A major earthquake in the construction market! The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is implementing new regulations starting today!

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The title was taken straight from the article; I’m too lazy to type it out. Please don’t consider me trying to trick people with a fake title – here’s the actual text. On October 9, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a notice regarding issues related to the qualification management of construction enterprises, which caused quite a stir in the construction industry. Relevant parties analyzed and interpreted the content of the notice as soon as possible. I. First, let’s talk about the issue of construction engineers, which is of greatest concern to everyone. Relevant regulations: 1. The process of renewing qualifications as stipulated in the \"Regulations on the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises and Implementation Guidelines for Qualification Standards\" (Document No. Jian Shi 20) will be simplified. The authorities responsible for granting qualifications will no longer assess an enterprise’s assets, key personnel, or technical equipment. Enterprises shall, in accordance with the approval procedures outlined in the \"Regulations on the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises\" (Order No. 22 issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development), as well as the corresponding categories and grade requirements specified in Document No. Jian Shi 20, submit their old qualification certificates to the relevant authorities to apply for new ones (specific requirements for renewal will be notified separately). The transition period has been extended to June 30, 2016; starting from July 1, 2016, the old version of the qualification certificates for construction enterprises will become invalid. II. Revoke Article 28 of the \"Provisions on the Administration of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises and Implementation Guidelines for Qualification Standards\" (Jian Shi No. 20), which states that \"when an enterprise applies for a qualification upgrade (including upgrading from level one to special level) or for additional qualification categories, the authority responsible for granting qualifications shall verify whether the assets and key personnel required for all its existing construction enterprise qualifications meet the standard requirements.\" ； Repeal Article 42, which stipulates that \"a company may select a maximum of 5 categories of professional contracting qualifications for renewal; any additional professional contracting qualifications beyond 5 categories must be applied for in accordance with the requirements for adding new qualifications.\" In simple terms, Article 4 changes the process of renewing qualifications to a simplified one; it eliminates the requirement to assess a company’s assets, key personnel, and technical equipment. It also removes the provision in Article 28 of the \"Regulations on the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises and Guidelines for Implementing Qualification Standards\" (Document No. Jian Shi 20), which states that when an enterprise applies for a qualification upgrade (from level one to special level) or for additional qualification categories, the authority responsible for granting such qualifications must check whether all the asset and personnel requirements specified for construction enterprises are met. ”In other words, there is no longer a need for construction engineers for enterprise qualification upgrades, nor are they required for enterprise certificate renewals. The only situations where construction managers are needed are: 1) in construction projects, and 2) for obtaining qualifications for new enterprises. The impact on the market is expected to be as follows: 1) disputes related to subcontracting will intensify, with issues such as payments already made, unpaid amounts, and breaches of contracts becoming common themes between enterprises and construction managers. 2. Constructor training institutions have been the most affected. 3. Construction engineers who work through intermediary agencies will be affected. 4. The number of people who need to take the exam will drop sharply. 5. The market will return to its original state: architects should do what they are supposed to do, without having to seek affiliations of any kind; their focus should remain on working on construction projects. II. Authoritative explanation: Why do construction companies change their qualification certificates? There had actually been rumors in the industry about this adjustment for some time, but due to its wide scope and the profound impact it had on related industries – effects that exceeded expectations – the announcement immediately caused a huge reaction within the industry. