Background:

1. On March 11, 2015, the State Council issued Deepening Reform of the Work of Standardization. It’s a national-level document for standardization, which depicts the focuses of China’s standardization development into three phases for the next 6 years (2015-2016 Phase I; 2017-2018 Phase II; 2019-2020 Phase III).

2. Further high-level strategies that focus on Standardization after 2020 have been expected by all stakeholders since 2020.  

Current Status and Facts:

1.       On October 10, 2021, general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council issued the Outline for National Standardization Development (hereinafter referred to as “the Outline”). The Outline states the general planning of China standardization and goals until 2035.

2.       The guiding principles of the Outline include:

a)         Optimize standard administration structure;

b)         Improve standardization management efficiency;

c)         Enhance participation in international standardization affairs;

d)         Establish a standardization system with higher development quality.

3.       The Outline’s development goals are in two phases:

a)         By 2025, standardization will achieve several transitions: from purely government-led to driven both by government and market; from solely domestic to mutually domestic and international promotion; from industry and trade to the entire economy and society (governance); from a quantitative scale to quality-benefit.

b)         By 2035, standardization in China will have an optimized structure, as well as a more advanced and globalized system. This system will be driven by the market, led by government, and participated in by the whole society and enterprises.

4.       Supporting measures of the Outline:

a)         Optimize managing capability and working process on both national and provincial levels.

b)         Supporting standardization development with financial, talent and technological policies and resources.

Next Steps and Possible Impact:

1.       More international standards are expected to be adopted and converted in China. These will reduce the difficulty of compliance work for MNCs along with global companies first entering the Chinese market.

2.       The Outline encourages the development of ‘association standards’ and assigns them with a bigger role in the standardization of China. This means key industry players will start to lead many standardization efforts, and the ‘association standards’ will, more often than ever, be adopted by higher levels of standards.

3.       Possible opportunities for foreign institutes and enterprises with cutting-edge green technologies, including participation in standard development process, as China will formulate and revise green-related standards as an implementation of the Outline.

The standard development work involving high-tech and ICT industries (AI, big data, blockchain, new energy and ICV etc.) may boom in the coming years. Foreign stakeholders that are already in the Chinese market for these sectors should be aware of potentially rapid change with regulatory and compliance actions. 

BESTAO has translated the whole document into English, please check the following link for the full text:

http://www.bestao-consulting.com/translated/detail/790

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