Business Registration Set to be Streamlined in Mid-2012

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) of Vietnam has recently drafted a circular pertaining to an online registration initiative for start-up businesses that aim to streamline the establishment process.

According to the draft circular, the Business Registration Management Agency will be responsible for the portal www.dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn, which provides online registration and other basic registration services for managing national business registrations. To avoid confusion, all other websites launched by businesses or organizations for the same purpose will be blacklisted.

The draft also states that procedures for temporarily stopping or resuming operations of businesses can be done via the portal. Likewise, private companies, joint stock, limited liability and business consortiums can change their names, addresses, tax registration information and business lines directly through the web site.

The coming regulation stipulates that when submitting business registration records online, businesses and individuals must use digital signatures provided by public digital signature verification service providers or digital signatures specified for use in online business registration (in line with new regulations issued in Government Decree No. 106/2011/ND-CP on November 23 regarding implementation provisions of the “Law on Electronic Transactions with Digital Signatures and Digital Signature Certification Services”).

The national business registration portal is equipped with an online payment tool to help facilitate the billing process and can display a bill and send it directly to the e-mail addresses of those on the authorization list of the business submitting records. Additionally, businesses can opt to receive other records, such as the final business registration certificate by mail or online.

Registration certificates sent online will have the same legal validity as the traditional hard copies issued by business registration offices.

According to the Business Registration Management Agency, the online business registration trial period will begin in mid-2012 with deployment of a non-trial version following sometime in the future.

---