Measures of Huangpu District/Guangzhou Development District to Step up Rewards for Investment Promotion Organizations When Attracting Investments

Chapter I    General Provisions

Article 1        The measures are formulated in light of the actual situation of Huangpu district/Guangzhou Development District (hereinafter referred to as "the district") and according to the principles of the Notice of the State Council on Several measures for Expanding Opening Up and Vigorously Using Foreign Investment (G.F. [2017] No 5), Several Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Reform and Innovative Development of Development Zones (G.B.F. [2017] No 7), Opinions of the State Council on Further Utilize Foreign Investment (G.F. [2019] No 23), Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Stabilizing Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (G.B.F. [2020] No 28), etc.

Article 2        The investment promotion division of the district shall take the lead in organizing the implementation of the measures, coordinate, guide, and manage investment promotion organizations, and reward qualified organizations of such kind following the measures.

                                                    Chapter II   Investment Promotion Organizations

Article 3        The applications for eligibility from investment promotion organizations shall be accepted and reviewed by the investment promotion division of the district and reported to the district government and administrative committee for approval. The eligibility of investment promotion organization shall take effect from the date of acquisition and shall remain valid during the validity period of the measures. Enterprises and institutions applying for the eligibility shall meet the following basic criteria:

(I) Familiar with the conditions, policies, and guidelines of the district, and enthusiastic about investment promotion;

(II) Engaged mainly in investment consulting, business consulting, information consulting, enterprise management services, or the like;

(III) Own a stable business premise and employ over five investment promotion staff members in the district (two or more of whom are proficient in at least one foreign language);

(IV) Have achieved certain investment promotion performance, and have brought in more than two projects in line with the industrial development direction of the district in the previous year;

(V) Promise not to engage in fraud or vicious competition for investment promotion projects, and fulfill their duties for investment promotion in the district;

(VI) Comply with the district's regulations for credit information management.

Article 4        Investment promotion organizations shall perform the following duties:

(I) Proactively learn the relevant policies and policy orientations of the country, provinces, and municipalities, actively feed back the situations and experiences concerning investment promotion in various places, and provide opinions and suggestions on investment promotion.

(II) Get familiar with the conditions of the district, and leverage their channels to publicize and promote the investment environment of the district while entrusted with the organization of preparing promotional activities such as investment promotion briefings and investment promotion project launch ceremonies in the district, to continuously improve the district's reputation.

(III) Assist in handling relevant procedures such as land use, preparation, commercial registration, tax registration, etc. for the projects, and actively coordinate and solve problems encountered in the process of project introduction, preparation, and operation, to promote the continuous operation and steady output of enterprises in the district.

(IV) Support departments of the district in carrying out relevant project reviews and verifying project affiliates and mutual investment. Project review mainly includes key elements such as project business scope, production capacity, revenue, taxation, technology, and energy consumption, as well as conditions such as investment, siting, land use, and regulatory requirements for the projects.

(V) Support relevant departments of the district in properly carrying out project supervision and ensuring business reassurance and stability, and submitting a letter of commitment. Project supervision mainly includes: whether the project is completed and put into operation as promised at the time of its introduction; whether its construction commencement date has been delayed or the project remains idle after completion, or whether its purpose has been changed or it is subleased without authorization; whether it has achieved the promised operating income and taxation, and whether it has remained long-term normal and stable operation subsequently.

In case an investment promotion organization fails to perform its duties and fails to make corrections and improvements after being informed, the investment promotion division of the district has the right not to grant it relevant project rewards and recover the relevant reward amounts that have been paid.

Article 5        Investment promotion organizations shall submit relevant information to the investment promotion division of the district before an investment promotion project is registered or receives more funds in the district, and projects that fail to pass the review shall not apply for rewards. Projects that have completed filing before the measures take effect may apply for relevant rewards following the measures should they meet the conditions of article 7 during the validity period of the measures, procedures for investment promotion information submission and project ownership are set out below:

(I)    An investment promotion organization shall submit relevant information to the investment promotion division of the district before the date the project company completes commercial registration or capital increase registration in the district (excluding the day of completing commercial registration).

(II)  An investment promotion organization shall provide project introduction materials and power of attorney when submitting investment promotion information. Where it is impossible to obtain a power of attorney from the project site before the establishment of the project company due to objective reasons, the organization shall submit a specification and submit the power of attorney from the project side within 30 days after the establishment of the project company. In case the official name of the project company is inconsistent with the submitted name, the investment promotion organization shall submit a supplementary report for the explanation on time.

