Notice on the Release of the List of the First Batch of Demonstration Cities for the Establishment of the Social Credit System

发改办财金〔2017〕2158号

To each provincial, autonomous region, or directly governed municipality and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps department leading the establishment of the social credit system:

On the basis of the "State Council Notice Concerning Issuance of the Planning Outline for the Establishment of a Social Credit System (2014-2020)" (Guofa[2014]No. 21) deployments and arrangements for efforts to build demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system; and upon voluntary reporting, organization creation, and expert evaluation, the 12 cities of Hangzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Suqian, Huizhou, Wenzhou, Weihai, Weifang, Yiwu, and Rongcheng are hereby designated as demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system. Mobilizing the nation's cities in carrying out efforts to build demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system is an organics combination of top down design and exploring the practice of innovative areas, and is a beneficial experiment in taking the lead in breaking through key challenges and in summarizing and spreading exceptional experiences, and should continue to be effectively promoted.

I. Further Raise Recognition of the Important Significance of the Establishment of Municipal Credit Systems

The Party Central Committee and the State Council place great importance on the establishment of the social credit system. General Secretary Xi Jinping requested in the report of the 19th Party Congress that the credibility and enforcement power of the government be increased, establishing a service model government that satisfies the people; advancing the establishment of creditworthiness and the institutionalization of volunteer service, strengthening awareness of social responsibility, rules, and dedication; and completing systems for environmental credit assessments, compulsory information disclosures, and severe punishment. During the 37th Collective Study Session of the Communist Party Politburo, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that for the prominent problem of the lack of creditworthiness, a credit reporting system with full societal coverage should be established quickly, and mechanisms should be improved for commendations for legal compliance and punishments for the untrustworthy, making it so that people don't dare to be untrustworthy and cannot be untrustworthy. At the 25th meeting of the Leading Group on Comprehensive Deepening of Reform, General Secretary Xi Jinping requested the building of a of an overall credit punishment landscape in which "those untrustworthy in one area meet obstacles everywhere", and untrustworthiness is challenged at every step. Premier Li Keqiang has made important deployments for credit establishment during the video-conferences for the State Council reform of decentralization' for three consecutive years, emphasizing the establishent and completion of creditworthiness archives for market entities, industry blacklist systems, and mechanisms for market removal, accelerating the establishment of mechanisms for joint rewards and punishments, and making it so that the 'trustworthy always have green light, and the untrustworthy are restricted everywhere". In 2016, the leading group of comprehensively deepening reform deliberated and passed 6 documents related to establishing credit, further improving the top-down planning of the establishment of the social credit system.

Credit is and important cornerstone for urban economic and social development. Strengthening the establishment of urban credit systems is conducive to raising the efficiency of allotment of market resources and stimulating the vitality of urban development; it is conducive to opening channels for public sharing of Public Credit Information, and improving comprehensive urban service functions; conducive to strengthening mechanisms for rewarding trustworthiness and punishing untrustworthiness, raising the level of urban governance; and is conducive to increasing administrative efficiency and government credibility, optimizing urban business environments. Each municipal government should earnestly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and State Council regarding the establishment of the social credit system, fully recognizing the important significance of the establishment of the social credit system in urban development, and further increasing the force of efforts to establish urban credit systems.

II. Fully study and draw from demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system to promote positive experiences and good practices in the establishment of the social credit system.

The demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system are to actively undertake key tasks to carry out first trials, so that the establishment of the social credit system can take root in the cities, forming a series of advanced experiences and practices worth reproducing and spreading to each city throughout the nation. The demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system are to establish mechanisms for advancing the establishment of social credit system in which city leaders assume command, that leading departments generally manage, with multiple departments coordinating, to strengthen the establishment of the social credit system in all aspects of each field and each industry; establish platforms for sharing Public Credit Information, strengthening the sharing and common use of Public Credit Information within jurisdictional regions, across regions, and with the national credit information sharing platform, continuously increasing the number of linked units, institutionalizing and normalizing the aggregation and use of Public Credit Information, embedding credit checks in more and more departments administrative oversight processes, using credit reports in more and more scenarios such as bidding and tendering; opening municipal credit websites online, and establishing Public Credit Information service lobbies and kiosks offline, providing "one-stop" Public Credit Information inquiries and other personalized services; establish red and black lists and measures on their management, accelerating the advancement of joint incentives for the and trustworthy and joint disciplinary action against the untrustworthy that have full coverage in key fields; actively provide forceful support for the development of credit service establishments and conditions conducive to the expansion of the application of credit products; innovate credit measures that benefit the people, providing facilitation benefits to trustworthy entities in transportation and travel, medical treatment, library lending, and other public services, increasing the sense of gain from the establishment of the credit system; and strive to strengthen the establishment of personal creditworthiness, building conscious behavioral habits of 'credit awareness, credit keeping, and credit use" in the entire public to create a positive atmosphere of creditowrthiness and trust.

