To: all divisions and subordinate units of the Bureau, all district planning and resources bureaus, and local agencies

　　Shanghai Municipality’s Implementation Scheme for Strengthening Integrated Innovation of Planning Resources is hereby issued to you for your conscientious implementation and compliance.

　　        Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources

　　                                March 2, 2023        

　　Shanghai Municipality’s Implementation Scheme for Strengthening Integrated Innovation of Planning Resources

　　to Improve the Business Environment

　　This Implementation Scheme is developed in light of Shanghai City’s actualities of planning resources management for the purpose of enforcing the decisions and plans of Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Shanghai Municipal People's Government regarding improvement of the business environment, implementing Shanghai Municipality’s Implementation Scheme for Strengthening Integrated Innovation of Planning Resources, and accomplishing the World Bank Group's Business Enabling Environment (BEE) assessment.

　　I. General requirements

　　Put the guiding principles from the 20th National Congress of the CPC into action, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Advance the reform for planning resources approval and real estate registration of engineering projects by establishing market entities' sense of gain as the evaluation criterion, high-quality development as the fundamental requirement, and implementing national strategic missions, enhancing the global core competitiveness and securing stable expectations and boosting confidence for enterprise development as the objectives, so as to provide strong support for creating an institutional environment where state-owned enterprises dare to do, private enterprises dare to venture, and foreign enterprises dare to invest.

　　Develop a correct understanding of the methodological concept, underlying logic and practical requirements of the WBG's BEE Indicator System, focusing on assessment of the indicators “Business Location” and “Utility Connections”; apply the WBG's new methodology in all work of business environment improvement, cement and improve the reform outcomes from three dimensions including regulatory framework, public services and overall efficiency, get prepared for Shanghai's participation in the WBG’s and the State’s business environment assessment, and support the execution of all tasks  to improve business environment on all fronts.

　　II. Deepening reform against the WBG indicators

　　(i) Optimize the regulation of real estate leasing, property rights and urban-rural planning.

　　Continuously strengthen the institutional capacity. Further improve the institutional system, optimize the regulation of real estate leasing, property rights and urban-rural planning, and continue to fortify the protection of land use and leasing rights, housing leasing right and ownership for domestic and foreign enterprises. Carry out the registration of housing lease contracts, allowing the particulars of a lease contract to be recorded in the real estate register with an application jointly filed by the landlord and the tenant in an effort to safeguard real estate transactions.

　　Continue to strictly enforce the fair competition review mechanism. Conduct a strict examination of the restrictions on market entry and exit and creation of new administrative approval items following a fair competition review of all regulatory documents, taking into account the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China and considerations for improvement of business environment, so as to further regulate government actions, maintain fair market competition and create a fair market environment for domestic and foreign enterprises.

　　Continue to deliver solid outcomes in dynamic organization, collection and publication of laws and regulations with respect to real estate leasing, property rights and urban-rural planning. Further improve the mechanism of synchronous policy release, interpretation and publicity, and provide open and transparent laws and regulations and policy documents for domestic and foreign market entities and the public.

　　(ii) Improve the quality of government services and information transparency

　　Comprehensively strengthen the capacity building of government services based on the needs of a firm throughout the life cycle, and make full use of digital tools to empower the improvement of business environment and improve the quality of government services and information transparency.

　　Strengthen the synergy of real estate transaction services. Shanghai has built an information system for unified and centralized management of the city's planning, land use, construction and registration, with the real property unit ID as the unique identifier linking the cadastre and real estate ownership, thus realizing the interconnection of the real estate registration subsystem with the land management subsystem. This information system allows for real-time access to and traceability of information related to national land planning and land use. Each Real Estate Ownership Certificate bears a unique identifier and clearly records information concerning the land transfer contract and planning conditions to protect real estate rights and interests.

