Shanghai and Singapore unveil cross-border online business registration

A fully online business registration service built on the Shanghai–Singapore cross-border digital trust framework has launched.

The service is designed to eliminate the need for paper-based notarized documents, cutting both time and costs for enterprises. Once fully rolled out, Singaporean entities investing in or establishing businesses in Shanghai will be able to register more quickly and securely, a move expected to boost two-way investment flows between the two commercial hubs.

Announced at the Global Data Ecosystem Conference 2025, the initiative stems from efforts led by the Shanghai Data Bureau and the Shanghai Electronic Certification Authority (SHECA), which earlier established a cross-border digital trust platform to explore digital identity interoperability.

The goal is to improve efficiency and reliability in cross-border identity and document authentication, while fostering international cooperation. Shanghai authorities have worked with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Singapore Academy of Law to pilot the first application of digital identity interoperability.

Using Decentralized Identifiers (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC), the project tested how Singaporean corporate investors could complete foreign-invested enterprise registration in Shanghai entirely online. For the first time, the authorization relationships of signatories from Singaporean firms were clearly defined, solving the challenge of verifying notarized documents.

Eligible companies can now register in Shanghai without submitting physical paperwork, thanks to the pilot. Shanghai and Singapore plan to extend the model to support Chinese enterprises establishing operations in Singapore, offering them similar online registration services.

Both sides also aim to expand cooperation into broader fields, including blockchain-based identity models and applications across Belt and Road countries. The Shanghai Data Bureau believes the initiative will strengthen Shanghai’s digital identity authentication capabilities for overseas enterprises and individuals, while enhancing the city’s overall digital service capacity.

Shanghai is a commercial hotbed for Mainland China, with the city having a pilot free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai’s Lin-gang Special Area. The FTZ is home to BOCOM Fintech which advocates for the LEI and its digital counterpart the verifiable Lei (vLEI) as an international passport for legal entities.

Article Topics

cross-border data sharing  |  decentralized identifiers (DIDs)  |  digital company ID  |  digital ID  |  KYB  |  Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)  |  Shanghai  |  Singapore  |  verifiable credentials