Recently, 15 departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued guidance on promoting compliance awareness and strengthening compliance management for small and medium-sized enterprises, including the Secretariat, Office, and Comprehensive Department.

Guiding Opinions on Promoting Compliance Awareness and Strengthening Compliance Management in Small and Medium sized Enterprises by the Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 15 Other Departments (Secretariat, Office, Comprehensive Department)

Promoting compliance management in small and medium-sized enterprises is an inherent requirement of adhering to the basic strategy of comprehensively governing the country according to law, and it is also an important foundation for promoting the sustainable and healthy development of small and medium-sized enterprises. In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, guide them to enhance their compliance awareness, improve their compliance management level, prevent production and operation risks, and promote high-quality development, the following opinions are proposed on promoting the strengthening of compliance management for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important instructions and directives on promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 2nd and 3rd Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, take promoting high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises as the main line, adhere to problem oriented, demand driven, systematic concept, legal thinking, departmental coordination, and top-down linkage, guide small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance compliance awareness, strengthen compliance construction, improve compliance management level, and prevent production and operation risks. By 2030, the compliance development environment for small and medium-sized enterprises will be further optimized, the compliance service system for small and medium-sized enterprises will be basically formed, and enterprises will have the compliance management awareness and ability to adapt to the requirements of high-quality development. The level of lawful and compliant operation will be significantly improved, and compliance will become an important component of the core competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises.

（1） Labor employment compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to comply with labor laws and regulations, establish and improve labor employment management systems, and clarify management requirements for human resource introduction, development, use, training, assessment, incentives, and exit; Implement the labor contract system, comply with relevant employment and employment supervision requirements, and ensure that employees obtain labor remuneration, enjoy rest and vacation, participate in social security, receive vocational training and other legitimate rights and interests; Provide employees with necessary guarantees that comply with occupational health and safety standards, and reduce health and safety risks; Extract employee education funds according to regulations, with over 60% used for frontline workers.

（2） Financial and tax compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to comply with relevant laws and regulations and the national unified accounting system, record accounting information truthfully and completely, establish accounting archives, prepare financial accounting reports, and oppose financial fraud and fraudulent behavior; Fulfill the obligations of tax declaration, tax payment, and withholding and payment in accordance with the law, report tax information in accordance with regulations, avoid tax arrears, eliminate illegal activities such as tax evasion, tax fraud, tax resistance, and false invoicing, and establish a sound, clear, and operable financial internal control and audit system; Properly safeguard financial and tax documents and company seals, and conduct regular internal financial audits.

（3） Product and service quality compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to establish a sound quality management system, establish scientific quality management methods and inspection systems, strictly implement job quality standards, quality responsibilities, and assessment systems, and ensure product quality control and improvement; Establish an independent quality management department (position) to supervise and promote the quality management system; Implement the system of self declaration and supervision of enterprise standards, and fulfill the commitment to product quality of the enterprise; Establish and strictly implement various production process requirements and standards; Establish a measurement assurance system covering the entire product lifecycle according to actual needs, and improve the level of quality control; It is strictly prohibited to produce and sell counterfeit and inferior products, and false advertising of product and service quality is strictly prohibited.

（4） Safety production compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to establish and improve a comprehensive safety production responsibility system for all employees, clarify and refine the safety production responsibilities of personnel at different positions and levels; Develop and implement safety production regulations and operating procedures; Ensure safety production investment, timely conduct safety assessments, maintenance, and replacement of old and worn-out equipment; Establish and implement an internal reporting and reward mechanism for accident hazards; Establish a standardized management system for enterprise safety production; Develop and implement emergency response plans for production safety accidents; Organize employees to receive safety production education and training, and shall not arrange for employees who have not received safety production education or have failed the training to work on the job; Safeguarding the safety and health rights of employees; Strengthen the management of safety production work for contracting and leasing units.

