[Netizen 108] I compared it with the old version of the approval catalogue and found that quite a few projects are still retained for approval. Is it necessary to retain them? Please explain.

    [Luo Guosan] All right. The approval items retained this time fall mainly into two categories. One is major infrastructure and basic industry projects. These projects precisely fall under the “two relationships” and “three involvements” pointed out in the Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The “two relationships” mean relating to national security and ecological security, and the “three involvements” mean involving the national layout of major productive forces, strategic resource development, and major public interests. As can be seen from the definitions, these require retaining government approval. Moreover, government approval mainly reviews the external conditions of projects from the perspective of safeguarding social and public interests.

    The other category is in the industrial field, including some projects in sectors with overcapacity, such as steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, and shipbuilding. In principle, consideration should also be given to canceling or delegating approval for these, but in order to coordinate with the current policy requirements of the State Council on resolving serious overcapacity contradictions in some industries, we have temporarily retained them.

    For these two categories of projects, the next step is also to promptly formulate policy conditions such as development plans, industrial policies, technology policies, access standards, and total volume control requirements, accelerate the transformation of the development model, and once conditions are ripe, resolutely cancel or delegate approval authority.