SHENZHEN will offer online business registration services starting Thursday, becoming the country's first city to do so, city officials said.

The services are intended to increase government efficiency and simplify procedures for local residents and companies, the city's market supervision administration said yesterday.

So far, applicants have to go to a registration hall to submit application documents, and receive their business licenses after the documents are reviewed and signed by related staff.

Starting Thursday, all of those procedures-applications, reviews, and issuances and filings of business licenses-will be offered online. Applicants will be able to receive a digital business license and can also apply for a free paper license from the registration department.

"The digital licenses can be registered through the registration department's official website and can be checked conveniently on the Internet. It can help companies conduct their online operations and expand their e-commerce," said Xu Youjun, director of the administration.

Applicants will be able to apply for a digital certificate to protect their information. The certificates, similar to the digital keys used for online banking, can help companies with services such as making tax declarations and opening bank accounts.

Business owners eventually will be able to use the digital certificates when dealing with online affairs at 36 government websites.

Since Shenzhen implemented business registration reforms March 1, some 160,000 business entities had registered in the city as of July 20, similar to the number of entities registered in all of 2012.

Shenzhen has more than 1.14 million registered business entities, an increase of 29 percent from last year.

(Source:Shenzhen Daily)