　　Strengthen interdepartmental cooperation and enhance service synergy. Make use of the “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” portal to optimize “package services” of real estate transaction; the registration, housing management, taxation and other departments should strengthen collaboration and optimize the service process to realize “one-window acceptance and parallel approval” of real estate transactions, taxation and registration. Optimize the “package services” of housing mortgage repayment, requiring the competent registration authority to cooperate with banks and other relevant departments to realize the “whole-course online” intelligent, instant approval of applications for paying off housing mortgage. Improve the “package services” of real estate ownership and utilities account transfer. Competent registration authorities should work with financial institutions to provide services of handling relevant matters electronically without the need to be physically present; collaborate with the courts to provide “online” registration of real estate seizures.

　　Improve the availability of online real estate information. To strengthen real estate registration information disclosure and sharing, individual and corporate users can search for real estate registration information citywide using the “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” portal, “Suishenban” APP and other self-service terminals; “Zuoluochafang (search of houses with location)” and “Dituchafang (search of houses from map)” apps are designed to give users an easy access to information on the real estate conditions, rights and cadastral map. Individuals can query the information about the rights over non-residential real estate where the proprietor is a corporate or unincorporated organization, and individuals can check the information of real estate under their names using “My Real Estate” feature.

　　Improve column information release. Publish real estate registration policies and interpretations, release information on case acceptance requirements, processing length of time, service charges, etc., provide integrated inquiry services for information required for due diligence, and disclose official statistics on the number of real estate registration cases. Applicants can inquire in real time about the progress of and time spent on different links of their case handling, and make comments (good or bad) on the services of each link. Improve the independent complaint channels for disputes regarding cadastral mapping and registration, among others.

　　Enhance the availability of online services for building permit application. Leverage digital means to further raise the intelligent level of planning resources approval on the basis of the “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” portal that delivers online application, acceptance, approval, certification and notification of government services for engineering projects. Further implement the “two exemptions” rule (exemption of materials endorsed by the municipal government departments, and exemption of physical licenses where digital counterparts are available), consolidate the outcomes of reform in streamlined and expedited approval of application for engineering project planning permits, and launch more streamlined and expedited approval services such as the approval of Opinions on Engineering Project Land Planning. Push ahead with the intelligent guidance, application, pre-filling and pre-review services of engineering project planning permit and real estate registration and other recurring affairs. Make use of the “Suishenban” Enterprise Cloud Service to facilitate enterprises’ authorization to individuals for handling of government services, and promote the access of pending matters about design plan and engineering planning permit to mobile terminals. Upgrade the electronic application standards of engineering projects, and gradually realize the measurement and comparison of indicators based on the construction graphics submitted.

　　Improve synergy of the building permit system. Further establish cross-departmental information sharing and exchange, intelligent audit and comparison and collaborative operation mechanisms to improve municipality-district service synergy, on the basis of creating a centralized site for handling of single departmental matters and delivering whole-course online services of engineering project application through the “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” portal. Consolidate and enhance the effectiveness of the integration of planning resource information systems, and further promote the integration of planning, land, project approval, survey and registration services. Improve the “one map” (GIS) national land spatial information system, and share the “one map” data among administrative departments and relevant agencies at municipal and district levels to facilitate project preliminary studies and streamline the approval for building permit application.

　　Enhance the transparency of building permit information. Publish the Instructions for Handling Government Services of Application for Building Permits, push all sorts of business preferential policy documents and enrich the “one file for one enterprise” information on the basis of publishing laws, regulations and policy documents in respect to the acquisition of business premises, and introduce policy interpretation and pushing services to improve the targeted and intelligent policy services.

　　(iii) Consolidate and enhance the convenience of obtaining building permits

　　Consolidate and enhance the effectiveness of building permit reform. While working hard to realize “multi-approval, multi-license, multi-measurement and multi-inspection integration” for land use regulation based on “multi-plan integration”, further strengthen the project construction and planning approval interface, and develop integrated and systematic reform program to drive integrated reform in the field of engineering construction. Abolish the planning permit of pile foundation projects, allowing the construction unit to carry out maintenance of foundation pit and pile foundation construction after the construction plan is approved. Select urban renewal projects, science, education, culture and health projects, and projects in the “five new towns” and “north-south transformation” areas to actively launch pilots of the architect responsibility system, improve the policies regarding the architect responsibility system, and authorize responsible architects to organize relevant assessment and evaluation by experts.

