Regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on Collection and

Use of Archives and Documents

(Adopted at the Fifteenth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Third Shenzhen People' s Congress on April 26, 2002)

Chapter I  General Provisions

Article 1  With a view to strengthening the development of undertakings of archives in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (hereinafter referred to as "the Special Zone" ) and effectively collecting, managing, protecting and using archives and documents, taking into account of the specific conditions of the Special Zone, these Regulations are hereby formulated in accordance with the provisions of the Archives Law of the PRC£¬the Provisions of the Guangdong Province on Archives Management and other laws and regulations concerned.

    Article 2  These Regulations shall apply to the administrative work of archives, the collection, management and use of the archives and documents by State organs,social organizations and individuals or other activities concerning archives and documents within the Special Zone.

Article 3  "Archives" in these Regulations mean original records, including those in different languages, pictures, diagrams, audio-visual and in the other forms, whose preservation is of value to the State and society and which are formed by State organs, social organizations and individuals in their political, economic, scientific, technological, cultural, educational, religious and other activities.

"Documents" in these Regulations mean documentary materials which are formed by State organs and other State-owned units in their public affairs and have been preserved by the centers of document before delivery to the archives repositories.

    Article 4  State organs, social organizations and individuals have rights to use the archives and documents according to law and have the obligations to ensure the integrity, accuracy and safety of the archives and documents.

Article 5   The archives administration departments of the municipal and district governments are the unified administration departments for the affairs of archives and documents in their respective administrative areas, and other administration departments shall assist, according to their respective functions, the archives administration departments to do the work of archives and documents well.

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Chapter II  Archives Repositories, Centers of Document and Archives Intermediary Institutions

Article 6  The Archives Repository of the Shenzhen Municipality (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Archives Repository) is a central archives repository and a center of archives and information of the whole city, and also is a professional archives organization under the Municipal Government. The main responsibilities of the Municipal Archives Repository are the following:

     (1) to receive the archival materials which should be transferred into the Municipal Archives Repository from the units under the Municipality and the other archival materials of the whole city whose preservation is of important value to the State and society;

     (2) to collect the important archival materials concerning the Municipality;

     (3) to establish a center of the whole city on information, internet and catalogue of archives, to synthetically research, develop and use the archival information resources of the whole city, and to provide other archives institutions with professional and technological demonstration.

(4) to use the archival materials preserved by the repositories to serve for a patriotism education of the whole city and a social use of the information resources of archives.

The district archives repositories shall be responsible for collection, management and availability of the archival materials within their respective administrative areas.

     Article 7  The special archives repositories shall be responsible for collection, preservation and availability of the archives in a special field or in the form of special carrier. The specific receipt scope of the special archives shall be carried out according to the provisions provided by the archives administration department of State.

Article 8  The centers of document established by the municipal and district governments are the institutions responsible for centralized preservation and availability of the documents which have been completely processed by the organs and institutions at the same level. The major functions of these centers are the following:

(1)to receive the documents which have been completely processed by the organs and institutions at the same level;

(2) to arrange, appraise and preserve received documents;

(3) to transfer the archives which need to be kept for a long term to the municipal or district archives repositories;

(4) to make documents available to State organs, social organizations and individuals;

     The organ and institution in which the documents have not been incorporated into the management of the centers of document shall set up an archives room. The archives room shall be responsible for collection, preservation and availability  of various archives within their respective units.

Article 9  The archives intermediary institutions established according to law may engaged in the following archival business:

(1) to offer advices on archival business;

(2)   to arrange archives;

(3)   to estimate the value of archives;

a)      to supply the services of archival technology;

b)      to deposit and preserve archives;

c)      to engage in other archives business regulated in the business license

    The archives intermediary institutions engaging in the business above-mentioned shall comply with the laws, regulations and the relevant provisions of the archives administration departments.

Article 10  Archivists and the members working in the archives intermediary institutions shall have the knowledge of archival profession and shall hold the certificate to work.

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Chapter III  Collection of Archives and Documents

Article 11  The municipal and district governments shall strength the development of information and modernization of the archives resources, support the development and use of the electronic archives and documentary internet system and promote that whoever makes a contribution to the resources of archives and documentary information may enjoy them in common.

The Municipal Government shall appropriate a specified fund so as to collect and save the major and precious archival materials which reflect the social activities in the Special Zone; the archives administration departments shall embark a fund for its specified purpose only.

Article 12  With respect to the documents which fall in the scope to be filed as archives in accordance with the provisions of the State and have been completely processed, the relevant departments shall arrange them in time and transfer them at regular intervals to the centers of document or the archives rooms of their respective units. No department and individual may fail to file such documents or keep such documents as his personal property.

The officers of State organs and other State-owned units shall go through the formalities of handing-over and taking-over archives and documents when they leave the former post.

Article 13  The archives of State organs and other State-owned units and the archives formed by the officers thereof in their public affairs shall be owned by the State.

Article 14  All units shall transfer the archives and documents pursuant to the following time limit:

(1) The documents listed in the receipt scope of the center of document shall be transferred before the end of the June following the year in which the documents have been completely processed;

(2) The archives listed in the receipt scope of the municipal and district archives repositories shall be transferred upon the expiration of 10 years from the date of their creation;

(3) The archives listed in the receipt scope of the special archives repositories shall be transferred according to the time limit provided by the State and the Municipality.

(4) The archives and documents formed in the major citywide activities which are organized by the nonpermanent organizations shall be transferred by these organizations to the Municipal Archives Repository or the municipal center of document within six months from the date of finishing the activities.

Article 15  Donating the archives which are not owned by the State to the municipal and district archives repositories shall be encouraged. If an archives repository decides to accept such a donation, it shall issue the donation certificate to the donation person.

