• Announcement of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on Replacement of a Business License with One Containing a Unified Social Credit Code
• Area of Law： Industrial and Commercial Management
• Level of Authority： Departmental Rules
• Date issued：12-27-2017
• Effective Date：12-27-2017
• Status： Effective
• Issuing Authority： State Administration for Industry & Commerce

Announcement of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on Replacement of a Business License with One Containing a Unified Social Credit Code
For the purposes of accelerating the advancement of the use of unified social credit codes (hereinafter referred to as the “unified codes”) and conducting the replacement of licenses and permits of registered enterprises in an orderly and effective manner, the following matters concerning the replacement of a business license with one containing a unified code are hereby announced:
I. According to the requirements of the Notice of the State Council on Approving and Forwarding the General Plan of the National Development and Reform Commission and Other Departments on the Development of a Unified Social Credit Code System for Legal Persons and Other Organizations (No. 33 [2015], State Council) and the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Progress of the “Three-in-One License” Registration System Reform (No. 50 [2015], General Office of the State Council), an enterprise's business license that does not contain a unified code shall cease to be used by the end of 2017, and shall be replaced with a business license containing a unified code issued by the industry and commerce authority and market regulatory authority after verification.
II. The market participant qualifications and business qualifications of enterprises that have not replaced their business licenses with ones containing unified codes shall remain valid after January 1, 2018. However, since the transaction of business of every department now uses unified codes, enterprises that have not replaced their business licenses need to undergo the replacement as soon as possible so that their normal operations would not be affected.
III. The industry and commerce authorities and market regulatory authorities in all regions shall, according to the requirements of the Opinions of Six Departments Including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on Implementing the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Progress of the “Three-in-One License” Registration System Reform (No. 121 [2015], SAIC), make more efforts in policy publicity and guidance, and continue to conduct the replacement of licenses and permits of registered enterprises in an orderly and effective manner. When enterprises undergo modification registration, a business license containing a unified code with the original 9-digit organization code imbedded shall be issued after verification to an enterprise holding an organization code certificate; or a new business license containing a unified code shall be issued to an enterprise not holding an organization code certificate. It is unnecessary for an enterprise whose business license already contains a unified code to replace its business license.
The term “enterprises” as mentioned in this Announcement includes various enterprises and specialized farmer cooperatives. The replacement of business licenses of individual industrial and commercial households shall be governed by the requirements of the Opinions of Four Departments Including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on the “Integration of License and Certificate” for the Business License and the Tax Registration Certificate of Individual Industrial and Commercial Households (No. 167 [2016], SAIC), and the old versions of business licenses shall remain valid.

State Administration for Industry and Commerce
December 27, 2017