Hunan judicial administration dedicated to creating law-based business environment

In recent years, judicial administration in Central China's Hunan province has put tremendous effort into improving related institutions, government services, administrative law enforcement and legal services in a bid to create a solid law-based business environment.

Institutional reform

Aimed at spurring innovations and maintaining fair market competition, Hunan's commission for law-based provincial governance worked out a detailed work plan consisting of 33 concrete measures that constitute the top-level design for building a law-based business environment in the province.

The commission and the provincial judicial department also jointly promulgated more than 10 regulations including one on optimizing the environment for Hunan's economic development. They also expedited the legislation related to the province's pilot free trade zone, advanced manufacturing and business environment.

To level the playing field for all market entities, Hunan's judicial and market regulation departments jointly reviewed over 320 regulatory documents on market entity regulation, and provided institutional support to guarantee fair competition in such emerging industries as cold-chain logistics and the mobile internet.

Efficient government services

Thanks to the province's unremitting efforts to streamline its government services, dozens of administrative approval items can now be handled entirely online, cutting the average approval time by a third.

With the release of a guideline on public legal services for Hunan's pilot free trade zone, in particular, the time spent on administrative approval of lawyers and notaries' services, judicial authentication and arbitration has been halved.

Building on the cancellation of the certification requirement for 325 administrative items, the provincial judicial department has proposed comprehensive application of the commitment-notification system.

It also continues to reform its newspaper-based mandatory announcement system by allowing 92 of the 151 items subject to the system to be announced online for free, further reducing the economic burden on enterprises and the public.

Standardize administrative law enforcement

Hunan's judicial department strengthened the coordinated supervision of law enforcement in such key areas as market regulation, food and drugs, education and medical services, standardized exercise of the discretion over law enforcement, and promoted strict, standardized, impartial and civilized law enforcement.

It also upgraded its unified comprehensive law enforcement supervision system, turning it into a province-wide law enforcement supervision platform.

Judicial organs across the province explored the establishment of a prudent yet accommodative law enforcement mechanism for market entities and encouraged flexible law enforcement, so as to boost enterprises' confidence in their investment and operation. In doing so, it effectively protected market entities' legitimate rights and interests. 

All-round public legal services

The provincial judicial department drew on a combination of legal services to attract businesses. It integrated various legal services and carried out 10 measures for advancing the construction of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, so as to provide market entities with more targeted and convenient public legal services.

In 2020, government legal counsels across Hunan took part in the negotiation of 1,088 major investment deals, reviewed 1,119 major government contracts with a total value of 864 billion yuan ($133 billion), and provided services for 1,547 major projects.

The judicial department also promoted the integrated development of its physical, internet-based and hotline-based public legal service platforms and upgraded its internet-based public legal services.

Meanwhile, it focused on ensuring that public legal services are all available within 30 minutes upon request so as to clear all the obstacles in serving enterprises.