City's work on social credit to be completed by 2020

Beijing will accelerate development of a social credit system by completing the legislative and regulatory work in the sector by 2020, a senior official said.

Tan Xuxiang, head of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said by that time Beijing will have established a public credit information service platform covering all the permanent residents of the city.

"It's also one of the measures to create a fair market for businesses," he said.

The platform will combine information from the governmental and social sectors and show a full picture of a person's credit status.

"We will also have a blacklist and make it available for public use for market access, public services, travel and employment," he said. "We will continue to complete the blacklist and limit their activities."

At the same time, residents who have good credit will be rewarded, according to the plan. In some public service areas, they will be provided with easier or faster access.

Beijing has been working on establishing the credit system for years. According to the city, it has organized a third party to supervise and monitor credit status in 12 key sectors.

Huang Yong, head of the international cooperation center of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at an industrial summit earlier this month that the government should accelerate research on the credit system's core technology.

"It requires innovation and a fundamental database, which will help the credit system to develop from quantity to quality," he said.

Meng Wei, an NDRC spokesperson, said earlier that China has seen clear progress in building a social credit system. In the financial sector, the authorities have published the names of 400 people said to be involved in severe fraudulent activity. The NDRC has signed a memorandum of agreement with more than 60 government departments to share credit information.