Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information Industry and National Bureau of Statistics and State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Administration and Statistical Accounting of Software Export Measures

Issued: October 25 2001
Effective: as of date of issue
Applicability: The Measures apply to exportation of software by transfer or licensing of software technology, embedding or bundling of software in computer systems or providing data-related services (Article 2). The Measures shall prevail where they are inconsistent with the Relevant Questions Concerning Export of Software Circular (Article 13).

Main contents: According to the Measures, a software enterprise duly recognized by a department in charge of the industry and having a registered capital of at least Rmb1 million is entitled to handle its own export business and shall register with a provincial level foreign trade and economic cooperation department (Article 3). After entering into a software export contract, the software enterprise shall register the contract online at a website set up jointly by various government departments for coordinated administration of software exports and obtain a "Software Export Contract Registration Certificate" (Articles 4 and 5). Where the exportation is conducted through physical media and requires customs clearance, the software enterprise shall complete the customs declaration Measures before carrying out the related foreign exchange settlement Measures (Article 7). Where the exportation is conducted online, the software enterprise shall directly complete the related foreign exchange settlement Measures after obtaining the "Software Export Contract Registration Certificate" (Article 8). Relevant government departments shall supply the statistics of software exports to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation for consolidation and analysis jointly with the National Bureau of Statistics (Article 10).
Related legislation: PRC, Foreign Trade Law (Revised), Apr 6 2004, CLP 2004 No.6 p43; State Council, Encouraging the Development of the Software and Integrated Circuit Industries Several Policies, Jun 24 2000, CLP 2000 No.7 p48; Certification Standards for and Administration of Software Enterprises Measures (Trial Implementation), Oct 16 2000, CLP 2001 No.1 p11; Administration of Reconciling Foreign Exchange Received from Exports Measures Implementing Rules, Jun 22 1998, CLP 1998 No.8 p9; Administration of Restricted Export Technology Measures, Oct 28 1998, CLP 1999 No.2 p10 and Examination of Exports of State Secret Technology Provisions, Oct 30 1998, CLP 1999 No.2 p9