The Ministry of Industry and Commerce Lao PDR (“MOIC”) released a notice for domestic and foreign investors who wish to start a business in Lao PDR, (“The Procedures to Start a Business”) dated 29 January 2020 referring to Order No. 02/PM, dated 01 February 2018 on the Improvement of Regulation and Coordination Mechanism for Doing Business in Lao PDR.
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The new notice on Procedures to Start a New Business highlights important points below:
- Requirement for applying for Certificate of Office Location has been cancelled.
- Requirement for applying for a Taxpayer Identification Number Certificate has now become combined with the same procedure for enterprise registration. This will mean that an enterprise will receive an enterprise registration certificate together with taxpayer identification number.
- Requirement for Tax Orientation and Providing Taxpayer Identification Number has now been moved to be the procedure following the procedures to start a business, while the requirement in Registration of Value Added Tax has been cancelled.
There are three (03) procedures that are required for starting a business:
Procedure 1: Obtain the Enterprise Registration Certificate within 10 working days (referring to Decision No. 0023/MOIC.DERM, dated 09 January 2019 regarding Enterprise Registration)
Procedure 2: Carve and register a company seal within 5 working days (referring to Decision No. 1784/MOPS, dated 02 October 2018 regarding Management and Production of Seal)
Procedure 3: Register the workers for social security within 2 working days (referring to Instruction No. 1206/MLSW, dated 23 April 2019 regarding Implementation of the Law on Social Security-Amended).
Click to download diagram of overall procedures to start a business Download