The Philippine Business Registry, a government web portal meant to serve as a “single data entry facility” and which President Benigno Aquino III touted last Friday before a gathering of the foreign chambers of commerce in the country, is still “under construction” and has limited useful features.
In contrast, the Joint Foreign Chambers’ Arangkada Philippines website is a treasure trove of information, sports fully developed webpages, and has more links to government and private sector websites than the PBR.
While the portal claims it is “all about convenience and convergence,” it is, as of now, a forwarding service. It says so itself: “The PBR will forward the information supplied by the applicant to the respective agencies for further processing, and will only retain a subset of the information confined in a central database.”
There is no mention of how fast processing time is and no assurance of when the processing will be completed.
The download section shows only four pdf formatted forms to just three government offices: the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Quezon City local government.
The frequently asked questions (FAQs) page has a guide to registration rules of seven government offices, including the BIR, SEC and QC.
On the links page to national government agencies, connections to only five offices are present. The page for local government units is “under construction”. The page to other offices is “under construction” as well. Same with the pages for statistics, “Basic Registry Search” and “Business Match.”
Apparently, the Office of the President is unaware that the port the President himself launched on January 27 is not fully functional.
“The PBRS provides a one-stop-shop, whether online or at a single office: A process that once would have taken days, could now be accomplished in a matter of minutes,” a Palace statement on the www.gov.ph website said.
“The launch of the PBRS represents a significant stride in our administration’s continuing efforts to streamline government processes and reduce red tape. Furthermore, this system means a level playing field for investors and entrepreneurs, and both SMEs and corporations will find that it is now easier to set up shop in the Philippines,” the statement added.
Promising
The PBR is not short on promises though. It said it “will soon provide for an online payment facility for business registration with DTI, SEC, and BIR that is capable of handling various modes of electronic payment, including payment through credit cards, ATMs, among others. The electronic payment system will have the capability to allocate payments and forward these to the appropriate recipients.”
Another pledge is “a courier service facility that allows scheduling of pick-up and delivery of documents and/or payment between the agency and the applicant should the latter choose to avail of such services.”
“The PBR system will generate a unique Philippine Business Number (PBN) for all legal business establishments in the country. The PBN will serve as the unique identification key for businesses to contract and avail of various government services in the future. The system will also improve the regulatory and promotional functions of the government,” the portal also said.
PHL ranks poorly
Foreign and local businessmen have long been pleading with the national and local governments to address the many issues on “ease and cost of doing business” they have repeatedly raised over the years and which many studies have cited as among the key stumbling blocks to economic growth.
“The country ranked poorly in starting and closing a business, where it ranked 156th and 153rd respectively. Starting a business in the Philippines takes 38 days compared to the ASEAN-5 leader Malaysia’s 17 days. Closing a business in the Philippines takes approximately 5.7 years compared to Malaysia’s 2.3,” the Arangkada Philippines website of the foreign chambers pointed out.
It added though that the “only area where the Philippines rated better was trading across borders, where it ranked 61st. However, compared to Malaysia’s 37th rank on the same measure, the Philippines was unimpressive.”
==============================================================================
By: Earl Victor Rosero
Source: GMA News, Jan. 29, 2012
To view the original article, click here.
Subscribe to the Arangkada NewsRoom via RSS
Comment here