Nov. 7 (NBD) -- Electronic business licenses are to make a big difference in governance and commerce, said Fu Hongwei, the director of the Economic Information Center of State Administration for Industry & Commerce of China (SAIC) at a news briefing held Monday.

Statistics shows that as of the end of October 30, most provinces, cities and autonomous regions in mainland China have completed upgrading their business registration systems with a total of 10.755 million digital business licenses having been issued.  

Starting from October 1 this year, Chinese government has further streamlined the application process by combing 5 certificates into one. For instance, it only takes 3 workdays to obtain a business license in Henan province, a welcome step if one is looking to set up a company under a tight deadline.

Xiong Maoping, the director-general of Enterprise Registration Bureau of SAIC, noted that electronic business license makes business registration more effective and treats foreign and domestic companies as equals. 

However, as digital business licenses can be easily obtained and distributed online, work should be done to ensure the authenticity of those digital records provided by a business owner.

Against such a background, business operators are supposed to scan a two-dimensional code and fill in certain information, and then they will be authenticated automatically by a background system, added Fu. 

In addition, such method can also be applied in ecommerce. If someone wants to register on Alibaba's ecommerce platforms, he can upload his information simply by scanning a two-dimensional code. Connected to SAIC, those platforms can automatically verify and approve applications in quite an efficient manner.

At present, SAIC is in talks with major ecommerce platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com in China to establish a networking which facilitates a more efficient and convenient service.  

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn