Source: China Standards Information Service Network
On the morning of 12 June, the 20th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th Shandong Provincial People's Congress reviewed and adopted the Shandong Provincial Standardization Regulations (hereinafter the "Regulations"). The Regulations comprise 6 chapters and 40 articles, covering standard development, implementation, supervision, and services. They will take effect on 1 August 2020. Below is an overview of the highlights.
Highlight 1: Maintaining legal consistency and supplementing and refining the relevant provisions of higher-level laws
The Regulations first further expand the scope of application and content. The scope of application is extended from the original fields of industry, engineering and construction, and environmental protection to industry, agriculture, services, and all areas of social development. The substantive content has also been expanded to add provisions on group standards and municipal-level local standards, further highlighting the role of standards.
In addition, the Regulations further refine the management mechanism for standardization work and clarify the responsibilities of governments and their relevant departments. The Regulations stipulate the responsibilities of governments in standardization work, including driving the implementation of the standardization strategy, integrating standardization work into the local national economic and social development plan, improving supportive and incentive policies for standardization, and establishing standardization coordination mechanisms.
Highlight 2: Focusing on institutional innovation and improving mechanisms for innovation in standards
To promote high-quality development, the Regulations focus on institutional innovation and further improve mechanisms for innovation in standards. First, they propose requirements for joint enterprise standards. The Regulations stipulate that enterprises are encouraged to develop joint enterprise standards for shared use in order to enhance product or service quality. Joint enterprise standards are enterprise standards jointly developed and used by enterprises in the same industry or by upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain to strengthen industrial coordination and technical cooperation. By explicitly encouraging the development of joint enterprise standards, the Regulations make a significant contribution to enabling related industries and enterprises to jointly advance the R&D and application of advanced technologies and to raise product or service quality.
Notably, the Regulations also bring the "frontrunner" standards system into the legal framework for the first time, proposing the management framework for advancing the implementation of "frontrunner" standards. Under the Regulations, an enterprise standard "frontrunner" system will be implemented going forward. Support will be given to enterprises that hold proprietary innovative technologies and have achieved good implementation outcomes to elevate their advanced enterprise standards into "frontrunner" standards for the relevant industry. This will help to address the lack of advanced standards in industrial transformation and upgrading, accelerate the establishment of a supply mechanism for advanced standards, and use advanced standards to drive the conversion of growth drivers and industrial transformation and upgrading.
In addition, given the actual situation in different parts of Shandong, some areas are not yet ready to develop local standards but still need to provide technical guidance. To address this, the Regulations introduce a system of local standardization guidance technical documents. They stipulate that standardization guidance technical documents may be developed with reference to local standard development procedures, drawing on local standardization guidance technical documents. This will help meet the development needs of new technologies, new industries, new business formats, and new business models, while also facilitating the timely promotion and application of innovative scientific and technological advances.
Highlight 3: Deepening "Streamlining administration, delegating powers, and improving services" reform in standardization, raising the level of public standards services
The Regulations also address how to properly handle the relationship between government and the market, calling for deeper reform of "Streamlining administration, delegating powers, and improving services" in the field of standardization and a further increase in the level of public standards services. Specifically, the Regulations distinguish between the requirements for local standards and those for group standards and enterprise standards: the technical requirements of local standards must not be lower than the relevant technical requirements of mandatory standards and recommended national standards, while the technical requirements of group standards and enterprise standards must not be lower than the relevant technical requirements of mandatory standards.
In line with "Streamlining administration, delegating powers, and improving services" reform, the Regulations also clarify that prefecture-level cities with subordinate districts may develop local standards, and provide specific rules for project initiation, review and numbering, and release of such local standards.
To further raise the level of public standards services, the Regulations also set out specific requirements for the development of standards in the basic public services sector. Going forward, people's governments at and above the county level should improve the system of basic public services standards, refine basic public services standards, implement national basic public services quality requirements, and innovate the implementation mechanism for basic public services standards, thereby using standardization to promote the equalization, universalization, and convenience of basic public services.
