五证合一(wǔzhèng héyī): Five certificates in one

The State Council, China's Cabinet, recently announced promoting and accelerating reform of the registration system for companies, in which five certificates are being incorporated into one, further streamlining bureaucracy and delegating power to lower levels.

The reform means that people wanting to start a business now need to apply for only one certificate instead of the five as before. It is a crucial part of reforming the business administration system.

The five certificates－an enterprise's business certificate, organization code certificate, tax registration certificate, social security registration certificate and statistics registration certificate, which used to be issued by different departments－have been combined into a single certificate during partial and trial operations to accelerate the efficiency of business registration.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce, which is in charge of the issuance, said at its third quarter news conference that the new certificates were introduced on Oct 1 and as of Oct 13, about 560,000 new certificates had been issued nationwide.

According to the administration, in the first three quarters of this year 4.01 million new enterprises were registered, which is remarkably more than the same period of 2015, which indicates people's growing enthusiasm for creation nowadays.

Yu Fachang, spokesman of the administration, said at the news conference that the reform has further increased the convenience for those wanting to start a business.