(III) In case the same project's investment promotion information is submitted by more than one investment promotion organization, the project belongs to the investment promotion organization that completes the application first. Should other investment promotion organizations have any objections, all the investment promotion organizations may negotiate by themselves and apply to the negotiation.

(IV) Investment promotion organizations shall promptly urge and assist foreign-funded projects to submit the paid-in capital materials to relevant departments of the district for filing. Paid-in foreign capital that cannot be included in the actual foreign investment index statistics due to late application, and expired capital verification, among other reasons, will not receive investment promotion rewards.

Article 6        Any investment promotion organization should be disqualified from investment promotion should it have any of the following circumstances upon confirmation.

(I) Where an investment promotion organization no longer meets the basic criteria mentioned in article 3 of the measures;

(II) Where an investment promotion organization submits false application material to obtain investment promotion rewards;

(III) Where an investment promotion organization introduces a maliciously packaged project that causes adverse results, a project whose investment scale and benefits are seriously inconsistent with the facts, a project that has been left idle on purpose, a project with mismatched land use purpose, or a project with major environmental and safety issues.

(IV) Where an investment promotion organization itself or two of the projects it introduced in the past year are included in the list of seriously untrustworthy entities on official credit websites such as the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, Credit China, and Credit Guangdong;

(V) Where an investment promotion organization refuses to perform duties or receives severe complaints from customers, resulting in serious consequences and without any reasonable explanations.

Where an investment promotion organization is disqualified under circumstance (I) mentioned above, it can still receive the investment promotion rewards for the introduction of the project during its qualification period; where an investment promotion organization is disqualified under circumstances (II) (III), (IV) or (V) mentioned above, the organization shall not be granted the remaining reward amounts, and the investment promotion division of the district has the right to recover the reward amounts that have been paid.

                                                                   Chapter III  Rewards and Redemptions

Article 7        Within the validity period of the measures, where the introduced projects (including newly-registered projects, projects from outside the municipality, and projects from outside the municipality with capital increase) complete commercial registration and tax registration in the district and are included in the statistical list of the district, or foreign-funded enterprises are encouraged to increase investment in the district, a reward shall be granted to the investment promotion organization based on factors such as the FDI in actual use, production, and business operations.

Article 8        Investment promotion organizations shall be encouraged to actively utilize foreign investment. Where an investment promotion organization introduces foreign-funded enterprises with registered foreign capital of over 5 million dollars or encourages foreign-funded enterprises in the district to increase one-off registered foreign capital by over 5 million dollars and the accumulative paid-in foreign capital in the district (hereinafter referred to as "paid-in foreign capital") within three calendar years (including the year of its commercial registration) after the introduction or capital increase (except for the paid-in amount and capital increases at the time when the project moves into the district, the subscribed amount, subsequent capital increases and previous capital increases shall not be included in the paid-in capital), it shall be rewarded with a certain ratio of foreign investment included in the statistical list. Where a subscription or investment is made in a currency other than USD, it shall be converted at the central parity rate of RMB published by the People's Bank of China on the day of subscription or investment (the same rule applies below). The accumulative reward obtained by the investment promotion organization for introducing or encouraging the capital increase of the same enterprise shall not exceed 5 million yuan.

(I) Where a foreign-invested enterprise is introduced and the accumulative paid-in foreign capital is less than 10 million dollars, the reward shall be calculated at 1 percent of the foreign investment. Where the accumulative paid-in foreign capital exceeds 10 million dollars but is less than 50 million dollars, the reward shall be calculated at 1.2 percent. Where the accumulative paid-in foreign capital exceeds 50 million dollars, the reward shall be calculated at 1.4 percent. The maximum reward in the measures shall not exceed 5 million yuan. If the foreign-invested enterprise enjoys the settlement reward or the registered capital reward directly linked to the paid-in registered capital of the enterprise following the policies of the district (including the "One Policy for One Enterprise"), the maximum reward shall not exceed 2 million yuan.

(II) Where a foreign-invested enterprise is encouraged to increase investment and the accumulative paid-in foreign capital is less than 10 million dollars, the reward shall be calculated at 0.5 percent. Where the accumulative paid-in foreign capital exceeds 10 million dollars but is less than 40 million dollars, the reward shall be calculated at 0.6 percent. Where the accumulative paid-in foreign capital exceeds 40 million dollars, the reward shall be calculated at 0.7 percent. The maximum reward in the measures shall not exceed not 2 million yuan. If the foreign-invested enterprise enjoys the settlement reward or the registered capital reward directly linked to the paid-in registered capital of the enterprise following the policies of the district (including the "One Policy for One Enterprise"), the maximum reward shall not exceed 1 million yuan. When calculating the paid-in foreign capital increase, the amount that has not been paid in full before the capital increase shall be deducted. In case an enterprise increases capital after reducing contractual foreign investment, the amount of capital reduction shall not be included in the reward calculation.

