On 14 July 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission together with other relevant departments revised and formulated the Guidance Catalogue for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2023 Edition, Draft for Comments), which is open for comments from 14 July 2023 to 14 August 2023. The Catalogue consists of three categories, i.e., encouraged, restricted and obsolete industries.  Compared with the previous edition, the total number of entries in the current Catalogue has been reduced by 476; the number of entries relating to the encouraged industries has been reduced by 473; the number of entries relating to the restricted industries has been increased by 16; the number of entries relating to the obsolete industries has been reduced by 19. Although there is a decrease in the number of entries relating to the encouraged industries, such decrease mainly results from the classification and consolidation of  entries of the same type so as to better highlight the systematic characteristic and the practicability of the Catalogue and to better focus on the direction of encouragement and to keep encouraged items generally stable.

The revision of the current Draft for Comments focuses on the real economy and aims to promote new industrialization and to accelerate the establishment of a modern industrial system that is intelligent, green and integrated, and meets the requirements for integrity, advancement and safety.  Specifically, future policies will have several aims including, amongst others, to promote the high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing industry; to consolidate the leading position of competitive industries; to accelerate the improvement of non-competitive sectors relating to safety development; to establish a new system of the competitive and efficient service industry, etc.

We have made a comparison of the Draft for Comments with the existing 2019 edition in terms of new energy materials (lithium-ion battery) and provided a summary of main adjustments thereof for your reference. In general, the contents regarding encouraged new energy materials are further added or clarified in the Draft for Comments based on the 2019 edition.