I. Investment Policies
Encouragement of foreign legal persons or individuals to invest in the form of joint venture and cooperation, and the organization of foreigners' sole enterprises is permitted in special economic zones. The law protects the property invested by foreign investors.
II. General Investment Conditions
Infrastructure Conditions:
1. Transportation: All provinces, cities and counties in the DPRK are interconnected by railroads and roads. There are railroads to China and Russia. On the east coast, there are the ports of Cheongjin, Heungnam, Wonsan, Rajin and Geumtse, and on the west coast, there are the ports of Nampo, Haeju and Songlim.
2. Electricity:
Major hydroelectric power plants: Suibong Power Plant, Unbong Power Plant, Jangja River Power Plant, Jangjin River Power Plant, March 17 Power Plant, Hwucheon River Power Plant, Daedong River Power Plant, Anbian Youth Power Plant, Heechon Power Plant, Gangjeok Youth Power Plant, and Weiwon Power Plant.
Major thermal power plants: Bukchang Thermal Power Combine, Pyongyang Thermal Power Combine, Cheongjin Thermal Power Plant, Dong Pyongyang Thermal Power Plant, June 16 Thermal Power Plant, Soonchon Thermal Power Plant.
3. Communication:
There are international communication centers in Pyongyang City and Rason City, which can send and receive wired and wireless telephones, faxes and telexes to and from all regions of the world. Optical fibers are laid between local cities and Pyongyang.
4. Banks:
There is the Central Bank as a bank of authority, with its branches in provinces, cities and counties; there are the Trade Bank, Korea Daesong Bank, Koryo Commercial Bank, Koryo Bank, Unified Development Bank of Korea, and Kimsung Bank of Korea as a bank of foreign exchange, etc.; the interest rates are: 3-4.5%/year on advances and 8-12%/year on loans.
Three, business licensing and registration
1, investment service organization: the DPRK Foreign Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee. There are departments in the Committee for the Promotion of Foreign Economic Cooperation (CPFE) that deal with the promotion of investment, approval of investment targets, and the statistics department that provides service information for foreign-invested enterprises.
2. Application for investment and authorization: Submission of documents authorizing the establishment of the enterprise (including contract, statute, and economic and technical inspection) to the Central Trade Organization.
3, enterprise registration: approved enterprises according to the enterprise creation license documents to make the enterprise seal, set up an account in the relevant bank, to the enterprise is located in the province (city) People's Committee for registration procedures, since the date of registration of the enterprise, the enterprise has the status of a legal person, the enterprise registration should be registered for tax registration and customs registration.
Fourth, Taxes
Enterprise Taxes:
1. Enterprise Income Tax: 25% of the settlement profit; 10% of the settlement profit for the encouragement sector; Enterprise Income Tax, paid in advance in quarterly installments, and then cleared according to the annual settlement.
2. Transaction tax: transaction tax rate of 1-15% of product sales; 16-50% for luxury goods; exemption from transaction tax for export products and products sold domestically according to the requirements of the state.
3. Transaction tax: 2-10% of income from services in the service sector and income from the delivery of buildings in the construction sector.
4, local taxes: local taxes include the city business tax and automobile utilization tax, the city business tax is 1% of the monthly gross salary, automobile utilization tax is 10-100 euros per year per car.
Taxes for foreigners:
1. Personal income tax: income from remuneration for services, monthly remuneration for services amounting to less than 500 euros is exempt from personal income tax, and above that, 5-30%; interest income, distribution income, income from leasing of fixed assets, intellectual property rights and non-patented technology, income from the provision of services related to the operation of income, the tax rate of 20% of the amount of income; Income tax on the proceeds of gifts, up to 5,000 euros is exempt from personal income tax, and above it pays 2-15%; personal income tax on the proceeds of the sale of property pays 25%.
2. Property tax: The rate of property tax is 1-1.4% of the value of registered property. Foreigners should pay property tax on buildings, ships and airplanes owned within the territory of **** and the State, buildings including houses, villas, outbuildings, ships and airplanes including self-owned ships and airplanes.
3. Inheritance tax: The rate of inheritance tax is 6-30% of the amount inherited.
4, local taxes: 1% applied to the monthly gross salary, the car utilization tax tax on each 1 year to pay 10-100 euros.
V. Labor
Working hours, vacations and rest: working days six days a week, working hours eight hours a day, the country's holidays 15 days a year.
