Abstract: As an innovative model of the reform aimed at optimizing the business environment, the experimentation of ‘one industry, one license’ currently presents a differentiated institutional form across the country. The comprehensive industry licensing created by the ‘one industry, one license’ reform integrates multiple licenses involved in the market entry of specific industries into a single license, thus changing the traditional license mode under the current legal framework. Compared with the traditional administrative licensing mode, the ‘one industry, one license’ reform reflects a distinct efficiency value orientation. It not only lowers the entry threshold for market entities, but also ensures the efficiency of comprehensive industry licensing through the coordination of industry comprehensive regulation. At the same time, the institutional innovation of ‘one industry, one license’ also faces many difficulties. It is necessary to revise China’s Administrative Licensing Law, effectively addressing the challenges by focusing on formal and substantive legitimacy. This can be achieved by adding provisions on ‘one industry, one license’ in the Administrative Licensing Law, fulfilling the obligation established in Article 18  of the Law, and effectively activating the licensing evaluation  provision in Article 20 of the Law. In this way, China can give full play to the leading and guaranteeing role of the innovation and transformation of administrative licensing in the high-quality economic development.

Key Words: the ‘one industry, one  license’ reform;  comprehensive industry licensing； comprehensive industry regulation;  Administrative Licensing Law

Author: Lu Chao, research fellow, CASS Institute of Law; professor, Law School of the University of CASS;

Source: 4 (2025) China Legal Science.