Includes steps involved in establishing a local office.
Last Published: 8/2/2019

In order to start operating in the Kyrgyz Republic, a legal entity must be registered with four governmental bodies[1]:

  • The Ministry of Justice (receives registration certificate containing the registration number as well as entry of data into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities);
  • The National Statistics Committee (receives statistical registration card as well as entry of state registration data into the Uniform State Register of Statistics);
  • The State Tax Inspectorate (receives a unique identification number that is to be entered in all financial, accounting, and customs documents); and,
  • The Social Fund.
Individual entrepreneurs, however, need only to register with the Statistics Committee and the Tax Inspectorate.
A one-stop shop concept was re-introduced in 2015 under the aegis of the Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (IPPA), which works to ease the process of opening a company.  Registration with the Ministry of Justice automatically registers the company with the other agencies.  For commercial companies, the registration takes approximately three days, while for financial and credit institutions or non-commercial organizations the registration process is typically 10 days[2].  According to the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, the Kyrgyz Republic ranked 35th out of 190 countries for Starting a Business[3].
An enterprise can operate as a limited liability company, additional liability company, joint-stock company, general or limited partnership, foreign enterprise, or enterprise with foreign participation.  There are some additional types such as individual entrepreneur, representative office, branch office, commercial cooperative, and credit union.  All incorporating documents should be in Russian or Kyrgyz and be notarized by a notary office.

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