Management Measures for the Engineering Consulting Industry

Chapter OneGeneral Principles

Article 1 In order to strengthen the management of the engineering consulting industry, standardize professional behavior, and ensure the quality of engineering consulting services, based on the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening the Reform of Investment and Financing System" (Zhongfa [number]), and the "Regulations on the Approval and Filing Management of Enterprise Investment Projects" (State Council Order No. [number]), engineering consulting is based on technology, adhering to the principles of independence, fairness, and science, comprehensively applying multidisciplinary knowledge, engineering practical experience, modern science, and management methods to provide intellectual services for various investors and government departments in economic and social development, investment construction project decision-making and implementation activities.

(1) Planning Consulting: Including the preparation and consultation of overall planning, special planning, regional planning, and industry planning;

(2) Project Consulting: Including project investment opportunity research, investment and financing planning, project proposal (pre-feasibility study), project feasibility study report, project application report, funding application report preparation, social stability risk assessment, government and social capital cooperation.

(3) Evaluation Consulting: Evaluations commissioned by governments at all levels and relevant departments on planning, project proposals, feasibility study reports, preliminary designs, project application reports, funding application reports, mid-term evaluations of plans and projects, post-evaluations, project budget reviews, and other professional technical services required for investment management functions.

Engineering consulting business is divided into the following specialties:

(1) Agriculture and Forestry;

(2) Water Resources and Hydropower;

(3) Electricity (including thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, new energy);

(4) Coal;

(5) Oil and Natural Gas;

(6) Highways;

(7) Railways and Urban Rail Transit;

(8) Civil Aviation;

(9) Water Transport (including port river-sea engineering);

(10) Electronics, Communication, Broadcasting (including information technology);

(11) Metallurgy (including steel and non-ferrous metals);

(12) Petrochemical, Chemical, Pharmaceutical;

(13) Nuclear Industry;

(14) Machinery;

(15) Light Industry and Textiles;

(16) Building Materials;

(17) Construction;

(18) Municipal Public Works;

(19) Ecological Construction and Environmental Engineering;

(20) Hydrogeology, Engineering Surveying, Geotechnical Engineering;

(21) Comprehensive Economics (Planning, Evaluation);

(22) Others. Chapter Three Professional Conduct

Article 8 Engineering consulting units and their practitioners must comply with national laws, regulations, and policy requirements, adhere to professional norms and ethics, and accept government supervision.

Article 9 Engineering consulting units should establish sound internal management systems to improve consulting quality responsibility systems and provide services independently, fairly, and scientifically to clients.

Article 10 Engineering consulting is a paid service. The price of engineering consulting services is determined through negotiation between both parties to promote quality for price; price monopolies and malicious low-price competition are prohibited.

Article 11 Engineering consulting units should sign written contracts with clients to stipulate the rights and obligations of all parties to comply with. The contract should clearly state the ownership of intellectual property generated from consulting activities.

Article 12 Consulting result documents must be stamped with the seal of the engineering consulting unit and the practicing seal of the consulting engineer (investment) responsible for that consulting business.

Article 13 Enterprises may autonomously choose engineering consulting units to provide consulting services as needed; no unit or individual may force or designate them.

Article 14 For government investment projects that commission engineering consulting units for consulting services, they should refer to industry credit evaluation results to select the best under equal conditions.

Article 15 Government departments conducting approval or management work related to projects should generally commission engineering consulting units with corresponding creditworthiness and capabilities to provide professional technical support.

Article 16 To ensure fairness in engineering consulting conclusions, engineering consulting units should implement avoidance systems for consulting businesses with related relationships.

Article 17 Consulting engineers (investment) are the core force in the engineering consulting industry; they should enhance service awareness and responsibility awareness while continuously improving their professional level and diligently fulfilling engineering consulting service contracts.

Chapter Four Industry Self-discipline and Supervision Management

Article 19 The National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments of the State Council should study and formulate consultation service guidelines for various specialties to promote the professional development of the engineering consulting industry.

Article 20 Industry-recognized social organizations with corresponding capabilities may conduct self-discipline credit evaluation work for engineering consulting units under voluntary acceptance of guidance supervision from national and provincial development reform commissions. The national and provincial development reform commissions will select one organization each year from those that voluntarily apply to undertake credit evaluation work after comprehensive assessment.

Article 21 The credit evaluation levels for engineering consulting units are divided into Class A and Class B; specific standards are formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission. The self-discipline nature of credit evaluation levels serves only as a reference for commissioned consulting businesses. No unit may impose restrictions on the number of institutions for credit evaluation or impose regional or industry-specific employment restrictions on various types of engineering consulting units; nor may they impose practice restrictions on engineering consulting units that have not participated in or obtained credit evaluations.

Article 23: The credit evaluation results of engineering consulting units shall be published to the public by the national and provincial development and reform commissions through the national investment project online approval and supervision platform.

Article 24: Social organizations conducting credit evaluation work for engineering consulting units may formulate evaluation details, implementation procedures, and relevant regulations for changes and cancellations of credit certificates according to these measures and credit evaluation standards, and issue credit evaluation grade certificates to engineering consulting units that have obtained credit evaluations.

Article 25: The national and provincial development and reform commissions shall supervise and inspect the professional conduct of engineering consulting units and their personnel in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, these measures, and relevant provisions. If the following situations are found during inspections, they will be recorded as bad records and promptly published to the public. If an engineering consulting unit has obtained a credit evaluation grade, the organization conducting the credit evaluation will cancel its evaluation grade; if it involves consulting engineers (investment), it will be handled according to relevant regulations.

(1) Violating the principles of independence and fairness, helping the entrusting unit to fraudulently obtain approval documents and national funds;

(2) Forging, altering, renting, lending, or transferring credit evaluation grade certificates;

(3) Leaking the commercial secrets of the entrusting party, as well as using unfair competition methods to harm the interests of other engineering consulting units, seriously violating professional ethics and codes of conduct;

(4) Consulting results have serious quality issues that cause significant losses to the owner or entrusting party;

(5) Refusing to accept supervision and inspection;

(6) Falsifying information or providing false materials to apply for credit evaluation;

(7) Engaging in other behaviors that violate laws and regulations.

Article 26: If social organizations violate the provisions of these measures while conducting credit evaluations, one of the following situations will result in a correction order from the national or provincial development and reform commissions. In severe cases, they will be ordered to stop credit evaluation activities.

(1) Unjustifiably refusing applications from engineering consulting units;

(2) Not conducting credit evaluations according to national standard requirements;

(3) Colluding with applying units to falsify information;

(4) Not accepting guidance and supervision from industry management departments. Chapter Five: Supplementary Provisions Article 27: The provincial development and reform commissions referred to in these measures are those of each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government, separately planned city, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.