Legislative Decree No. 284-2013

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Business environment reform establishing a streamlined legal framework and online procedures for formal business registration, primarily benefitting micro, small, and medium enterprises.
What are the main aims and objectives?

Legislative Decree No. 284-2013 was enacted by the Honduran government in 2013 to lower barriers to business formalization and stimulate entrepreneurship. The law responded to high levels of informality and the reputation of Honduras as one of Latin America’s most challenging and time-consuming countries for starting a business. Policymakers aimed to enable rapid, accessible and low-cost company creation through legal and digital modernization, addressing obstacles such as excessive paperwork, high minimum capital requirements, intermediaries’ fees, and inconsistent procedures between municipalities. Objectives included reducing informality, unlocking micro and small enterprise growth, increasing tax registration, attracting investment, and promoting job creation by making formalization more attractive and practical for all entrepreneurs.

How does the program work?

Decree 284-2013 introduced several legal and procedural reforms to simplify and digitize business establishment processes across Honduras.​

Key reforms included abolishing minimum capital requirements for limited liability companies (Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada) and single-person companies, enabling entrepreneurs to form companies without large upfront investments or the need for multiple shareholders. The Decree mandated the use of a Special Unified Form (Formulario Único Especial) that collects all necessary information for registering a new company. Entrepreneurs can submit this form at the Chamber of Commerce or via the “Mi Empresa en Línea” digital platform, which was created as part of the Decree’s implementation.

The Mi Empresa en Línea platform enables entrepreneurs to register their businesses entirely online, upload required documentation, and pay reduced registration fees. The process integrates registration steps previously required by separate agencies—for example, the Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Registry, and the Tax Authority—into one workflow. The platform automates data transmission across agencies, connects new companies with the National Tax Registry (RTN), and issues a single, digital certificate of registration. For in-person filers, the Special Unified Form must be submitted to the Chamber of Commerce, which uses the same process to register the business and secure tax numbers.

As a result, straightforward registrations can now often be completed in under three business days, compared to the 27+ days required prior to the Decree, while associated costs have fallen from above L.5,000 (USD 193 at the time) for notary and legal fees to about L.525 (USD 21) for digital platform users. Entrepreneurs can now register as corporations, LLCs, or sole traders, including single-person companies.

What is the overall cost?

No available information. 

How was it implemented?

The Decree was drafted in consultation with legal, business and public sector stakeholders from 2012 through early 2013, and passed by the Honduran Congress in late 2013. It was published in La Gaceta (the official gazette) in June 2014 and accompanied by regulatory agreement 679-2014 laying out rules and technical standards for the Special Unified Form and electronic registry procedures. The Ministry of Economic Development (Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico, SDE) was the principal implementing agency, with support from Chambers of Commerce, the Tax Authority, and the Commercial Registry.​

The SDE coordinated IT system development, staff training, and public information campaigns, and established the Mi Empresa en Línea digital platform by 2015. To ensure nationwide reach, municipal Chambers of Commerce were required to adopt the new processes and synchronize their records with the online system. Training sessions for both public officials and private notaries/registrars were held, especially in regional cities. The SDE ran outreach programs to inform entrepreneurs of the simplified registration system, distributing instructional material and partnering with business associations. Regulatory fine‑tuning and platform enhancements have continued (notably in 2022–2024) to expand digital functionality, improve mobile access, and integrate more permit-issuing agencies.

What impact has been measured?

After Decree 284-2013’s enactment, official and independent reports record a significant increase in business formalization activity. Although precise time series data is limited, SDE documented that thousands of micro, small and medium businesses were formalized each year through the electronic and simplified paper processes, with MSMEs particularly benefitting. The average time to formally register a company dropped from around 27 days in 2013 to as little as 1–3 days via digital registration by 2019, and costs dropped by 80–90%, making Honduras’ formalization process one of the region’s fastest and cheapest for straightforward businesses.​

What lessons can be learned?
  • Migrating from paper-based to digital registration and coordination across agencies required significant IT investment, change management, and ongoing technical support, which proved challenging for many smaller or rural Chambers of Commerce and municipalities.
  • Entrepreneurs need valid national IDs, proof of address, and other documentation, meaning the very poorest still face barriers despite streamlined procedures.
  • Certain agencies or individuals (e.g. some notaries or registry staff) have at times been slow to adopt new digital processes or continued to recommend higher-cost in-person services.
  • While time and cost to register fell sharply, smaller businesses still face challenges in accessing other required permits (such as health, environmental or municipal trading licenses), which are less integrated or remain paper-based in many regions.
  • The law provided no direct funding, mentoring, or tax exemption to entrepreneurs: administrative simplification itself is not always enough to help firms survive or grow.
  • Formalization increased but informality remains high (above 70% in the workforce), suggesting ongoing need for outreach, trust-building and further reforms.
  • No comprehensive public impact assessment or long-term firm-level evaluation has been published, so claims about employment, survival and growth effects rely heavily on mid-level administrative data.

CURATED BY

Tom Hancock

Research Associate
Global Entrepreneurship Network
United Kingdom