Regional units of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) are energetically pushing the “one-business-registration-form” program to cut bureaucratic red tape in the application for business permits.

Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz, head of the DTI-Regional Operations and Development Group, said the “one-business-registration-form” project will be used until all local government units have adapted the recently launched Philippine Business Registry (PBR), which serves as the online “one-stop shop” for all government permits and requirements.

A 2008 study of the International Finance Corp., part of the World Bank group, showed that in the Philippines, businesses have to comply with at least 11 requirements from national government agencies, and almost triple that number for most local governments that are adding their own requirements.

There had been attempts to rectify this. Last year Davao City and seven other LGUs nationwide came up with a streamlined process to start business after the US Agency for International Development (USAid) piloted a refined processing of business applications “to remove the perception abroad that the doing business in the Philippines was a long and expensive process.”

Cruz told the BusinessMirror: “The one-business-registration-form program is one of our attempts to streamline the red tape in the bureaucracy. But once all the LGUs are ready for the PBR, we will no longer apply that.”

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By Manuel Cayon