Remuneration for labor: wages: 80-120 euros per year for the average laborer; grants: 60% of the monthly wage for the training period (subsidies); dismissal and resignation grants: grants equal to the last month's wage for those who have worked less than one year, and grants calculated by applying the age of the employee to the average monthly wage for the last three months for those who have worked for more than one year.
Allowances: for extended daytime work: 50% of the wage; for nighttime work: 50% of the wage, and for extended nighttime work: 100% of the wage; for holiday work: 100% of the wage; and bonuses are set by the companies themselves.
Labor protection and leave:
Labor protection: juvenile labor under the age of 16 is prohibited; the period of technical education on labor safety is one week to two weeks according to the type of business and work; female workers who are more than six months pregnant are not allowed to arrange strenuous and unhealthy labor.
Workers suffering from occupational diseases or work-related injuries during the medical treatment period, the medical treatment period does not exceed six months, female workers during marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave, breastfeeding, shall not be dismissed.
Leave: Fourteen days (including Sundays) of paid leave shall be arranged each year.
Social insurance and social security:
Enterprises shall deliver 7% of the employee's salary as social insurance premiums for social insurance and social security, and social insurance and social security entitlements include allowances, payment of annuities, and rest and recuperation and treatment.
VI. Preferential Treatment
Preferential treatment regarding taxes:
1. Encouragement of the sector can be reduced or exempted from tax. The enterprise income tax rate for the encouraged sector is 10% of the settlement profit; enterprises in the encouraged sector with an operating period of more than ten years can be exempted from enterprise income tax from the first to the third year, and halved in the fourth and the fifth year from the year they start to make profit; enterprises with a total amount of more than 30 million euros invested in the infrastructure sector are exempted from enterprise income tax from the first to the fourth year from the year they start to make profit, and halved in the fifth and the fifth year from the year they start to make profit. Income tax shall be exempted from the first to the fourth year from the year when profits start to be made, and the enterprise income tax shall be reduced by half from the fifth to the seventh year.
2. Other objects. The income tax of cooperative enterprises cooperating with Korean compatriots of ****hezuo nationality is 20%; the income tax of cooperative and joint ventures cooperating with Korean compatriots of ****hezuo nationality is exempted from the income tax for the first year of the profit-making year, and is reduced by half during the following two years.
3. If the profits obtained from an enterprise are reinvested and the operation period is more than five years, the entire enterprise income tax shall be refunded if it belongs to the infrastructure construction sector and 50 percent of the income tax if it belongs to other sectors.
4. Transaction tax. Products that are exported are exempted from transaction tax.
5. Dividend income. Dividends received by foreign investors are exempted from dividend income tax.
6. Tax compensation for business losses. The tax compensation for operating losses of the invested enterprise can be renewed year by year, but the longest period shall not exceed four years.
7. Exempted objects of tariffs: import tariffs on fixed property belonging to the investment; import tariffs on raw materials, materials and business supplies belonging to the investment; export tariffs on products produced by the enterprise for export.
Export and import of foreign exchange:
Profits legally acquired by foreign-invested enterprises may be remitted abroad free of levy; 60% of foreign exchange legally acquired by individuals may be remitted abroad.
Operational independence:
Enterprises themselves can decide on their own methods of operation; foreign workers can be employed as technicians and craftsmen for special types of work.
Import and export:
Enterprises do not need separate import and export licenses; they can import and export equipment, raw materials, materials, and business supplies needed for production within the scope of the approved types of work, and they can also export the products they produce.
VII. Other Conditions
Entry and Exit:
The foreign investor who wants to enter the country sends his name, gender, nationality, position and passport number to the inviting unit, which submits this information to the relevant authorities, and then sends a visa instruction to the diplomacy or consulate in the foreign country after the approval of the relevant authorities.
International Routes:
Route No.
Route
Departure Time / Landing Time
Number of Times / Weeks
Weeks
JS151/152
Pyongyang-Beijing-Pyongyang
9 :00 / 14:00
2
Week 2, 6
JS155/156
Pyongyang-Shenyang-Pyongyang
11:40 / 17:15
2
Week 3
JS271/272
Pyongyang-Vladivostok-Pyongyang
9:40 / 20:00
1
Week 4
JS271/272
Pyongyang- Khabarovsk-Pyongyang
9:50 / 16:10
2
Week 1, 5
International Railways:
Pyongyang-Beijing: 4 times a week, Departure: 10:10. Arrival: 19:30.
Departure: Monday, Thursday North Korea train
Wednesday, Saturday China train
Arrival: Thursday, Sunday North Korea train
Tuesday, Friday China train