To ease the process of doing business in the Philippines, 12 government agencies have recently committed themselves to operational reforms, according to the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
This will in turn help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) survive and grow and ultimately boost the country’s rankings in global competitiveness report.
NCC Co-chair Guillermo Luz said that the reforms would address two aspects crucial to MSMEs: starting and registering a business and paying taxes.
Under the prevailing set up, business registration involves 16 steps taking about 34 days. The government agencies involved in registration have agreed to cut these steps down to six that can be done in eight days.
On the other hand, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) will reduce its required number of payroll-related payments from 36 to 13 a year. With e-government initiatives, transactions can also be done online.
The reforms will be made starting this month in the head offices of the partner agencies and Quezon City and expected to soon spread to other parts of the country, added Luz.
This is something the government has been working on for many years, Trade and Industry Undersecretary Gregory Domingo said. .
According to Domingo, the country has seen, in five years, a 53-place improvement in Ease of Doing Business ranking and a 33 notch-improvement in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.
There has been as well a 49-step improvement in the Corruption Perceptions Index and a 33-step improvement in the Economic Freedom Index.
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