GOVERNMENT efforts to streamline business registration would get a boost from the rollout of the Philippine Business Registry (PBR) this month, officials said.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Gregory Domingo told a press conference over the weekend that the PBR―an online one-stop shop where businesses can transact with various government agencies―is undergoing tests and would be launched before the month ends.

The PBR aims to facilitate seamless business registration and transactions with the DTI, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security System, and local government units.

The upcoming PBR launch is tied into the aim of improving the Philippines’ competitiveness rankings in the next five years, according to Guillermo Luz of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).

Luz said the country’s survey rankings were low because of transaction costs and flows, which entail a lot of steps.

Four competitiveness reports last year put the Philippines behind its Asean neighbors: the country was ranked eighth out of eight Asean countries and 148th out of 183 countries
polled by the International Finance Corp.’s Doing Business Survey; seventh out of eight Asean members and 85th out of 139 nations covered by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report; fifth out of five Asean countries and 39th out of 85 countries surveyed by the International Institute for Management Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook; and 14th out of 17 Asia-Pacific nations and 65th out of 110 nations included in FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index.

Luz said the NCC aims to put the Philippines in the upper 30 percent of the various global competitiveness indices by 2016.

By: Ben Arnold O. de Vera (The Manila Times)