Aug. 11 – Beginning June this year, authorities are to issue each company an Enterprise Code Number (ECN) that will be used as both its business registration code and tax code.

Following Decree No. 43, the ECN will be unique to each company and will help cut down on bureaucracy and make it easier for the government to monitor corporate activity. For representative offices, branches and business locations based in the country, they will be given a Code Number of Subsidiary Units.

Changes have also been made to Vietnam’s business registration process as follows:

• Registration will soon be possible online through the National Enterprise Registration Information Portal
• The Business Registration Body (BRB)  on receiving the application will upload the information in the National Information System on Enterprise Registration (NISER)
• NISER will then send the information to the General Department of Tax’s database for ECN processing
• The BRB will issue the ECN to the applicant

Company  names are now allowed to include letters from the Vietnamese alphabet in addition to letters F, J, Z and W. Branch, representative office and business location names will also follow the same rules in naming. A company’s name must be unique to its business and not similar to any other existing name in the registry, specifically when it concerns trademark names and locations.

For more professional advice on doing business in Vietnam, e-mail Dezan Shira & Associates at vietnam@dezshira.com.