Article 9        Investment promotion organizations are encouraged to introduce quality projects. During the validity period of the measures, investment promotion organizations introducing enterprises with a registered capital of more than 10 million yuan or 1 million dollars and meeting the following requirements may apply for only one of the corresponding rewards.

(I)    If the capital increase of the introduced enterprise is newly included in the statistical list and the enterprise's output value/revenue of the same year meets Item (V) of this article, a one-time reward of 300,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization.

(II)  If the introduced enterprise reaches the above-designated scale and is included in the statistical list within three calendar years after registration (including the year of registration) and the output value/revenue of the year it is first included in the statistical list meets item (V) of this article, a reward of 200,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. If the enterprise achieves positive growth of output value/revenue in the next year, an extra reward of 100,000 yuan shall be given.

(III) If the introduced enterprise reaches the above-designated scale and is included in the statistical list within four calendar years after registration (including the year of registration) and the output value/revenue of the year it is first included in the statistical list meets the item (V) of this article, a reward of 100,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. If the enterprise achieves positive growth of output value/revenue in the next year, an extra reward of 50,000 yuan shall be given.

(IV) Where an above-designated-scale enterprise is introduced and included in the statistical list of the district, with an output value/revenue increasing by more than 10 percent Year-Over-Year, and meets item (V) of this article, a reward of 300,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. If the output value/revenue increases between 5 percent to 10 percent Year-Over-Year and meets item (V) of this article, a reward of 150,000 yuan shall be given. The enterprise shall be included in the statistical list of the district by the year after it is included in the industrial and commercial systems of the district.

(V)  The output value of an industrial enterprise shall be no less than 20 million yuan. The revenue of a wholesale enterprise shall be more than 200 million yuan. The revenue of a retail enterprise shall be no less than 50 million yuan. The revenue of an enterprise engaged in the business of accommodations, catering, residential services, and repair, among other services, shall be no less than 10 million yuan. The revenue of an enterprise providing other services shall be more than 20 million yuan. The output value (revenue) data in the special audit report, the annual audit report, or the annual financial statement of the enterprise, and the output value (revenue) data in the statistical tables of the enterprise shall meet the relevant requirements of the article.

Article 10     Investment promotion organizations are encouraged to introduce major projects. The investment promotion organizations that introduce the following projects within the validity period of the measures shall be rewarded. The following rewards may be granted simultaneously.

(I) When introducing a first-tier subsidiary (or second-tier subsidiary of the group) with more than 51 percent shares held by a Global 500 company or central enterprise, a reward of 1 million yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. When introducing a first-tier subsidiary (or second-tier subsidiary of the group) with more than 51 percent shares held by a top 500 enterprise of China or a top 500 private enterprise of China, a reward of 500,000 yuan shall be granted. When introducing a second-tier subsidiary (a third-tier subsidiary of the group) with more than 51 percent shares held by a Global 500 company or central enterprise, a reward of 200,000 yuan shall be granted. The aforementioned Global 500 companies and central enterprises do not include those whose headquarters are already located in the district. The following rewards shall not be given simultaneously.

(II) Where a State-level "little giant" is introduced, a reward of 300,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. Where a provincial "little giant" is introduced, or the introduced enterprise is recognized as a State-level "little giant" within three calendar years (including the year of registration) after it has been registered in the district, a reward of 200,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. Where the introduced enterprise is recognized as a State-level "little giant" within five calendar years (including the year of registration) after it has been registered in the district or recognized as a provincial "little giant "within three calendar years (including the year of registration) after it has been registered in the district, a reward of 100,000 yuan shall be granted. The following rewards shall not be given simultaneously, but applications may be made to make up the difference.

(III) Where the introduced enterprise is recognized as a unicorn enterprise in the district for the first time within three calendar years (including the year of registration) after it has been registered in the district, a reward of 300,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. Where the introduced enterprise is recognized as a potential unicorn enterprise in the district for the first time, a reward of 200,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. The following rewards shall not be given simultaneously, but applications may be made to make up the difference.