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development stated that the two notices issued this time cover essentially the same content and serve the same purpose, namely to streamline administration and improve the management of qualifications. It is not a simple matter of replacing certificates for no reason, but it is also not as complicated as some media have interpreted it to be. Among them, the \"Notice from the Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Reissuing New Versions of Qualification Certificates for Construction Enterprises\" represents the specific measures and approaches taken to implement the \"Notice from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Issues Related to the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises\", with the latter being the core of these adjustments. For construction companies, qualifications are undoubtedly the foundation upon which they depend for survival; if this foundation is at risk, who wouldn’t be concerned? For more details, please read on. The requirements regarding assessment criteria such as **-level construction methods, patents, **-level science and technology progress awards, engineering construction ** standards, or industry standards in the \"Standards for Special Grade Qualifications of General Contracting Enterprises for Construction\" (Document No. Jian Shi 72) are to be removed. For enterprises applying for the top-level qualification for general construction contracting, the above indicators are no longer evaluated. This is very clear: the evaluation criteria for existing awards have been significantly relaxed, and the elimination of certain requirements is truly encouraging. Second, the restriction in the \"Qualification Standards for Construction Enterprises\" (Document No. Jian Shi 159) that enterprises with first-class general contracting qualifications for construction projects could undertake construction projects with a single contract value of over 30 million yuan has been removed. Revoke the restriction in the \"Regulations on the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises and Implementation Guidelines for Qualification Standards\" (Jian Shi No. 20), which limits enterprises with top-tier qualifications from undertaking construction projects with a single contract value of over 60 million yuan, as well as the restriction in the \"Standards for Top-Tier Qualifications of General Contracting Construction Enterprises\" (Jian Shi No. 72), which limits such enterprises from undertaking housing construction projects with a single contract value of over 30 million yuan. This can be considered the essence of these adjustments: the fixed limits of 30 million for level 1 qualifications and 60 million for special skill qualifications have been completely removed. This will encourage a large number of high-quality companies to enter more competitive markets. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have already taken action, getting ready to compete, and the competition in the construction industry is now intensifying. . . Article 3 amends the scope of projects that can be undertaken under the first-class qualification for professional contracting in steel structure engineering as specified in the \"Qualification Standards for Construction Enterprises\" (Document No. Jian Shi 159) to: the ability to undertake the construction of various types of steel structure projects. In short, steel structures have great potential, and the relaxation of policies is already a sign of this. The process of renewing qualifications as stipulated in the \"Regulations on the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises and Guidelines for Implementing Qualification Standards\" (Document No. Jian Shi 20) has been simplified. The authorities responsible for granting qualifications no longer assess an enterprise’s assets, key personnel, or technical equipment. Enterprises may apply directly to these authorities for a new qualification certificate by submitting their old one, in accordance with the approval procedures set out in the \"Regulations on the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises\" (Order No. 22 issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development), as well as the corresponding categories and grade requirements specified in Document No. Jian Shi 20. (Specific requirements for renewal will be notified separately.) The transition period has been extended to June 30, 2016; starting from July 1, 2016, the old version of the qualification certificates for construction enterprises will become invalid. Two points need attention here: first, the so-called specific requirements for reissuing certificates, namely the \"Notice from the Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Reissuing the New Version of Qualification Certificates for Construction Enterprises\", the full text of which can be found at the end of this article ； Secondly, the old version of the construction enterprise qualification certificates will become invalid on July 1, 2016; there is less than a year left, so it’s important to get them replaced as soon as possible. Remember this! 5. Repeal Article 28 of the \"Provisions on the Administration of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises and Implementation Guidelines for Qualification Standards\" (Jian Shi No. 20), which states that \"when an enterprise applies for a qualification upgrade (including upgrading from level one to special level) or for additional qualification categories, the authority responsible for granting qualifications shall verify whether the assets and key personnel required for all its construction enterprise qualifications meet the standard requirements.\" ； Repeal Article 42, which stipulates that \"a company may select a maximum of 5 categories of professional contracting qualifications for renewal; any additional professional contracting qualifications beyond 5 categories must be applied for in accordance with the requirements for adding new qualifications.