Amendments to the Implementing Rules on the Registration of Enterprises

Amendments to the Implementing Rules on the Registration of Enterprises with Legal Person Status of the People's Republic of China

Issued: December 1, 2000

Effective: January 1, 2001

Issuing Authority: State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

Main Contents: There are three major modifications in the Amendments in comparison with the former Rules. First, the registration of enterprises will no longer be classified on an industry basis. Second, most of the different registration procedures between Foreign Investment Enterprises (FIEs) and domestic Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) are deleted from the previous rules. Accordingly, the business license of an FIE would be the same as the LLC, i.e., the "Business License of Enterprises with Legal Person Status"(qi ye fa ren yin ye zhi zhao in Mandarin). The business license will no longer be called the "Business License of Enterprises with Legal Person Status of the People's Republic of China" (zhong hua ren min gong he guo qi ye fa ren yin ye zhi zhao in Mandarin). Furthermore, according to preliminary inquiries with SAIC officials, after these Amendments take effect, the newly-issued business licenses of FIEs would no longer be signed by Mr. Wang Zhong Hou, Chief of the SAIC, but instead by the chief official of the local AIC in charge. Third, some contents in the former rules that are redundant to other laws and regulations are deleted, such as: the requirements of pre-registration of the enterprise name and the one-year term of validity of business license duplicates.