Business Entry

With over 40 active projects and on-the-ground expertise in every region around the globe, Business Entry is a developed product under the Regulatory Simplification category of IFC’s Business Enabling Environment (BEE) Business Line. Business Entry product is used in BEE reforms aimed at simplifying and streamlining regulatory requirements for business entry.

What is business registration?

Business registration is usually defined as a set of regulatory requirements an entrepreneur must comply with to set up a business entity. In most cases he/she would need to collect or prepare a number of documents, have them notarized or otherwise verified, submit these documents to various national and sub-national authorities, get the application approved, and eventually receive a formal certificate or multiple certificates, licenses, permits, etc., which confirm the eligibility to operate as a separate business entity.

Business entry requirements go beyond simple incorporation of a company and extend to the registration of a business name, tax registration, registration at statistics, social security, and pension administrations, as well as registration by local authorities. The World Bank’s Doing Business 2008 report states that reforms to ease the entry of new firms were the most popular in 2006/07 with 39 countries making start-up simpler, faster or cheaper. IFC contributes to this success offering business entry product in their projects to help clients improve job creation, increase investments and support sustainable economic growth.

IFC advisory teams help clients - public authorities at the national and sub-national levels - to identify the legal, regulatory, institutional, procedural, and capacity bottlenecks for registering a business. Based on extensive diagnostics the teams design the most appropriate reform solution and get it endorsed by broad circle of stakeholders including the private sector. Such solution design includes recommendations on simplifying the existing procedures for business entry by amending existing or introducing new laws and regulations, reengineering business processes in regulatory agencies, conducting information campaign, applying innovative approaches such as electronic registries, and building the capacity of government agencies.

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