The State Industry and Commerce Administration recently announced trials of a new method for simplifying the procedures for the annual appraisal of foreign-funded enterprises in China.

While in previous years foreign-funded enterprises needed to make several visits to the Administration's outlets in order to complete their annual appraisal, since the beginning of 2004 they have been able to finish all the steps, except for the final appraisal, via the Internet. The development of this new procedure enables enterprises to learn of the latest appraisal requirements, download and fill in the required forms, and receive preliminary appraisal results online.

"The new measure has received a good response from foreign-funded enterprises over the past month, and one-ninth of them have accepted the new appraisal method," said Liu Ye, an official with the administration. "More foreign-funded enterprises are expected to choose the new method before the March 15 deadline for application for the annual appraisal," continued Liu, who emphasized that special technology has been adopted to guarantee the privacy of documents completed by enterprises.