"Legislative Experimental Field" Releases Reform Efficiency, Shanghai Promulgates 18 Pudong New Area Regulations for Reform | Economy | Regulations in Two Years
A month ago, at the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, 15 cars of Baidu Zhixing, AutoX Antu and Xiaoma Zhixing were awarded the first batch of driverless intelligent Internet connected vehicle road test license in Pudong New Area, which marks that the autonomous vehicle in Pudong New Area has really ushered in the unmanned stage.
At the 4th China International Import Expo, an intelligent lipstick printer that can mix thousands of lip colors according to individual needs became a "hit". Not long after, Shanghai consumers can also enjoy the same customized cosmetics at the counter.
"Future cars" are driving on the "fast lane" and personalized customization is leading a new consumption model, all of which are backed by the regulations of Pudong New Area.
From targeting the reform of "one industry, one certificate" to loosening the constraints on market entities, to optimizing the new mechanism of unveiling and commanding; From accelerating the circulation of cultural relics and artworks to exploring new models of financing leasing, Shanghai has successively formulated and promulgated 18 regulations in Pudong New Area since being authorized for two years, supporting bold innovation in Pudong's "legislative experimental field". Currently, it has gradually established and improved a legal guarantee system that is suitable for supporting Pudong's bold experimentation, daring exploration, and independent reform, and has achieved groundbreaking and phased legislative results with milestone significance.
Not doing a "nursery" to cultivate a "forest"
"Shanghai has fully utilized its legislative authorization and embarked on a new path of legislation leading and promoting reform and innovation." Yan Rui, Director of the Legal Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, stated that the 18 regulatory themes in Pudong New Area cover five major areas: optimizing the business environment, promoting industrial upgrading, promoting independent innovation, developing green ecology, and deepening urban governance.
Why are these 18 regulations? The reporter learned that in formulating the legislative plan, priority should be given to promoting the introduction of the Economic Promotion Law, and high-quality legislation should be further explored to break through the bottleneck problems encountered in the development of digital economy, leading industries, key technologies, etc. in the construction of the leading zone, ensuring that Pudong's pioneering reforms, leading openness, and pioneering innovation are supported by law. For example, the two regulations passed for the first time focus on the pioneering exploration of deepening the reform of streamlining administration and delegating power and improving services in Pudong. One is related to the "entry" of enterprises, and the other is related to the "exit" of enterprises, with a focus on loosening the constraints on market entities.
At the same time, legislation should grasp the relationship between adequacy and urgency, considering both necessity and feasibility while also paying attention to urgency. For issues that urgently require legislative protection, such as industry development bottlenecks and market subject development pain points, efforts will be concentrated to strengthen research and prioritize inclusion in legislative demand plans.
"We are not doing a 'nursery', but cultivating a 'forest'," said Huang Aiwu, Director of the Pudong New Area Judicial Bureau. These regulations focus on the bottleneck issues of Pudong's reform and development, deepen institutional integration and innovation, and strive to transform institutional dividends into significant economic and social benefits, providing strong legal guarantees for implementing the reform tasks proposed by the Leading Zone.
"In the drafting, deliberation, and revision process of every regulation in Pudong New Area, we adhere to the principle of 'open door legislation' and widely listen to opinions and suggestions from society, enterprises, think tanks, and other aspects." Huang Aiwu said that since the beginning of this year, the Pudong New Area Judicial Bureau has led the establishment of the first batch of 18 grassroots legislative contact points for district governments, promoting the appointment of overseas legal experts as members of the district legislative expert pool for the first time. Through various forms such as research visits, symposiums, and online public solicitation of opinions, we listen to the golden ideas of absorbing "think tanks", especially for clauses involving flexibility and innovation, and repeatedly study and listen to the opinions of all parties, so as to implement people's democracy throughout the entire process.
Tightly adhering to "creativity" and "flexibility"
"Obtaining authorization from the central government and the National People's Congress means bravely exploring the 'deep water zone' and taking on the responsibility of 'testing systems and exploring new paths' for reform and innovation." Yan Rui said that Pudong New Area regulations are extremely important institutional tools bestowed upon Shanghai by the central government for reform and opening up, with huge institutional advantages and potential. Among them, "creativity" and "flexibility" are the biggest characteristics.
The so-called "creativity" refers to making preliminary provisions on areas and matters that have not yet been covered by national laws and administrative regulations. "Obstruction of exit" is a long-term problem that troubles enterprises. Enterprises that have been revoked but not cancelled lose their "ID cards", but due to lack of property, personnel, and account books, the cancellation process is delayed for several years or "half dead". The "Market Entity Exit" regulation responds to the needs of enterprises by creating four exit methods: simple cancellation, commitment based cancellation, mandatory delisting, and mandatory cancellation. After the reform, the public notice period for simple cancellation registration has been reduced from 20 days to 10 days, opening up a "green channel" for enterprises to cancel. The optimization of the business environment covers every aspect of the entire life cycle of enterprises.