III. Earnestly Complete Key Tasks in the Establishment of the Social Credit System and Advance Its Implementation

The demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system should further solidify, expand, and deepen the foundation of current efforts to promote the continuous advancement of the establishment of the municipal credit system to new stages. In terms of the unified social credit code, by the end of 2017 complete all efforts on the transformation of legal persons and other organizations' inventory codes and the change of licenses, complete the transformation of Individual-operated businesses' inventory codes, and simultaneously standardize code return fields in accordance with work requirements, to further reduce the frequency of wrong codes. In terms of the collection and consolidation of credit information, records of creditworthiness should be actively collected and dynamically improved, revolving around key fields and key personnel groups; and, on the basis of institutionalizing the collection of government department's Public Credit Information, rely on credit service establishments, industry associations and chambers of commerce, and so forth, to actively collect more credit information; and leading information subjects to voluntarily report rich credit information. In terms of establishing Public Credit Information sharing platforms and credit portal websites, further strengthen the cleaning up and organizing, multidimensional analysis, thorough processing, and pulling out data value of Public Credit Information that has already been consolidated truly giving play to the supporting role of Public Credit Information in the reform of 'decentralization', in the special governance project on the problem of untrustworthiness, and in industry oversight; further increase the force of disclosure of Public Credit Information, continuously innovating and optimizing the functions of municipal credit portal websites, strengthening the reach of publicity, and increasing website impact and service capacity. In terms of the announcement of administrative permit and administrative punishments (hereinafter simply 'double disclosures’), the catalog of 'double disclosure' information is to be cleaned up and improved, further increasing the quality of 'double disclosure' information reported up, and regulating mechanisms for the publication and removal of 'double disclosure' information, emphasizing protection of information subjects' lawful rights and interests. In terms of handling objections and credit restoration, accelerate the establishment and completion of mechanisms for handling objections and credit restoration to increase the accuracy of information, and to push information subjects' active correction of untrustworthy conduct. In terms of cultivating the credit services market, use methods such as third-party credit service establishments participating in the establishment and oversight of industry creditworthiness, to create conditions for the development of credit service establishments.

IV. Innovate and Improve Mechanisms to Advance the Establishment of Municipal Credit Systems

Municipal governments shall strengthen organizational and institutional safeguards, sustainably and forcefully advancing the establishment of the municipal credit systems. Plans for the overall advancement of efforts to establish the municipal credit system should be drafted, specifying the division of departmental tasks and timing requirements. Strengthen inspections and evaluations to more closely understand progress and achievements in the establishment of creditworthiness in each district and department in the jurisdiction, ensuring that each task is soundly implemented. Training on the establishment of the social credit system should be thoroughly developed, strengthening operational guidance in each region and department on efforts to establish the social credit system, strengthening policy explanations on credit restoration for untrustworthy entities, and increasing the capacity of efforts to establish the social credit system and awareness of society's creditworthiness. Rely on the Municipal Credit Status Monitoring System established at the national level to promptly discover any issues that exist and improve efforts to establish municipal credit systems, and sustainably increase the level of municipal credit.

V. Strive to Take Hold of Efforts on Joint Rewards and Punishments and the Special Governance Project on the Issue of Untrustworthiness.

Joint rewards and punishments are the 'ring in the bull's nose' for the establishment of the social credit system, with the important function of bringing everything together. The demonstration cities for the establishment of the social credit system should implement the "State Council Guiding Opinions on Establishing and Improving Systems of Joint Incentives for Trustworthiness and Joint Disciplinary Action for Untrustworthiness and Accelerating the Establishment of the Social Credit System" (GuoFa (2016) No.33), the "National Development and Reform Commission and People's Bank of China's Guiding Opinions on the Strengthening and Regulating the Management of List of Persons receiving Joint Incentives for Trustworthiness and joint disciplinary action for Untrustworthiness" FaGaiCaiJinGui (2017) No. 1798), MOUs on cooperation for joint rewards and punishments put forward at the national level, and other document, to truly promote wide coverage and effective implementation of joint rewards and punishments; resolving and working to carry out the special governance project on the problem of untrustworthiness, and fully mobilizing the establishment of creditworthiness in relevant fields. Red lists and black lists, and measures on their management, should be established and improved; releasing red and black list management measures drafted by the cities in accordance with the unified standards specified by the relevant national departments; specifying mechanisms for list designations, publication and removal; and disclose the red and black lists to the public through the municipal credit portal websites and the "Credit China" website. Joint reward and punishment measures should be enriched, encouraging departments to clean up and form more reward and punishment measures that are proportionate and clearly effective in accordance with their duties, and confirm them through system documents and other forms. Digital safeguards for joint rewards and punishments should be strengthened, including the list of targets of joint rewards and punishments in the Public Credit Information sharing platforms, delivering them to relevant departments, and embedding them in the office systems of relevant departments; institutionalizing, informationalizing, and normalizing efforts to carry out joint punishments and rewards. Carry out special governance projects on the problem of untrustworthiness in key fields, urge entities on blacklists of the seriously untrustworthy and key scrutiny lists to make corrections in a set period of time, truly reducing the percentage of market entities that are blacklisted seriously untrustworthy entities, and establish long-term effective mechanisms for establishing creditworthiness in key fields. Emphasize prompt and effective feedback, relying on the Public Credit Information sharing platforms and other effective measures to establish feedback mechanisms, calculating statistics on the efficacy of joint reward and punishment implementation and of the effect of the special governance project on the problem of untrustworthiness, putting together example cases and promptly reporting them upwards. Emphasize mobilization of forces from all areas, actively giving play to the role of credit service establishments, industry associations and chambers of commerce, and all other types of social establishment, to strengthen industry, market, and social joint punishments and rewards, jointly creating a social environment that praises creditworthiness and punishes untrustworthiness.

General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission

General Office of the People's Bank of China

December 28, 2017