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Official Publication of the Philippine Information Agency Bicol Regional Office, in cooperation with the RIAC-REDIRAS - RDC Bicol



Monday, July 22, 2013

DTI CamSur completes Business Licensing System in the province

By Analiza S. Macatangay

NAGA CITY, July 22 (PIA) -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Camarines Sur has completed their streamlining of business permits and licensing system (BPLS) and up scaling of reforms in its continuing endeavor to increase the local government's competitiveness business processing.

DTI Camarines Sur provincial director Edna Tejada said the project covered 35 municipalities and two (2) cities in the province, including the four pilot local governments of this city, Iriga City, Calabanga and Pili towns, now already implementing the BPLS reforms which initially benefited from the said project.

On August 30, 2012, the last remaining 10 LGUs in Camarines Sur undertook the BPLS Reforms at the Regent Hotel, completing the DTI’s target by 100 percent.

Tejada said the BPLS involves the development of policies and guidelines that standardized the streamlining of business and licensing system in cities and municipalities in consonance with Republic Act No. 9485 otherwise known as the Anti-Red tape Act of 2007.

These measures are carried out to attract investors by making licensing process less tedious, thus more investors would mean increased revenue for the LGU.

This is also among the priority programs set by President Benigno S. Aquino III as mentioned in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2010.

“Calabanga and Pili towns have been implementing the BPLS since January 2011 as validated by the submission of their monthly monitoring report. As to the remaining 33 towns in Camarines Sur, the field monitoring and evaluation in the first quarter of 2013 has validated BPLS reform implementation in their respective areas which means compliance with the BPLS standards set forth in the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) between the DTI and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG),” Tejada added.

Jay Ablan, DTI Camarines Sur Spokesperson said that after starting the BPLS in 2010 in 4 pilot LGUs in Cam Sur, namely Naga CIty, Iriga City, PIli and Calabanga, they have already noted its positive effect.

“After completing the BPLS in Camarines towns and cities in the province, we have noted that the LGU have already adopted the use of unified form in business permit application, reduced signatories from 5-10 to 2 only and noted Best Practices for having one signatory only for NAga City, Iriga City, PIli and Calabanga,” Ablan added.

LGUs, in compliance with the set standards should adopt the unified application form. There should also be a reduced number of steps or a limit of only to five (5) procedures that an applicant has to follow in applying for Mayor’s permit. The processing time should be shortened to ten (10) days for new permits and five (5) days for renewals. The number of signatories should also be reduced to two in securing business permits.

DTI has reported that the local governments continue to implement reforms to make business start-ups easier especially for new investors who want to invest in the locality.

Local government units in support of this endeavor, has also implemented the BOSS otherwise known as Business One Stop Shop which has radically reduced the step and processes of securing business permit and necessary licenses from the LGU. Through the BOSS, the concerned LGUs gather all agencies in a “one stop shop” Scheme, allowing the business registrants to have an easy access to the departments providing clearances.

BOSS is usually being set up by an LGU on January, in time for the business renewal period giving businessmen an opportunity to obtain all the necessary documents and approval to install a new business or renew their trade in one streamlined and coherent process. (MAL/LSM-PIA5/Camarines Sur) 

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