As part of the massive digitalisation and modernisation process of public administrations, the Chinese authorities have started implementing electronic business licenses and electronic company chops to streamline the registration process of companies.
Electronic business licenses
In
Traditionally the business license has the form of a double paper certificate (original and duplicate business license). However, at this moment, some municipalities like
To get the e-business license, companies should meet two preconditions:
-
The operation status of the applying company should be "normal."
- The legal representative must complete the real-name authentication through a mini-program in either WeChat or Alipay app.
The real-name verification of the legal representative is a must to obtain the e-business license, and a Chinese mobile phone number is necessary to complete the procedure. If the legal representative is a Chinese individual, the verification can be done by a face scan through WeChat or Alipay mini-program. The system will issue the electronic business license after the real-name verification and facial recognition.
Suppose the legal representative is a foreigner living abroad, they are required to visit the local SAMR office for onsite real-name authorisation. In
The SAMR office will send a link to the legal representative's email address to download the e-business license within three working days upon the application.
However, the foreign legal representative shall also log into the WeChat or Alipay mini-program to complete their identity verification.
License management authorisation
After receiving the e-business license, the legal representative may keep, hold, and use the e-business license by themselves or authorise another Chinese license management person to keep, hold and use the license.
License usage authorisation
Both the legal representative and the license management person, as mentioned above, can authorise other Chinese individuals to use the license on different occasions.
Electronic company chops (e-company chops)
The Chinese authorities issued a Circular in
The e-company chops, including e-company seal, e-finance seal and e-invoice seal, will be available for downloading in the WeChat or Alipay mini-program once the legal representative has completed the real-name verification and after the e-business license is available.
The legal representative seal, contract seal, and customs seal are still not supported in the WeChat or Alipay mini-program. Thus, they are still available only as physical carved seals.
The usage of e-company chops can be done and managed in the WeChat or Alipay mini-program, combined with the functions available from Shanghai Government One-Stop Service Windows. The usage records of e-company chops will be kept and maintained in the WeChat or Alipay mini program.
For the Shanghai Government One-Stop Service Windows platform, there is a limitation of a maximum of 20 applications/documents per day as of
Application scenarios
The e-company seal may be used to sign contracts, agreements, resolutions, or any other documents where the counterparty or the company accepts e-company chop, which is legitimate under the PRC laws.
It is worth mentioning that currently, the
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