New Registration Requirements For Representative Offices Of Foreign Enterprises

One of the methods of establishing a presence in China used by foreign companies is the representative office. A China representative office provides a permanent base from which a foreign company's personnel may conduct business in China. The regulations governing representative offices have been in force since 1983, and recently the State Administration for Industry and Commerce ("SAIC") released some new regulations, which we discuss below. The Regulation on the Registration of Resident Representative Office of Foreign Enterprises ("Draft Regulation") is a new regulation circulated as a draft for comments by September 25, 2008. The Draft Regulation will replace the Registration of Resident Representative Office of Foreign Enterprises ("1983 Provisions") after being officially approved by the state council, which were implemented by the SAIC and became effective as of March 15, 1983. This Commentary discusses the differences between the Draft Regulation and the