2019 Catalogue for Foreign NGOs Released

2019 Catalogue for Foreign NGOs Released

On April 29, 2019 the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China released the Catalogue of Fields and Projects of Foreign Nongovernmental Organizations’ Domestic Activities and Competent Governing Business Authorities (2019) (“2019 Catalogue”) which is an update on the Catalogue of Fields and Projects of Foreign Nongovernmental Organizations’ Domestic Activities and Competent Governing Business Authorities (2017) (“2017 Catalogue”) for the first time since 2017.

According to the Law on Administration of Domestic Activities of Foreign Nongovernmental Organizations, the Guidelines for the Registration of Representative Office and Filing of Temporary Events of Foreign Nongovernmental Organizations and the 2019 Catalogue, where a foreign nongovernmental organization applies for establishment of its representative office(s), it shall identify the governing business authority pursuant to the 2019 Catalogue and its business scope, fields of potential activities as well as the needs for carrying out activities. With the consent from the governing business authorities, it may apply for registration to the registration authorities.

Please refer to the following brief summary of some of the updates and amendments as demonstrated in 2019 Catalogue.

 1、Adjustments to Subfields

1.1   2019 Catalogue expanded some of the subfields under 2017 Catalogue, for example, a subfield “Information communication” under “Economy” is expanded to “Industry and informationization”.

1.2   2019 Catalogue split some of the subfields under 2017 Catalogue, for example, a subfield “Food and drug” under “Health” was split to “Drug administration” and “Food”.

1.3   2019 Catalogue deleted some subfields under 2017 Catalogue, for example, the original subfield “Research, exchange and cooperation on foreign talents acquisition” under “Others” was deleted.

1.4   Compared to 2017 Catalogue, there are 11 new subfields under 2019 Catalogue in which “Environmental protection” has most of the additions including “Ecological restoration”, “Reform of forestry”, “Development of forestry”, “Grassland ecological protection” and “Eco-environmental protection of watershed”.

 2、Adjustments to Main Projects

2.1   2019 Catalogue expanded some of the main projects under 2017 Catalogue, for example, in the subfield “Copyrights” under “Culture”, the main projects “International copyright related industry study” was expanded to “International copyright related industry study and cooperation”.  

2.2   2019 Catalogue added more projects based on 2017 Catalogue, for example, in the subfield “Agriculture” under “Economy”, there are new projects including “Food policy, information, technology, market development, trade, training, exchange and cooperation”.

2.3   2019 Catalogue also deleted some main projects listed in 2017 Catalogue, for example, in the subfield “Intellectual property” under “Economy”, the main project “Study, exchange and cooperation on international trademark theory” was deleted.

 3、Adjustments to Governing Business Authorities

3.1   2019 Catalogue made adjustments to the governing business authorities as some of them have been changed in the institutional reforms of the State Council in 2018.

3.2   2019 Catalogue added new governing business authorities in order for them to govern those activities and fields that have been newly added.

Please refer to the English version of 2019 Catalogue we prepared for details, in which we marked the amendments and updates in red. 

Catalogue of Fields and Projects of Foreign Nongovernmental Organizations’ Domestic Activities and Competent Governing Business Authorities (2019)

March 2019