Quezon City, Philippines, August 20, 2010 –
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Quezon City today launched a one-stop shop for business registration which will reduce red tape and allow businesses to operate efficiently, compete and create jobs.
The new, streamlined registration process condenses the number of steps from 18 to just two, enabling applicants to obtain a business license in a single day—a significant achievement for the country’s largest city, with 2.7 million residents and thousands of informal businesses.
At the launch ceremony, Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista said, “This is our city’s immediate response to President Aquino’s challenge for local governments, that we must streamline the process of starting businesses, which will contribute to national productivity.”
The reform targets small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in particular as formal registration will help them access the resources they need to expand and support job creation. It will also increase the city’s revenues, allowing it to improve social services for many of its residents, more than half of whom are migrants from other cities and provinces.
“With more small and medium-size firms registering, enterprises will have better access to credit, more legal protection, and stronger support from the local government,” Rashad Kaldany, IFC Vice President for Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa, said at the launch. “This will help to invigorate the private sector and support sustainable economic growth.” Mr. Kaldany is in the Philippines to meet with IFC clients and partners, including the Philippine government.
The new system was pilot-tested in January this year. By the end of June 2010, there was a 28 percent increase in businesses registrations compared to a similar time period last year.
IFC partners with Quezon City under the Regulatory Simplification project. The program is supported by the Australian Agency for International Development and the Canadian International Development Agency. It is being piloted in four metro Manila cities with the help of the League of Cities of the Philippines, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the National Competitiveness Council, and the Ateneo School of Government.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. We create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We do so by providing financing to help businesses employ more people and supply essential services, by mobilizing capital from others, and by delivering advisory services to ensure sustainable development. In a time of global economic uncertainty, our new investments climbed to a record $18 billion in fiscal 2010. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