（5） Energy conservation and environmental compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to implement ecological environment zoning control, environmental impact assessment, pollutant discharge permit, ozone depleting substance management, and ecological environment damage compensation system in accordance with laws and regulations, enhance their awareness of the main responsibility for ecological environment protection, and adopt strict ecological protection and pollution prevention measures; Promote clean energy substitution and prohibit the use of phased out ozone depleting substances; Improve production processes in accordance with standards and regulations such as energy conservation, carbon reduction, and circular economy; Incorporate pollution prevention and control into the planning, site selection, production management, and control processes, and strengthen source prevention and control; Adhere to the simultaneous design, construction, and commissioning of facilities and main projects for ecological protection and pollution prevention and control; Strengthen the construction, operation, and maintenance of pollution prevention and control facilities, strictly control pollutant emissions, and implement environmental risk control measures such as prohibitions and restrictions in the list of key controlled new pollutants; Establish an environmental management ledger system in accordance with the law, strengthen monitoring and control of waste gas, wastewater, solid waste, noise, carbon emissions, and ecological damage; Improve risk prevention and emergency response measures for environmental pollution incidents and sudden environmental events.

（6） Intellectual property compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to comply with relevant laws and regulations, strengthen the creation, use, protection, and management of intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets, formulate relevant management systems in accordance with relevant standards and norms, and effectively implement them; Timely completion of rights registration or registration; Standardize the use of intellectual property achievements, implement licensing and transfer in compliance, strengthen intellectual property risk assessment in research and development, design, procurement, production, sales, exhibition and other links, use other people's intellectual property in accordance with the law and regulations, reasonably determine the value of intellectual property, effectively protect the rights and interests of innovators and users, and promote the protection and application of intellectual property. Encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out data intellectual property registration.

（7） Network and data security compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to comply with laws and regulations on network security, data security, etc., strengthen the security protection and security awareness education of information systems, networks, and data; Develop and implement a data security compliance management system, strengthen the classification, grading, and permission management of data, enhance personnel management and technical control, fulfill responsibilities and obligations for identifying and filing important data, grading protection, risk assessment, etc., prevent and promptly respond to and handle data leakage, tampering, and loss events; Focus on sorting out the compliance requirements and risks in activities such as exporting, sharing, entrusting, and providing data to third parties, receiving data from third parties, processing personal information, and cross-border data transmission, implementing compliance obligations for specific types of information collection and use, and protecting the security of enterprise data and personal information.

（8） Corporate governance compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to register in accordance with the law, ensure the authenticity, accuracy, and completeness of registration information, and complete capital contributions in accordance with the law; Establish a standardized and transparent governance structure, formulate and implement the company's articles of association, clarify the rights and obligations of shareholders, directors, board of directors, supervisors, supervisory board, and senior management personnel, and strengthen the prevention and control of integrity risks; Legitimate and compliant external guarantees, effectively controlling guarantee risks; Reasonably carry out financing activities to ensure compliance in the use of funds; Real, accurate, complete, and timely information disclosure; If the enterprise is dissolved, the dissolution procedure shall be completed in accordance with the law, and the liquidation obligation shall be fulfilled in a timely manner.

（9） International business compliance. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their awareness of compliance risk prevention in foreign trade, investment and cooperation activities, strictly abide by national export control laws and regulations, familiarize themselves with relevant laws and regulations on overseas market access, environmental protection, land, taxation, labor, foreign exchange, intellectual property, etc., abide by international rules and practices, attach importance to the assessment and early warning of compliance risks, establish and improve internal control and compliance management systems, improve internal compliance review mechanisms, effectively identify, analyze and control compliance risks; Effectively respond to external risks involving trade protection, export controls, and multilateral banking sanctions, choose appropriate risk response strategies, and reduce negative impacts.

Encourage and guide small and medium-sized enterprises to strengthen compliance management in other related fields based on their own characteristics, business scope, and development needs.

（1） Adhere to the guidance of ideology and enhance the compliance awareness of enterprises. Various forms of publicity activities should be organized and carried out in various regions to strengthen the promotion and interpretation of laws, regulations, regulatory provisions, and policy requirements related to enterprises. It is necessary to actively summarize and promote typical compliance operations of small and medium-sized enterprises in the region and industry, conduct case analysis such as "using cases to explain rules", and help small and medium-sized enterprises understand the connotation of compliance, recognize the harm of violations, and establish compliance awareness. Incorporate compliance management into the training content for leading talents in small and medium-sized enterprise management, specialized and innovative "little giants", specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, popularize compliance knowledge for small and medium-sized enterprise management personnel, help small and medium-sized enterprises understand compliance, attach importance to compliance, and master compliance, and promote compliance management as a conscious behavior of enterprises.

