A legal representative of a real estate agency scans a QR code to download the company's electronic business license in Xiamen. [Photo/Xiamen administration of market regulation]

Foreign legal representatives as well as those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in Xiamen have been able to download electronic business licenses starting May 10, Xiamen Daily reported.

Being the first of its kind in Fujian province, the change resulted from efforts made by the Xiamen administration of market regulation to facilitate online administrative approval procedures for companies and optimize the city's business environment.

Before then, foreign legal representatives and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan had no access to electronic business licenses because they could not pass the facial recognition at the national electronic business license platform.

To cope with the problem, the Xiamen authority developed a QR code system for electronic business licenses. Legal representatives or their deputies can scan a QR code to download their electronic business licenses after having their identities checked on-site at the authority's service window.

In recent years, the Xiamen market regulation administration has worked hard to promote the use of electronic business licenses in administrative approval procedures such as taxation, registration for social security and opening a bank account.

To date, nearly 100,000 market entities in Xiamen have downloaded and used their electronic business licenses.