OREANDA-NEWS. On December 17, 2007 the President of the Republic of Belarus signed Decree No 8, which simplifies the state registration and winding up of economic entities, reported the Official website http://president.gov.by.

Specifically, the Decree replaces the effective registration procedure based on the permission principle with the procedure based on the declaration principle. The registration bodies will no longer have to check the registration papers, but the economic entity will be made responsible for the conformance of the papers concerned with the active legislation and for the authenticity of the information provided in the papers.

Apart from that, the registration papers will no longer have to list prospective business areas except for the licensed ones. It will be necessary to write down prospective business areas in the state registration application or to notify the registration and taxation authorities about such business areas before venturing into them.

The decree also halves the minimum size of authorized funds of juridical persons and the subsidiary responsibility of members of additional responsibility societies.

The number of papers necessary for state registration has been abridged. Procedures relating to decision-making with respect to state registration and entering an economic entity into the General National Register of Juridical Persons and Individual Entrepreneurs have been streamlined in order to cut down time costs and facilitate the registration process.

The state registration term has been decreased from 20 to five working days.

The adoption of the Decree should be regarded as another step toward improving and simplifying the procedure of state registration and winding up of economic entities, a step helps make the relationship between the registration body and the respective economic entity more transparent and open.

The Decree becomes effective as from 1 January 2008.