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Business registration becomes more convenient
Under Government Decree No. 43/2010/ND-CP of April 15, from June 1 individuals wishing to start a business can make business registration through the national business registration portal instead of carrying out cumbersome procedures at different state agencies.

Nguyen Dinh Tho

Legal Document Examination Department

Ministry of Justice

Under Government Decree No. 43/2010/ND-CP of April 15, from June 1 individuals wishing to start a business can make business registration through the national business registration portal instead of carrying out cumbersome procedures at different state agencies.

Business registration will be made online through the national information system for business registration with business registration offices receiving and examining valid registration dossiers filed through the national business registration portal, guiding dossier modifications and notifying registration results.

Those who have no e-signatures can still carry out online business registration provided their dossiers are accepted by the national information system for business registration, which consists of the national business registration portal and a database developed and operated by the Planning and Investment Ministry in collaboration with concerned agencies to process business registration data. Written certifications of via-network dossier submission will be printed out from the system.

Subsequently, at-law representatives of enterprises will sign these written certifications and send them to provincial-level business registration offices in localities where enterprises are headquartered, and the latter will consider and grant business registration certificates.

Shorter time

The new regulation stipulates a time limit of 5 working days (against current 10 working days) after the receipt of a valid dossier for a provincial-level business registration office to grant a business registration certificate, a certificate of business registration modification, or enterprise division, separation, consolidation or merger, a certificate of operation of a branch or representative office or a notification of business location of an enterprise.

Past this time limit, if receiving no business registration certificate or no written request for modification of its business registration dossier, an enterprise may lodge a complaint.

Identification numbers

For the first time, the decree stipulates the grant of identification numbers to enterprises. An enterprise can use its identification number concurrently as the business registration code and tax identification number.

An identification number will exist throughout the operation of an enterprise and will not be granted to another organization or individual. It would become invalid when the enterprise terminates operation and may not be reused.

Enterprise identification numbers will be stored in the national information system for business registration and written on enterprise business registration certificates.

Throughout their operation, enterprises, including those engaged in different business lines or conducting production or business activities in different localities, will use their identification numbers in making declaration and payment of all payable taxes.

Intellectual property rights

Under the Decree, enterprises may not include lawfully protected trade names, marks and geographical indications of other organizations and individuals in their names, unless such is consented by the latter. Before registering enterprise names, entrepreneurs may check out marks and geographical indications already registered and stored in the database of marks and geographical indications of the Industrial Property Office of the Science and Technology Ministry.

Entrepreneurs will be held responsible before law for naming their enterprises in violation of industrial property regulations and their enterprises’ names should therefore be changed.

Industrial property right holders may request business registration offices to request enterprises whose names infringe upon their industrial property rights to be renamed as appropriate. However, they are obliged to furnish business registration offices with necessary protection titles.

Business registration offices

Another new point in the Decree is that the People’s Committees of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho cities are allowed to transform on a pilot basis their business registration offices into non-business units after reaching agreement with the Home Affairs Ministry and the Planning and Investment Ministry.

Business registration offices are organized at provincial and district levels. At the provincial level, they are attached to Planning and Investment Departments. Particularly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, one or two additional provincial-level business registration offices may be set up under decisions of the People’s Committees of these two cities.

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