\" This adjustment is primarily aimed at the upgrades and additional items; whether it is removing excessive checks or eliminating the upper limits on 5 categories, the goal is to simplify things even further. The qualification certificates for enterprises engaged in six types of labor subcontracting (excluding scaffold construction subcontracting and formwork construction subcontracting) will not be renewed for the time being. After reading the above, are you a bit confused? Do the qualification requirements for companies involved in scaffolding and formwork work need to be changed or not? The answer is: Change it! Things keep going wrong; how can we not take this opportunity to make things better? It should be noted that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development requires all regions to organize the renewal of qualifications for construction enterprises carefully, to strengthen supervision during and after the process, and to conduct periodic dynamic checks to determine whether the enterprises in those regions that hold construction enterprise qualifications meet the relevant standard requirements. The document renewal process, mentioned several times in the notice, is emphasized once again at the end – exactly what certificate needs to be renewed? Why change the certificate? Please look down. Departments of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of various provinces and autonomous regions, construction commissions of municipalities directly under the Central Government, Beijing Municipal Planning Commission, Construction Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, construction departments (bureaus) of relevant ministries of the State Council, Engineering Management Bureau of the Military Housing Department, and relevant enterprises under the supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission: In accordance with the requirements set out in the “Notice of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Issues Related to the Management of Qualifications for Construction Enterprises” (Document No. Jian Shi 154), and in order to ensure the proper issuance of new versions of qualification certificates for construction enterprises (hereinafter referred to as certificate renewal), the relevant matters are hereby notified as follows: 1. Scope of certificate renewal: (1) Old versions of qualification certificates for construction enterprises issued by housing and urban-rural development authorities at all levels in accordance with the original “Standards for Qualification Grades of Construction Enterprises” (Document No. Jian Jian 82, hereinafter referred to as the original standards); qualification certificates for labor subcontracting enterprises other than those engaged in scaffolding work or formwork work will not be renewed for the time being. (II) The department issues certificates of special-grade general contracting qualification for construction in accordance with the \"Standards for Special-Grade General Contracting Qualification in Construction\" (Document No. Jian Shi 72), as well as certificates of engineering design qualification issued simultaneously. II. Procedures for Replacing Certificates (1) Procedures for replacing the qualifications of construction enterprises approved by our department. 1. Enterprises applying for certificate renewal shall download and install the “Software for Filling in Information on Enterprise Qualification Application Acceptance” from our department’s website (www.mohurd.gov.cn), fill out the “Application Form for Certificate Renewal of Construction Enterprise Qualifications” and the “Form for Collecting Information on Applications for Construction Enterprise Qualifications” (hereinafter referred to as the “Application Form” and the “Collection Form” respectively), click “Submit”, print both forms, stamp them with the enterprise’s official seal, and then submit them, in accordance with the authority stipulated in Article 12 of the “Regulations on the Management of Construction Enterprise Qualifications” (Order No. 22 of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development), to the housing and urban-rural development authorities of the province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government) where the enterprise is registered, to the construction enterprises under the direct supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and to the Engineering Management Bureau of the General Logistics Department for Infrastructure and Barracks Construction (hereinafter referred to as the provincial authorities). Construction enterprises under the direct supervision of the State-owned Assets Administration Department of the State Council shall submit the list of their wholly-owned or absolutely controlled enterprises together with their articles of association, while the Engineering Management Bureau of the Infrastructure and Barracks Construction Department of the General Logistics Department shall submit the list of its affiliated units to the Building Market Supervision Division of our department by October 30, 2015. 2. The provincial-level competent departments shall fill out the \"Summary Table of Construction Enterprise Qualification Renewal Situations\" in batches (see attachment), and submit to our department’s Office for Centralized Administrative Approval, along with the \"Application Forms\" and \"Data Collection Forms\" for all enterprises listed in the summary table, as well as copies of the old versions of their construction industry qualification certificates (including copies of the special-grade general contracting qualification certificates and the corresponding engineering design qualification certificates). Our department will not accept applications for certificate renewal from enterprises whose information on the \"Application Form\" and \"Collection Form\" does not match the data available on the National Construction Market Supervision and Integrity Information Platform. 3. 