Enterprise Registration

With respect to corporate issues, the Government has issued a new Decree No. 05/2013/ND-CP ("Decree 05") amending Decree No. 43/2010/ND-CP ("Decree 43") on enterprise registration, which came into effect on 25 February 2013. Decree 05 contains provisions which would be of interest to investors intending to register their businesses. According to the previous Decree 43 and other relevant regulations, the investor had to determine and state the relevant economic sector codes and central product classification ("CPC") codes in its application for business registration. An application for business registration without the appropriate codes would be rejected by the local licensing authorities or forwarded to the central licensing authority (i.e. the Ministry of Planning and Investment) for further consideration, which often resulted in lengthy delays in the business registration process. In order to resolve this issue, the new Decree 05 allows the local licensing authorities to approve the application without the specified codes [thereby allowing the registered business to commence operations and then notify the Ministry of Planning and Investment to supplement the existing list of economic sector codes.

In addition, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has issued Circular No. 01/2013/TT-BKHDT ("Circular 01") to supersede Circular No. 14/2010/TT-BKHDT and provide new guidance on enterprise registration. Under Circular 01, enterprise registration and procedures have been made easier and more user-friendly. Examples include (i) providing for online enterprise registration; (ii) resolving disputes over enterprises' names in backup processes; and (iii) provision of procedures for dissolving enterprises.