From October 8 it is easier to incorporate a company in China

Further simplification was introduced to the process for incorporation of limited liability companies in China. In addition to the previous reform which unified three certificate into one (organization code and tax certificate are now included into the business license), recently China has deeply revised the legal procedure to set-up and amend foreign invested enterprises.

Under the new procedure, in force since October 8 2016, a company can directly apply for the issuance or change of Business License without the necessity of the prior approval from MofCom. Under the previous procedure, a company was required first to receive Approval Certificate, and only then it could apply for Business License (which could take 6-8 weeks).

Moreover, the new procedure allows all application documents to be filed via an online system and paper filing is required only within 30 days after issuance of the business license.  This new procedure is leaner and faster than the previous one, and applies also to procedure for company change (change of business scope, registered capital, etc.).

It shall be noted however that the former procedure still applies to set-up and amendments to companies involved in restricted or  encourage industries ("Special Regulated Companies"), for which the MOC approval is still required in order to assess that the corresponding legal requirements are met and to acquisition of domestic companies by foreign investors.