Article 16  With respect to the cultural relics, books and reference materials which are kept in museums, memorial halls, libraries and other organs and are currently archives, the catalogues shall be submitted to the Municipal Archives Repository and the changes shall be reported.

    With respect to collectively-owned or individually-owned archives which are considered as important preservation value to State and society, the Municipal Archives Repository may require the person who keeps such archives to submit the catalogues and report the changes.

     Article 17  With respect to the municipal and district major construction projects, major scientific and technological research projects and major technological reforming projects, a file registration system of archives shall be carried out, the archives institutions of the competent departments for these projects and the archives administration departments at same level shall be responsible for arranging, directing and supervising the registration.

Article 18  While checking and accepting or appraising such projects as construction project, technological reformation, purchase and renewal of major facilities, and scientific and technological research etc., the relevant archives institutions shall check and accept the archives of these projects.

While checking and accepting or appraising the municipal and district projects such as major construction work, major technological reforming project and major scientific and technological research project, the municipal and district archives administration departments shall check and accept the archives of these projects in conjunction with the relevant archives institutions.

Article 19  State-owned enterprises shall process their archives according to law of State while their capital or property right are changed because of merger, bankruptcy, sale, reformation in shares system or being contracted or leased, etc.

    The challenges to the ownership and circulation direction of the State-owned archives shall be decided by the archives administrative departments.

Article 20  With respect to the archives approaching to its preservation term, preserving units for archives shall make the arrangements to appraise; the destruction of the archives which have lost its preservation value shall be approved by the persons in charge of the units.

The documents, preserved by the document center, which are not necessary to be transferred to the archives repository after being appraised, shall be destroyed by the document center.

Chapter IV  Use of Archives and Documents

    Article 21  The document center shall give priority to guarantee a need of using documents to the transferring units and shall provide other organs with the convenience of the use of documents.

Article 22  The archives and documents preserved by the document center of public archives repository shall be open to the public, except those which shall be confidential according to law or not proper to be open.

Social organizations and individuals holding legal and effective certificate may use the opened archives and documents.

 Public archives repository in these Regulations shall include municipal and district archives repositories and professional archives repositories.

    Article 23  Public archives repositories and documentary centers shall publish the scope, catalogue and using ways of the archives opened to the public.

Article 24  Public archives repositories and document centers shall adopt the following forms to provide the society with archives and documents for use:

    (1) using archives and documents in the archives repositories;

    (2) enquiring and reading archives and documents on the internet;

(3) sending archives and documents by special person;

(4) telexing posting archives and documents;

(5) providing the certificate of archives and documents;

(6) compiling archives, the collection of documents and the reference materials.

    (7) holding the exhibition of archives and documents.

    Article 25  Public archives repositories and document centers shall in time publish the information on archives and documents based on the social needs and requirements.

    Article 26  Administration management departments for archives shall coordinate the common enjoyment and exchange of the information resources on archives and documents among the archives depositories, the documentary centers and the archives rooms, and shall direct the task of the development and use of the information resources on archives and documents.

    Article 27  If social organizations and individuals have challenges to the public archives repositories and document centers which fail to provide for use by reason that the archives and documents have not be opened, they have rights to claim to the archives administrative departments.

   Article 28  The archives repositories of the enterprises and private making their archives public shall be encouraged.

    Article 29  All units and individuals shall ensure truthfulness of the archives and documents and shall not falsify or distort the archives and documents.

¡¡  Article 30  Those who use the archives of the archives repository to write publications or other materials shall supply the specimens or duplicate to the archives repository concerned for preservation.

Chapter V Legal Liabilities

Article 31  If one of the following acts is committed, the archives administration departments shall order amends to be made within a specified time limit and propose the relevant competent departments to impose a disciplinary sanction, in accordance with the law, on persons directly in charge or other persons directly responsible;

     (1) failing to receive archives according to the regulated scope, in violation of Article 7 of these Regulations;

     (2) failing to transfer archives and documents according to the regulated time limit, in violation of Article 14 of these Regulations;

     3. failing to submit the catalogues to the Municipal Archives Repository or failing to report the changes of the archives, in violation of Article 16 of these Regulations;

(4) failing to submit the archival registration materials on project/program to the archives administration departments according to the provisions, in violation of Article 17 of these Regulations;

(5) providing archives and documents for use without authorization or failing to make the archives and documents public according to the provisions, in violation of Article 22 of these Regulations;

Article 32  If any of the following acts is committed, the archives administration departments shall impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan on the unit, and a fine of not less than 500 yuan but not more than 2,000 yuan on the person directly responsible.

    (1) appropriating documents which should be kept as archives, and refusing to transfer the archives for filing, in violation of Article 12 of these Regulations;

    (2) failing to transfer the archives to the archives institutions after the project/program are checked and accepted or identified, in violation of Article 18 of these Regulations;

    (3) failing to handle the archives according to the provisions of the State, in violation of Article 19 of these Regulations;

    (4) destroying the archives and documents without authorization, in violation of Article 20 of these Regulations.

If any of the following acts is committed, the archives administration departments shall impose a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan on the unit, and a fine of not less than 2,000 yuan but not more than 5,000 yuan on the person directly responsible:

   (1) engaging in archives intermediary activities without authorization in violation of Article 9 of these Regulations;

   (2) altering or forging archives and documents in violation of Article 29 of these Regulations.

Article 34  If parties have challenges to an administrative decision and an administrative punishment made by the archives administration departments, they have rights to apply for an administrative reconsideration on the decision or take an administrative proceedings. If parties neither apply for reconsideration or take the administrative proceedings nor perform the decision of punishment, the application for enforcing the punishment decision shall be made to the people' s court by the archives administration department which makes this decision.

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Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

    Article 35  These Regulations shall enter into force as of July 1, 2002.