The Escalante City government is set to implement its streamlined business permits processing in January next year with assistance from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program.

DTI-Negros Occidental head Lea Gonzales and SMEDSEP regional coordinator Lorenzo Templonuevo recently met with Escalante Mayor Melecio Yap Jr. to discuss the implementation of the "Business Registration Streamlining Project" under his administration.

Yap committed support to the project to make Escalante an investment-friendly under his leadership. "This proposed new (way of processing business permits) will lighten the stakeholders' burden in their business endeavors, which would surely bring in more investors here, making Escalante a more productive place to do business," he said.

SMEDSEP, in coordination with the German Technical Cooperation or GTZ, is providing technical assistance to Escalante in reducing the processing time of business permits being issued by the city government.

At present, applying for a business permit takes at least half a day, and requires 34 signatures of various department officials. Under the streamlined process, only eight signatures are needed to secure a permit.

For the project implementation, the Sangguniang Panlungsod needs to pass an ordinance for the creation of a Technical Working Group that will handle the new process.*NLG

back to top