MICROPRINR: Incorporate in PNG.

In Papua New Guinea, the Investment Promotion Authority is your first stop in order to establish your business. You can go check the IPA website for all the registration forms which are available online for easy downloading.

Currently the IPA website does not have online registration . Hopefully this option should be available in the not too distant future.

Within IPA, the office of the Business Registration & Regulation regulates Companies ( Companies Act 1997 ), Associations ( Associations Act ), Business Groups ( Business Groups Act ) and Business Names ( Business Names Act .

The registration of a company comes under the Companies Act 1997 , a business name or trading name comes under the Business Names Act ; while all non-profit organizations, churches, land owner groups, sports groups, womens or mens groups, come under the Association Act .

For people in the rural community areas, utilizing agricultural land and natural resources, can be a great way to venture into rural business activities and for such rural business activities, registering a business group under the Business Groups Act would be a suitable option . A business group is tailored for rural regions where groups of people from the same clan, tribe or ethnic back ground can put their efforts and resources together and operate as a business group.

A company is a legal entity separate from the directors and shareholders. However, a business name is not a company but rather a trading name and is only registered for a particular or two related business activities. Plumbing and carpentry services are an example of two related business activities that can be registered under one business name, although each activity can be registered as separate business names. A company, where it is permitted to, can operate many different business activities.

Any person, either by himself or with another person or group of people can register a company or a business name to do business in PNG. One interesting thing about a business name is that, any natural person, company, association or business group can register and trade under a business name.

For example Joe Blog Limited can trade as Joe Blog Plumbing Services (a business name) or Mr. Joe Blog can trade as Blog's Transport (a business name) or YWCA (an association) can trade as Young Women's Sewing Services (a business name).

Another thing to remember about a trading name or a business name is that it can not hold shares in another company, since it is not a corporate entity.

The status of a company upon registration under the Companies Act 1997 remains as "Operating" and this will continue until such time it is either voluntarily removed or if it fails to lodge annual returns (Form 22), regardless of whether it is dormant or active, it gets "Deregistered".

On the other hand, the status of a business name will remain as "Current" for a period of three years, from the date of registration, and must be renewed a month prior to or within a month after expiring. If a business name is not renewed at all its status will remain as "Expired".