The legislation on "driverless intelligent connected vehicles", as the first regulation in the country specifically to ensure the innovative application of driverless intelligent connected vehicles, systematically establishes conditions and standards for the operation of driverless vehicles on the road, sets regulatory rules for safe operation, clarifies the long-awaited commercial operation of connected vehicles in the industry, and opens up a new track of rule of law for the standardized and orderly development of this emerging industry.
"Flexibility" is another major feature of regulations in Pudong New Area. The so-called "flexibility" refers to adhering to the basic principles of following constitutional provisions, laws and administrative regulations, and making prudent and moderate adjustments to specific provisions of relevant superior laws based on full communication and support from relevant national ministries and commissions.
The "One Business, One License" regulation adheres to the implementation of the Administrative Licensing Law, which stipulates that administrative licensing should follow the principle of convenience and improve efficiency. By adapting relevant laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules and regulations on "issuing licenses" and "operators must demonstrate their business license", as well as regulations on the validity period of licenses, it clarifies the "one license for operation" of industry comprehensive licensing, significantly reducing industry access costs.
The low level of punishment for patent infringement has always been criticized by the industry. Innovate the patent rapid pre examination mechanism for intellectual property protection regulations, explore joint review and handling of patent rights confirmation and administrative adjudication cases, and impose administrative penalties for duplicate patent infringement. Increase the upper limit of punitive damages from 5 million yuan to 10 million yuan. These innovative measures help to promote the construction of a highland for intellectual property protection in Pudong. After the implementation of the regulations, Pudong New Area was successfully selected as the "National Pilot Area for Innovation in Trade Secret Protection", and the relevant innovative system was referenced by the "Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Protection Regulations" and other relevant regulations.
How to make potential talents stand out in core technology breakthroughs? The regulation of "optimizing the mechanism for unveiling and commanding" follows the requirement of "judging ability, not just qualifications". Heroes do not ask for their origins, implement a "horse racing system", select "thousand mile horses", and fully stimulate the vitality of scientific and technological innovation in the whole society. At the beginning of this year, the Pudong Public Service Platform was officially launched, and the first wholesale list project was also officially launched to the public.
"Four or two strokes of a thousand pounds" to connect the joints
How effective is the implementation of 18 regulations in Pudong New Area after their promulgation?
"The regulations highlight 'leadership' and reflect 'benchmark', taking the first responsibility to polish the achievements with Pudong characteristics and provide strong legal protection for high-level reform and opening up. Yao Jianlong, Director of the Law Research Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Director of the Pudong New Area Regulations Research Center, said that these regulations are problem oriented and demonstrate the distinct characteristics of 'small, fast, and flexible'. With the skillful efforts of four or two thousand catties, they can open up joints, one hundred connections, and quickly, accurately, and steadily solve difficulties and pain points in economic and social development.".
The so-called "small" refers to a small number of provisions. The number of 18 regulations that have been issued is all below 40, of which 13 are under 20. "Fast" means to introduce quickly, adhering to the principle of prioritizing urgent needs and maturity, and legislating from a "small incision" perspective. On the basis of ensuring scientific legislative procedures and sufficient research and argumentation, it can be introduced as soon as two to three months, and as long as six months; "Ling" means having good results.
For example, legislation breaks down barriers and fully stimulates the vitality of business entities. After the introduction of the "Market Admission Commitment Reform" regulation, multiple approval conditions related to the operation of the industry were notified at once. For enterprises with good credit, as long as they voluntarily make a written commitment, they can obtain market admission licenses for food business and other businesses on the spot, achieving "license to license connection" and truly solving the problem of "admission" not "admission".
Legislation breaks through institutional bottlenecks and empowers the development of industries. After the introduction of the regulations on the trading of cultural relics and artworks, Pudong New Area has established a cultural relics and artworks trading service center, providing venues, facilities, appraisal and other services for cultural relics auction operations and artworks trading, allowing multiple entities to participate in cultural relics auction operations together, greatly enhancing Shanghai's global resource allocation capacity in the field of cultural relics and artworks trading.
Legislation advocating for "green" has been effective in promoting ecological priority and low-carbon development. The recently introduced "Ecological Environment Protection" regulations clearly include carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the overall economic and social development, establish and improve incentive and constraint mechanisms for reducing pollution emissions and greenhouse gas emissions, and make institutional innovations in "source prevention, process control, damage compensation, and accountability". After implementation, it will accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.
Legislation is also driving the improvement of urban governance efficiency. After the introduction of the "off-site law enforcement" regulations, the legality issue of urban management off-site law enforcement has been effectively solved. The off-site law enforcement process takes less than 4 days, while in the past, it took an average of 27 days to handle a traditional urban management law enforcement case.
