Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in order to effectively implement the reform requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for "decentralization, regulation and service", the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has actively studied and improved the existing mechanisms and practices, on the one hand, it has explored new ways to help enterprises develop in new situations and worked hard to improve the level of administrative facilitation; On the other hand, the consular informatization construction of "grounding and benefiting people's livelihood" has also achieved "acceleration".
In August 2019, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a series of measures to facilitate the application of APEC business travel cards, including lowering the threshold for application, expanding the scope of benefits, simplifying the application materials, broadening the application channels, optimizing the application process, etc., so as to provide more convenience for Chinese enterprises and personnel to "go global" and expand the international market.
At the same time, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid close attention to the facilitation of cross-border circulation of documents and actively promoted China's accession to the Convention on the Cancellation of Certification Requirements for Foreign Official Documents (hereinafter referred to as the Convention). According to Zhang Yang, Deputy Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2020, the overwhelming majority of China's top ten trading partners will be members of the Convention, and it is estimated that more than 70% of the trade volume will be exempted from consular certification of commercial documents due to accession to the Treaty, further promoting the optimization of the business environment.
In addition, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has established a "green channel" mechanism for consular certification for major projects such as overseas bidding of Chinese enterprises and other documents related to emergency humanitarian assistance, opened emergency service hotlines, and provided special window services and follow-up work for relevant projects. The "green channel" is shouldering the important mission of helping Chinese enterprises "go global" and building a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the main body and domestic and international double circulation promoting each other.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, consular informatization has entered a period of rapid development. In November 2012, all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government in the mainland of China issued e-passports for business purposes; In December 2014, all embassies and consulates abroad issued e-passports, marking the successful completion of the e-passport project; In November 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched the biometric visa program, and on September 14, 2017, the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria issued the world's first biometric visa. On November 10, 2015, consular authentication electronic signature and anti-counterfeiting QR code were implemented. On January 8, 2019, the "Domestic Consular Authentication Information Online Query System (web version)" was launched, and then the mobile version of the "Scan and Scan" function was launched. The successful implementation of e-passport, biometric visa, consular authentication and anti-counterfeiting projects is an important sign that China's consular informatization level has entered the international advanced ranks.
In recent years, with the arrival of the "mobile+intelligent" era, several consular electronic information systems have been launched. The increasingly rich "fingertip" services have become a powerful proof of the improvement of the digital level of consular work.
The road of China's consular informatization construction is a practical road for consular work to benefit, benefit and facilitate the people. "Based on the new starting point of the Party's centennial history, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will always adhere to the principle of" people first ", strengthen service awareness, innovate service methods, improve service standards, and continue to give full play to the advantages of" grounding and benefiting the people's livelihood "of consular work through information technology." Wei Xiaodong, Deputy Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.
Reprinted from Economic Daily
