Philippines cities directed to speed up business permits

All cities in the Philippines have been asked to speed up business permits to attract investment to the country. Local governments will be required to register new businesses within two days.

They can now take between up to 10 days to register a business. The move is being led by three federal departments which signed an agreement this week: Departments of Trade and Industry, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

The ICT department will implement tech to ensure that cities and municipalities speed up their processes, automate government transactions and renew permits within a day.

It “will develop and make available computer application software to automate local government processes”, including recording, assessing and issuing business permits, said Jorge Sarmiento, DICT Undersecretary, according to the Philippine Star.

In the future, foreigners should also be able to register businesses online, added Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez. Currently, they must go to the city where they want to register and start a company.

“We should really push for automation down the road because… no one should [have to] go to their respective cities anymore” to register their businesses, he said.