New business registration will be made easy for investors with the enactment of the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2019 in Parliament on Wednesday.
These new amendments have been made to the Companies Act No. 07 of 2007, in a bid to promote Sri Lanka’s investment opportunities and to maintain the country’s ease of doing business index at a higher level.
The aim is also to attract foreign investors to start business in Sri Lanka removing bureaucratic red tape in obtaining company registration, a senior official said.
The new bill amends clauses 5, 9 and 10 of the Companies Act, thus enabling the Registrar of Companies to provide certain details of relevant companies which includes announcing to the public the incorporation of a new company.
The new amendment bill provides provisions to secure transactions in movable property without any barriers.
These amendments will be an impetus to gain a favourable position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, he pointed out. Sri Lanka rose 11 notches in the Ease of Doing Business Index 2019 being ranked 100 among 190 economies.
Sri Lanka’s newly launched online business registration system cuts down the registration process from six to one day, reducing unnecessary time consuming paper work and eliminating red tape. After 80 years of manual company registration process in Sri Lanka, the DRC has installed the new web based system at an investment of Rs.57 million borne by the department, Registrar General of Companies D.N.R. Siriwardena said.
Under the first phase of the project, it provides business name approval service and in the second phase the online facility will be extended to the procedure of company closures offering access to the public to obtain local company information, and issuance of certified information.
Entrepreneurs can now view the company name approval and company registration status online. Foreigners can register their companies in Sri Lanka from their country via this web portal by paying a fee through the nominated credit card, he said.
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