Company Registration
Over the past several years, business start-up process in the Republic of Srpska has undergone many reforms aimed at creation of as favorable business environment as possible (specialized commercial courts have been established, number of days required for registration was constantly reduced, etc.)
However, the most important reform was finalized by the adoption of the one-stop shop business registration system (Agency for Intermediary, IT and Financial Services of the RS – APIF with its 11 establishments (Banja Luka, Prijedor, Gradiska, Doboj, Modrica, Bijeljina, Zvornik, East Sarajevo, Sokolac, Trebinje, and Foca), which became operational on 01 December 2013.
A reform package comprising 13 laws and a series of bylaws, as well as the organizational and technical assumptions, have allowed for the business start-up process in the Republic of Srpska to become much more convenient for the interested economic entities since 01 December 2013.
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- Time required for business registration has been reduced from 23 to 3 days;
- Number of procedures has been reduced from 11 to 5
- Costs of business start-up have seen multiple reduction, depending on the legal form of the registered entity
(For simplest forms, such as the single-member LLC with minimum capital requirement, this amount starts from 100 EURO (until present it was 600 to 750 EURO (including foreign trade activity registration))
- Registration of a business with foreign investment is now made equal with the registration of domestic companies;
- Local partner is not required for business start-up;
- Law on Companies of the Republic of Srpska (Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, nos. 127/08, 58/09, 100/11, 67/13, 100/17, 82/19) governs company establishment, operation and termination of operation in the Republic of Srpska; Within the meaning of this Law, a business may take one of the following legal forms: general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, and (open or closed) joint stock company. Business registration reform has simplified further the establishment of a limited liability company with a single owner and minimum capital requirement.
- Business start-up, or company registration, is governed by the Law on Business Registration in the Republic of Srpska (Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, no. 67/13, 15/16, 84/19).
- The process of establishment of e-registration of business entities in the Republic of Srpska is underway.
Detailed procedure of limited liability company establishment (also its simplified form) is available through the following link REGISTRATION STEPS.