Tianjin Municipality, Administration of the Verification of Foreign-invested Projects Tentative Administrative Procedures

Promulgated: November 3 2004
Effective: as of date of promulgation
Applicability: The Procedures apply to verification of all foreign-invested projects in the municipality. Those otherwise provided in state laws and regulations shall follow the latter (Article 2). "Foreign-invested projects" refers to such methods of absorbing foreign investment as Sino-foreign equity and cooperative joint ventures, wholly foreign-owned enterprises, mergers or acquisition of domestic enterprises by foreign investors (equity-based or asset-based) and capital increase by foreign-invested enterprises (Article 3). Investors from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan shall refer to the Procedures for implementation of projects that are conducted within the municipality (Article 33). In the case of an inconsistency between provisions previously issued by the municipal people's government, all relevant departments, and people's governments of all districts and counties concerning administration of examination and approval of foreign-invested projects and the Procedures, the Procedures shall prevail (Article 34).

Main contents: Government shall only verify the project application reports submitted by project applicants and shall no longer examine or approve project proposals, feasibility study reports, preliminary design, working drawings and various kinds of delegated instruction plans (Article 4). In accordance with the classification of the Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue, project applications for projects in the encouraged category and permitted category with a total investment (here and hereafter including capital increases) of not less than US$100 million and projects in the restricted category with a total investment of not less than US$50 million shall be subject to the verification of the National Development and Reform Commission (Article 6). All projects in the restricted category with a total investment of less than US$50 million, and all projects in the encouraged category and permitted category with a total investment between US$30 million and US$100 million that are located outside the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zones, Tianjin Port Bonded Zone and Tianjin Hi-tech Industry Park (hereafter, Three Districts) and those that cross the Three Districts, shall be subject to the verification of the municipal development and reform commission, and for projects with a total investment of US$30 million or above, the same shall be reported to the National Development and Reform Commission.
Related legislation: Administrative Licensing Law; Guiding the Direction of Foreign Investment Provisions, Feb 11 2002, CLP 2002 No.3 p71; Reform of the Investment System Decision, Jul 16 2004, CLP 2004 No.8 p6; Administration of the Verification of Foreign-invested Projects Tentative Procedures, Oct 9 2004, CLP 2004 No.9 p39 and Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue (Amended in 2007), Oct 31 2007, CLP 2007 No.10 p22