021-5-28

Abstract: The Chinese government has made continuous effort to push ahead with the reform on facilitating the application and installation of public utilities. The local governments have launched a series of targeted measures in line with advanced international rules and practices to simplify the procedures and shorten the time for the application and installation of public utilities. They have proactively promoted online services and strived to improve the transparency of charges and the reliability of water, electricity and gas supply with the goal of facilitating the application and installation of public utilities. The research results based on a field survey in 45 cities across the country show that various localities have made achievements through reform, but there are still some issues to be addressed. For instance, the procedures for the application and installation of public utilities remain complicated, causing much time and money. These problems hinder the development of public utilities and fail to satisfy the expectations of market entities. Thus the reform needs to be further enhanced in the following aspects. We need to further the reform on facilitating the application and installation of public utilities, forge ahead with the transfer of standard land system based on relevant evaluations and standards and in light of local conditions, and advance the entire process reform on application, design, construction and acceptance check. Besides, we need to optimize the process for the application and installation, simplify the procedures, reduce administrative review and approval time and clearly define service specification and standards so as to enhance market performance.

Keywords: business environment, public utility facilitation, reforms to delegate powers, improve regulation and provide better services