(IV) Where the introduced enterprise contributes more than 1 million yuan to the economic development (the business contribution award of the year shall be deducted) of the district in one of the three calendar years (including the year of registration) after it has been registered in the district, a reward of 300,000 yuan shall be granted to the investment promotion organization. Where the introduced enterprise contributes more than 2 million yuan, a reward of 400,000 yuan shall be granted. Where the introduced enterprise contributes more than 3 million yuan, a reward of 500,000 yuan shall be granted. The following rewards shall not be given simultaneously, but applications may be made to make up the difference.

(V) Where the accumulative fixed asset investment of the introduced industrial enterprise in three calendar years (including the year of registration) after it has been registered in the district is no less than 1 billion yuan, or the annual output value in five calendar years (including the year of registration) after registration is no less than 1 billion yuan, for each project a reward of 300,000 yuan shall be granted. The investment amount of fixed assets shall be subject to the third-party special audit report, and the annual output value shall be subject to the third-party special report, the annual audit report, or the annual financial statement. The following rewards shall not be given simultaneously.

Article 11     Investment promotion organizations introducing major projects that substantially drive industrial development and substantially contribute to the local economy, upon approval of the district government and administrative committee, shall be rewarded separately.

Chapter IV  Supplementary Provisions

Article 12     The investment promotion division of the district shall implement the measures, and the required funds shall be arranged by the district government and administrative committee and included in the annual budget of the investment promotion division of the district. The investment promotion division of the district is responsible for the budgeting, review, and distribution of funds, performance management, etc., and the relevant district departments are responsible for the supervision and performance appraisal regarding the use and management of funds based on their duties. The application materials required for the rewards shall be subject to the application guidelines formulated and issued by the investment promotion division of the district. All functional departments shall provide support following their responsibilities.

Article 13     Specifically in the measures, "the district" shall refer to Huangpu district/Guangzhou Development District, and the parks under their management and within their jurisdiction; "enterprises" shall include companies and limited partnerships; "paid-in registered capital" shall include the amount of paid-in capital contributed by partners; "establishment" shall mean that an enterprise has "completed commercial registration" in the district, and the date of establishment shall be subject to the date stated in the business license; "reach", "above", "not exceeding", and "no less than" shall include the given figure; "foreign investment included in the statistical list" shall refer to the amount confirmed by China's Ministry of Commerce to include in the district's statistical list of FDI in actual use. The "monthly capital increase included in the statistical list" of a non-industrial enterprise shall mean an enterprise registered in the fourth quarter of the current year has obtained revenue above the designated scale before the end of the current year or the following year and is included in the statistical list, or an enterprise registered in the first three quarters has obtained revenue above the designated scale in the current year and is included in the statistical list. Enterprises "above-designated scale and included in the statistical list" shall refer to enterprises above designated scale that grew from small and micro enterprises for the first time in the district.

"Global 500 companies" shall refer to enterprises included in the annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide published by Fortune magazine in the year before relevant projects are introduced; "top 500 enterprises of China" shall refer to the enterprises included in the list of Top 500 Enterprises of China published by the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association in the year before relevant projects are introduced; "top 500 private enterprises of China" shall refer to the enterprises included in the list of top 500 above-designated scale private enterprises published by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in the year before relevant projects are introduced; "central enterprises" shall refer to wholly state-owned or state-controlled enterprises that were directly under the management of the State Council or managed by other central ministries or commissions such as the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in the year before relevant projects are introduced.

Article 14     The monetary unit mentioned in the measures shall be RMB unless otherwise specified. Where a reward amount involves both foreign currency and RMB, it shall be calculated according to the central parity rate of RMB announced by the People's Bank of China on the day of receiving the reward amount.

Article 15     The rewards in articles 9 and 10 do not apply to projects whose main business is real estate.

Article 16     Where an existing enterprise in the district reduces or stops the production and operation business of its original company to carry out business in the name of a new company after establishing a new project, or changes its business name for re-registration, or increases its business income or contribution to the local economic development by mutually transferring production capacity or operating income with an existing enterprise registered and operating in the district, the enterprise shall not apply for the investment promotion rewards under the measures.

Article 17     For the same project and matter that complies with both the measures and other supporting policies and regulations of the district (including policies and regulations of higher-level departments requiring the district to offer relevant supports and bear relevant funds), the support shall be given according to policies or regulations of higher level and the principle of no repetition unless otherwise stipulated or specified.

Article 18     After the measures take effect, investment promotion organizations shall apply for rewards of this kind within one year after meeting the criteria listed in the measures. Late applications shall not be accepted.

Article 19     Investment promotion organizations shall bear their responsibilities and pay relevant taxes and fees to the district for the rewards they receive following the measures.

Article 20     The measures shall enter into force as of the date of promulgation and remain in force for the next five years.

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