20 days after our department accepts an enterprise’s application for a certificate renewal, the provincial-level competent authority may come to our department’s centralized administrative approval office to collect the new version of the construction enterprise qualification certificate (for enterprises with top-tier qualifications that are required to submit a copy of their engineering design qualification certificate, an engineering design qualification certificate with the same validity period as the new construction enterprise qualification certificate will also be issued). The validity period of this new certificate is 5 years (for those who held an old version of the qualification certificate with a 1-year validity period, the new certificate will have the same validity period as the original one). After issuing the new version of the qualification certificates for construction enterprises, the provincial authorities in charge shall retrieve all the original qualification certificates of those enterprises and destroy them in accordance with the law. 4. As of June 30, 2016, our department ceased accepting applications from enterprises for certificate renewal. 5. Our department will regularly publish a list of enterprises that have been issued new version qualification certificates. (II) The competent departments for housing and urban-rural development at the provincial level, as well as those in cities with districts, which are responsible for granting qualifications to construction enterprises, may formulate specific procedures for the renewal of such enterprises’ qualification certificates in accordance with the provisions of this notice. III. Relevant Requirements 1. Enterprises shall fill out the application for certificate renewal truthfully in accordance with the requirements specified in the Application Form, and the legal representative of the enterprise shall sign on the Application Form to affirm responsibility for the accuracy of the materials submitted. Enterprises that engage in fraudulent or other illegal and irregular activities will not have their certificates renewed, and will be dealt with in accordance with relevant laws. 2. For enterprises that obtained the original professional contracting qualifications in areas such as tall structures, telecommunications engineering, foundation treatment for hydraulic structures, dikes, hydraulic dams, hydraulic tunnels, installation of thermal power equipment, furnaces, installation of mechanical and electrical equipment for smelting, installation of chemical and petroleum equipment and pipelines, and pipeline engineering in accordance with the original standards, if they apply to have their original qualifications merged into general contracting qualifications of the same level and corresponding category within one year after a simple renewal process in accordance with regulations, the qualification licensing authority will not assess their performance indicators. 3. Enterprises that have obtained the main qualification under the original standards, namely the professional contracting qualification for hydraulic tunneling projects, may apply for a renewal of their tunneling project professional contracting qualification at a level no higher than the original one. 4. For enterprises applying for a upgrade or the addition of new qualifications, the authority responsible for issuing such qualifications shall, after reissuing them a new version of the qualifications for construction enterprises, then approve their qualification applications in accordance with the \"Standards for Qualifications of Construction Enterprises\" (Document No. Jian Shi 159). In the event of restructuring, merger, division, or other such situations for an enterprise, it may apply for procedures to update its qualifications after obtaining a new version of the certificate. 5. After the renewal of the certificate, if an enterprise applies for a top-tier qualification, it shall still use the \"Application Form for Construction Enterprise Qualifications\" specified in the original \"Implementation Opinions on the Regulations on Construction Enterprise Qualifications\" (Document No. Jian Shi 241). Among them, for the assessment criteria such as **level construction methods, invention patents, **level science and technology progress awards, engineering construction **standards, or industry standards listed in the \"Review Opinions of the Preliminary Review Department (Top-tier General Contracting Enterprises)\\", it is not necessary to provide any preliminary review opinions. 6. The new version of the enterprise qualification certificate should be printed using the new Construction Project Enterprise Certificate Printing and Management Information System (download address: www.mohurd.gov.cn/docmaap). Provinces (regions, municipalities) that use self-developed certificate printing systems shall, in accordance with the data exchange interface standards of our ministry’s new management information system for printing construction enterprise certificates, establish data connections with our ministry’s information system and update the information there promptly. The timeline for renewing the qualifications of construction enterprises is tight and the tasks are substantial; therefore, the housing and urban-rural development authorities in various regions are urged to pay close attention to this matter, formulate specific work plans and requirements, and implement them carefully to ensure the smooth progress of the work. If you encounter any issues during the execution of the work, please contact our Building Market Supervision Department promptly. This notice shall come into effect as of the date of issuance (October 8, 2015). The original Notice from the Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Reissuing the New Version of Qualification Certificates for Construction Enterprises (Letter No. Jianban Shi Han 385) is hereby repealed simultaneously. 【Source】China Construction News