Online database clarifies firm records

People, enterprises and investors now can easily find information about any domestic business entity  incorporated under the Enterprise Law on the portal. “This is very significant to the development of the business community,” said Bui Anh Tuan, deputy director general of the Agency for Business Registration. He noted that present and prospective business partners would be able to verify the identity of any enterprise, its business lines, its owners and their shares, the legal representatives of the enterprise as well as review annual financial statements easily and inexpensively.

The portal is a part of the National Business Registration System – a computerised system running in 65 business registration offices nationwide since 2010. As of July 2013, registered information for more than 780,000 enterprises, including over 150,000 annual financial statements of shareholding companies have been made publicly accessible through the NBRP in Vietnamese and English.

Thanks to the information that the system offers, the Agency for Business Registration announced that some banks had already signed information procurement agreements to collect information on borrowers. Such access to enterprise information helps reduce business risks.

From April to August 14, there were 41,828 visits to the NBRP for seeking information of enterprises and guidance for the establishment of businesses in Vietnam. Tuan said during the past four months, 453 enterprises had successfully registered for business through the online system, which he described as a positive result.

“In the first stage, local business registration offices and enterprises will need time to get familiar with the online registration function,” Tuan said. “Obviously, online business registration is more convenient and advanced than the traditional model. I do believe that this new model will be popular in the near future.”

Since 2008, institutional collaboration between Ministries of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Security and the General Statistics Office resulted in each registered enterprise being given a unique identification code recognised nationwide.

For the first time, electronic links for data have been shared between the Ministry of Planning and Investment and Ministry of Finance, and the government has also implemented one-stop-shop registration which is conducted using a consolidated form for business, tax and enterprise seal registration. Over 600 staff at 65 provincial business registration offices use the same computerised work flows that have increased their efficiency. In 2012, 47 per cent of business registrations were conducted within two days and 39 per cent of registrations were conducted in 3-5 days and these statistics are improving.

 Tuan said the agency was also working to add information about foreign invested enterprises, science and technology institutions, financial institutions and household businesses in the NBRS. “In the future, the system will contain all the necessary legal information about businesses operating in the country,” he said.