（2） Adhere to the principle of adapting to the needs of each enterprise and guide them to improve their compliance system. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will work with relevant departments to study and sort out compliance standards and key points for small and medium-sized enterprises, providing guidance and reference for enterprises. The All China Federation of Industry and Commerce will strengthen the construction of rule of law private enterprises, formulate and implement guidelines for the establishment and improvement of a modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics by the executive committee of the Federation of Industry and Commerce. Each region should guide small and medium-sized enterprises to start from their own actual situation, with risk prevention and control as the goal, establish and improve compliance management systems covering key areas, key links, and important personnel, and strengthen compliance management while balancing cost and efficiency. It is advisable to fully leverage the autonomy of enterprises in selecting compliance management models, establishing compliance governance structures, cultivating compliance culture concepts, and promoting compliance through digital transformation to meet their needs.

（3） Adhere to service first and increase the supply of compliance services. Various regions should organize service agencies to provide multi-level compliance services for small and medium-sized enterprises, including compliance risk assessment, compliance training, compliance diagnosis, consulting and counseling, compliance system construction, and rights protection services, in conjunction with the "Benefit Enterprises Together" small and medium-sized enterprise service action, small and medium-sized enterprise service month activities, the "Micro Assistance Plan" special action of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the empowerment action for innovative growth oriented private enterprises. Make good use of the national small and medium-sized enterprise service "One Net", the "Online Federation of Industry and Commerce" of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and other relevant department service platforms, incorporate compliance management into service content, and provide various forms of services for small and medium-sized enterprises online and offline, such as query and retrieval, case analysis, self inspection tools, and consulting and coaching. Strengthen the training of compliance talents for small and medium-sized enterprises, leverage the role of enterprise compliance training bases, and support the development of compliance training for small and medium-sized enterprises. Guide small and medium-sized enterprises to use diversified international commercial dispute resolution mechanisms to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. In places where conditions permit, support for compliance management services for small and medium-sized enterprises should be provided through government procurement services, issuance of service vouchers, and other means.

（4） Adhere to a problem oriented approach and solve the pain points and difficulties of the enterprise. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, will organize research and development of compliance self inspection tools for small and medium-sized enterprises in key areas where compliance issues are common and management improvement demands are being addressed. Typical cases of compliance management for small and medium-sized enterprises will be collected to provide reference for them. Encourage localities to conduct in-depth research and understand the compliance management situation of local small and medium-sized enterprises, based on the actual development of the industry, research and develop compliance practice operation guidelines and diagnostic tools for small and medium-sized enterprises with local and industry characteristics, cultivate and select professional compliance service institutions, and build relevant policy libraries, expert libraries, case libraries, and service institution libraries. Encourage clusters, parks, bases, and other organizations to provide corporate compliance guidance and compliance diagnosis public welfare services based on actual conditions.

（5） Persist in exploring and innovating, and encourage the implementation of pilot projects. Various regions should actively guide small and medium-sized enterprises to explore innovative compliance management organizational models and work mechanisms, and enhance their professional compliance capabilities and levels. Encourage localities with conditions to explore and pilot innovative measures to promote compliance management for small and medium-sized enterprises in areas with high compliance risks, such as labor employment, workplace environment, intellectual property, international operations, and export control, in accordance with laws and regulations. Encourage regions with a good corporate foundation and mature working conditions to study and introduce relevant policies and measures to promote compliance management for small and medium-sized enterprises, establish compliance risk warning mechanisms and rapid response mechanisms for major risks, explore the introduction of compliance indicators in relevant evaluation, identification, and assessment work in accordance with laws and regulations, and guide and assist high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises in improving their compliance management level. Actively organize international exchanges and cooperation on compliance management and services, and promote the alignment of compliance management for small and medium-sized enterprises with international norms.

（6） Persist in coordination and linkage, and establish a multi-party collaborative work mechanism. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is studying the inclusion of compliance management in the evaluation index system for specialized, refined, innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and the assessment of the development environment for small and medium-sized enterprises. Local authorities should fully leverage the coordinating role of small and medium-sized enterprise management departments, collaborate with relevant departments and institutions, establish interdepartmental coordination and linkage mechanisms, promote the formation of a professional and efficient compliance work system for small and medium-sized enterprises with the participation of government departments, industry associations, professional service agencies, and small and medium-sized enterprises, give full play to departmental responsibilities and institutional professional service advantages, form a working force, and promote the continuous improvement of compliance management level for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Source: Website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology