China is set to increase the screening of unqualified inspection and certification agencies and encourage more private and foreign capital to enter the industry of accreditation to increase competition, officials said on Thursday.
Xie Jun, deputy head of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China, said in a conference in Beijing that the authority will encourage social capital to set up accreditation agencies and provide the public service.
The authority will also reduce the restrictions placed on foreign investor to set up quality inspection and test agencies in China, and will provide them same treatment as domestic investors, he said.
China currently has 28,300 officials certified accreditation agencies, among them 140 agencies are foreign ventures. However, the foreign ventures take up more than 30 percent of the market. The industry registered a total revenue of close to 14 billion yuan in 2014.
Sun Dawei, vice-minister of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said there are a number of problems in the country's certification and inspection industry, including poor management, lack of credibility and trust, and unprincipled competition.
"We need to increase the accreditation of the inspection and certification agencies to ensure a healthy development of the industry and push forward the transformation of government function," he said.