　　Continuously promote regional assessment, simplify or reduce the assessment procedures of individual construction projects. Study the possibility to expand the scope of regional assessment and explore the inclusion of energy consumption and environmental impact assessment, on the basis of implementing traffic impact assessment, water resources justification, soil and water conservation program examination, geological hazard assessment, lightning risk assessment, seismic safety assessment, etc. Improve the working mechanism to promote the application of regional assessment results, and track the assessment and review as to the approval of planning permit in places where regional assessment has been conducted. Publish policy documents, technical standards and assessment reporting requirements related to all assessment matters in the “Acquisition of Business Location” column of the Bureau's portal. Initiate research of regional assessment matters while preparing detailed control planning of the vast stretches of construction area; the assessment conclusions should be well linked with the detailed control planning. District governments, relevant management committees, five “new towns” and other implementation subjects should further promote regional assessment and ensure it is completed after the development of urban planning and before the completion of land transfer. Key areas such as Lin-Gang Special Area, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park should lead the way in promoting regional assessment.

　　Continue to deepen the reform of “land use list system” to enhance the transparency and predictability of land development and construction. All district planning and resource authorities should promote the application of the results of regional assessment and land census, compile information on the land use census and regional assessment and summarize the technical control indexes and construction requirements through land transfer consultation before land supply, and incorporate the above information into the land grant announcement and relevant annexes, so as to provide enterprises with clear and definite land development and construction conditions and management requirements of government agencies, and ensure that land use units can carry out application for construction approval after land acquisition. At the same time, optimize the land transfer inquiry and establish the conditions of municipal pipeline access for development projects so that developers are informed in advance of the current situation of access to municipal utilities in the relevant areas to further shorten the construction cycle. Lin-Gang Special Area, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park and other key areas should double their efforts in the innovation of “land use list system” for social investment projects, and improve the services throughout the process from land acquisition to project completion and operation.

　　Consolidate and enhance the effectiveness of “integrated surveying and mapping” reform. On the basis of implementing the “integrated surveying and mapping” reform in as-built acceptance of the city's housing construction projects, upgrade and improve the “combined measurement and calculation” system feature, carry out pilot implementation of story- and building-specific property area calculation in the planning approval stage, and effectively promote implementation of projects satisfying the “combined measurement and calculation” conditions. Promote the development of technical regulations regarding "multi-measurement integration” for highway traffic engineering projects together with elated pilot work. Strengthen the sharing and mutual recognition of pilot results, and facility competent authorities’ online access to those results.  Strengthen the quality supervision and inspection of “multi-measurement integration” results, and accelerate the building of industry credit system.

　　Extend the application scope of “phased acceptance for one planning permit” during as-built acceptance. On the basis of applying “phased acceptance for one planning permit” in epidemic prevention and control projects and other emergency projects, expand the former scope of public projects related to people's livelihood to all public service facility projects.

　　(iv) Consolidate and enhance the convenience of real estate registration

　　Deepen the reform of “One For ALL” real estate registration service. Create a dedicated window for corporate services to allow registration of real estate transfer between enterprises to be completed in a single link and within 90 minutes with tax payment and settlement handled on the spot. The approval of online application for the registration of housing transactions should be “immediately available”, where applicants can opt to either pay the taxes and then obtain the certificate on the spot or obtain the certificate on the spot and then pay the taxes online.

　　Continue to introduce real estate registration facilitation measures. Implement the “two exemptions” and the use of electronic certificates in the case acceptance stage; carry out the “three-in-one” collection of transaction, taxation and registration information; collect taxes and registration service charges online at a time, which are them automatically charging into separate accounts by the background system; deepen the application of electronic certificates of title for real estate, and introduce self-service certificate printing or EMS delivery service of paper certificates. Continuously introduce intelligent government services to improve the service convenience and public satisfaction.

