To continue to draw investments, the government is eyeing a “single-window approach” not just the "one stop shop" in its bid to streamline the business registration, as it pushes other reforms such as easing foreign ownership limits to enhance the ease of doing business in the country.
“We are not satisfied with a single-stop-shop approach. We want to have a single-window approach so that the processing of permits and business applications will be faster,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia on Thursday.
With the single-window approach, businesses will only have to submit all documents to one government representative or office which will handle all related processes from there.
The country’s chief economic planner bared this initiative after the Philippines placed 113th in the World Bank Group’s 2018 ranking of 190 economies in its annual ease of doing business report.
Despite improving by 0.42 points from 58.32 last year to 58.74 this year, the Philippines slid from last years 99th place, due in part to improvements in the same scores in other countries.
Apart from the single-window business registration system, Pernia said other legislative reforms to improve the ease of doing business in the country include the Expanded Anti-Red Tape Act expected to be passed by early next year.
Other legislative agenda that the government is pushing for include the amendment of the Local Government Code to address the challenges in local service delivery and the passage of the E-government Act to enable interoperability of government data and processes to increase efficiency and economy in the delivery of services.
Pernia likewise reiterated the government’s plan to amend certain economic provisions of the Constitution to relax restrictive foreign ownership provisions to attract more foreign investments. (with reports from PNA)
