Ministry of Industry and Commerce takes new steps to ease business start-up

(Vientiane Times): The Enterprise Registration and Management Department, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, has eased the registration process for foreign investors, local entrepreneurs and those who want to start a new business in Laos.

The department announced at a meeting held in Vientiane on Friday 21 February 2020 that the process of business registration will be made easier, with the aim of raising Laos’ global ranking in this regard to a two-digit ranking next year instead of three as at present.
Laos was placed 181 in a global ranking of 190 countries this year on ease of starting a business.

Speaking at the meeting, Director General of the Enterprise Registration and Management Department, Mr. Somphuang Phienphinith, said “We have improved the process of enterprise registration for those who want to start a new business. We have cut the earlier I 0-stcp process down to three steps. This excludes the step to obtain a business permission license.”

The meeting was supported by the Lao Completeness and Trade (LCT) Project and attended by representatives of the department, the World Bank, European Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Laos, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Laos, Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and international investment consultants.

“The current registration process takes 30 days, while the earlier method took 178 days,” Mr. Somphuang added
Any individual or new investor needs to carry out these three steps, which are: registration of the business with a background check, obtaining a business stamp, and registering the workforce.

Entrepreneurs no longer have to fill in so many forms and provide so many documents and will also pay less. Business operators are asked to report officials who arc impeding the registration process.

The process to speed up business registration was launched in late 2018 and was completed in 2019.
Mr. Somphuang said Laos was at the bottom of the ease-of-business-starting rankings this year because investment consultants in Laos, international chambers of commerce and related sectors believed that enterprise registration and obtaining a business permission license were the same process. However, they are two separate processes.

Prime Minister’s Order No. 3 on ease-of-business-starting was issued on Friday, to improve regulations and coordination mechanisms in doing business in Laos. This aims to improve Laos’ position in the World Bank Group’s doing-business ranking.

The order aims to mobilize and attract quality investments, bolster the competitive capacity of domestic businesses, and minimize constraints to doing business in Laos

The LCT project aims to eliminate barriers to business growth by improving the regulatory environment, lowering trade costs, and raising firm-level competitiveness. Regulatory reforms are expected to reduce high operating costs that are external to firms, especially costs of starting and operating a business, unreliable contract enforcement, and high trade costs. These reforms respond directly to the objectives outlined in the PM Order. They are complemented with interventions to reduce costs internal to firms through matching grants to use business development services, supporting their efforts to improve management practices and to adopt product and process innovations. To increase sustainability, the project will also support the Government in making policies, which are more coherent, transparent, and inclusive