　　(v) Push forward utility connections application

　　Improve the utility (water, electricity, gas and Internet) connections mechanism. After an enterprise completes utility connections, all relevant information should be collected synchronously; and perform the approval of relevant permit applications filed through the “package services of road excavation” section.

　　Continue to optimize the “package services of road excavation”. On the basis of rendering "package services of road excavation” for projects in the city outside the outer ring that do not span across a road and those within 50m radius of the outer ring that do not span across a road, further expand the scope of access projects, and gradually achieve the goal that all “general municipal pipeline access projects” are included into the “package services of road excavation”, so as to optimize the approval process, reduce the materials submitted, and improve the approval efficiency.

　　Establish a shared database and geographic information system of utility pipelines. Establish and continuously improve a shared database encompassing different utility pipelines after collection and loading of data about gas, water, drainage and other utility pipelines across the city. Develop and build the geographic information system of municipal pipelines, and gather the data of pipelines in all stages of planning, tracing measurement and completion to promote the whole life cycle management of municipal pipelines. Formulate the application rules of pipeline data, and render pipeline information services to the relevant functional departments, pipeline ownership units and relevant enterprises through the “Government Online-Offline Shanghai” portal.

　　III. Supporting measures

　　(i) Strengthen organizational leadership

　　Municipal and district planning and resource authorities should execute the work tasks specified in this Implementation Scheme to strengthen organizational leadership, implement specific tasks, and encourage pilot innovation. All departments concerned are expected to enhance the service awareness and sense of duty, strengthen communication and collaboration, and establish the “municipality and district-integrated” working mechanism of regular research coordination, regular scheduling and cooperation, so that reform synergy is produced to proceed with the reform as planned.

　　(ii) Reinforce legal guarantee

　　Accelerate the formulation, revision and regular removal of regulatory documents to provide legislative support and institutional basis for integrated innovation of planning resources to continuously improve the business environment. Expedite the revision of the Measures of Shanghai Municipality for Implementing the Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China and perform legislative research for the revision of the Procedures of Shanghai Municipality for Real Estate Registration.

　　Closely monitor the implementation outcomes of reform policies to provide practical support for integrated innovation of planning resources to continuously improve the business environment. Keep updated about and analyze the application of policy documents related to business environment improvement in the field of planning and resources to summarize the implementation outcomes and problems and provide further guidance for the future policy evaluation and dynamic adjustment.

　　(iii) Regulate administrative law enforcement

　　Strictly comply with the system of announcement before, during and after administrative law enforcement, improve the transparency and credibility of administrative law enforcement, regulate the operation of administrative law enforcement powers, and create a transparent, standardized and fair legal environment.

　　Strictly comply with the List of Impunity for Minor Violations in the Field of Planning and Resources, and carry out “law enforcement with human touch”. Minor violations can be exempted from administrative penalties; instead, such actions as criticism, education and admonition can be taken to reduce the burden of administrative penalties on the integrity of market entities.

　　(iv) Strengthen supervision and assessment

　　Build a regulatory system that fits well with the reform of business environment improvement, and strengthen the supervision and assessment of reform initiatives. Establish the implementation of this Implementation Scheme as one of the key indicators for the annual comprehensive service appraisal, refine and quantify the appraisal indicators measuring key links and tasks to ensure that all work is progressing in a well-conceived way. Optimize the business environment improvement appraisal program by taking into account such factors as the indicator rating, businesses’ perception, policy implementation and work innovation.

　　(v) Strengthen publicity and guidance

　　Municipal and district planning and resource authorities should make extensive use of online and offline platforms to organize diversified, multi-channel activities of business environment improvement and business-related policy publicity and interpretation to improve the coverage and accessibility of business environment policies. Continuously summarize the practical experience in business environment improvement, and step up the efforts in summarization, publicity and media coverage of the work progress, typical cases and exemplary deeds of business environment improvement, so as to create a favorable public opinion environment for advancing the business environment improvement efforts.